Published for the Kindle on Amazon.co.uk - Drinking Partners by Mal J Robinson

Monday, September 30, 2013

Day 120 - Marseilles to Home - Ripping Time

The morning started a little after 5.30 a.m. with the aid of the alarm clock feature on my phone and after some stumbling in and out of the shower, some packing and re packing to make sure everything would fit I was in reception awaiting my French and Nottingham colleagues for our journey to the airport.
We arrived at Marseilles airport and as our French colleague was flying from a different terminal we bid farewell and found our way into terminal 1 and the local Starbucks for some morning coffee.  We had arrived in good time as our French colleague's flight was an hour earlier than ours so we had a little time to kill and I hadn't realised how much I rely on technology and when you don’t have it you feel almost naked.  Now I am back with my beloved laptop I have the window to the big world reopened.  So I tried to invoke some old fashioned methodology and tried speaking to my Nottingham colleague but as he had technology this was a pointless affair.
The flight was pretty much on time and just after 1.00 p.m. we were in London.  Now this is where my story takes a turn for the worse.  I was out of the airport in quick time, my love of terminal 1 in Heathrow growing all the time.  The problem was once outside.  I had to wait for the purple parking van to get back to the car park however this seemed to take ages to arrive and when I checked the time I had waited 25 minutes when the first van turned up, but promptly it left with the driving saying he wasn't going back to the car park.  We waited another 20 minutes when a second van arrived and we were allowed on board.   Not the fault of the car park company, but the traffic on the road was bad and it was another 25 minutes before we got to the car park and in total from touchdown to be standing by my car it was almost 2 hours.  Of course it was Friday and the roads were horrendous and with my scheduled detour to Chesterfield planned to get my PC fixed, it was going to be a long one.  I rolled into Chesterfield around 6.30 p.m. which wasn’t bad when you consider the conditions on the road, but my 10 minute repair took over an hour which meant it was nearly 9.00 p.m. when I arrived at home, tired and a little stressed.  Sometimes the journeys just never feel like they are going to end and that day was one of them.
I was glad to get home but unfortunately my dog was also pleased I had got home and promptly jumped up when I walked through the door and managed to tear my t-shirt across the shoulder with his claws.  he can do this quite easily as when he stands up he is actually taller than me.   I suppose taller than most people as he is now almost seven feet long from head to tail.  Still it is nice to be welcomed home with such enthusiasm as to almost having your clothes ripped off your back as you walk through the door.  Most people would dream of that reception but very few will actually get it.

So with me looking for a swift change of clothing I bid you all good night

No comments:

Post a Comment