We're going home...........

Monday/Tuesday 2nd/3rd December

We had spent an hour or so last night sorting out all our stuff - some of which we were leaving behind in San Jose in preparation for our next visit - and packing so that we could have a leisurely start to the day. Sherry reluctantly left for work at 10am, Rich was working at home and busy on conference calls but he managed to fit our farewells into a break in proceedings.  It was with heavy hearts that we waved goodbye and drove off down Erica Court for the final time.

Time had been allowed for a visit to Wells Fargo at Los Gatos so that we could open a US bank account before our departure.  This took slightly longer than expected but by the time we left we were the proud owners of a shiny new joint checking and saving account complete with temporary debit cards and a horse......yes a horse,  albeit  a small furry one which we accepted thinking it would make an excellent gift for Sherry and Rich's grandkids.  Unfortunately as we didn't have time either to drop it back to Erica Court or mail it, the poor thing found itself being unceremoniously squashed into my already bulging suitcase.

One last stop at Trader Joe's in Cupertino on the way to the airport - I am so going to miss Trader Joe - to pick up some treats to take back for our running friends and more frantic squashing of treats into my seemingly bottomless suitcase.  We couldn't resist one final episode of thrill seeking before reaching the safety of the airport.  The deal with our hire car was that we paid in advance for a tank of fuel and returned it empty....in our case with 3 miles of gas remaining! I was seriously thinking I may end up pushing it the last few hundred yards, luckily the Thrifty return garge was on the 3rd floor of the parking lot. If it had been on the top floor I don't think we would have made it!

We were at the airport in plenty of time to check in, go through security, buy coffee and relax before boarding our flight which, thankfully, was on time at 4.20pm.  Once on board we soon realised that we had three children from hell across the aisle from us - they were absolutely the worst behaved children I have ever encountered and their mother who looked about 12 years old herself just sat looking blankly at the air crew as they repeatedly told her that she must make them behave.  It got worse - a couple of hours into the flight I realised that I had mislaid my purse. Frantic searching of all pockets, rucksacks etc ensued only confirming that the purse definitely was not with us.  I knew I had it after we passed through security because I bought coffee so it must have been mislaid in the departure lounge.  I spent the rest of the trip trying not to think about the huge credit card bill that someone could be running up.......or that I would have to confess to Wells Fargo that I had only managed to keep my new card for 3 houors before losing it!

It really wasn't my day.....the in flight vegetarian option meal was inedible - a sort of mushy overcooked medley of unidentifiable vegetables, accompanied by an uninteresting salad and a small fruit salad.  One individual rice cake was the only carbohydrate included and no protein.  As usual I was starving! The non vegetarian choice was either chicken or a tasty cheese pasta - did they not realise that was actually a vegetarian option? Fortunately the air crew took pity on me and gave me a spare portion of the pasta.

I spent most of the trip trying to blank out the revolting children - at one point the youngest was standing up on it's seat, bashing the TV monitor with a can of diet coke whilst the mother watched it - and staring at my own monitor as it told me how many miles and hours of flight was still left. I hate flying!!  It was really strange watching the sky lightening as we came towards the end of the flight - our body clocks were still on midnight but by the time we landed it was 10.15am.

On landing first stop was to find wi fi, get a number for my credit card and ring to cancel it.  My brain felt like it was stuffed with cotton wool as I tried to remember when I had last used it and then convert Californian time to UK time!  We were lucky enough to find a courtesy bus for the parking already waiting and half full and once reunited with the car our fears that the battery may be flat proved groundless and it started with no problems.  One last slight hindrance as Martin took a wrong turn and we made an interesting detour north via Uxbridge before we could get the M40 back to the M25 and head for home!  Jet lag has a lot to answer for.

We arrived in Dorchester at around 3.30pm UK time which for us was 8.30am having been up "all night". It was so good to be home although the flat felt strangely unfamiliar at first..... So that was it, our adventure over and we settled down to catch up on some sleep.........now we just need to start planning the next trip................