Travelling home for Christmas

We arrived with Dan and Eileen in good time, I had a good stress relieving snuggle with their cats while Brian and Dan took the car back to Fred’s. Eileen took us all into Albuquerque Old Town to one of their favourite Mexican restaurants (Church Street Cafe) which we all thoroughly enjoyed. It was a lovely afternoon and we are really very grateful that they took us in.

Church Street Caffe, the Mexican restaurant we visited with Dan and Eileen in Old Town Albuquerque. No photos of Dan and Eileen unfortunately, we were all so engrossed in conversation I forgot to take a photo!

I was keeping an eye on the flights, Sunday’s worked perfectly, so fingers crossed for Monday. Sadly at breakfast Brian got an email saying that our flight from Albuquerque to Austin, Texas was delayed, it might still work, but we would not have a lot of leeway to connect with our flight back to the UK! We rang American Airlines that all the flights had been booked with, even though our Austin to Heathrow flight was with BA. Took ages to get through, finally did, she went to check if she could do anything with the BA flight, and never came back. We’ll go to the airport, if we are standing in front of them they can’t vanish! No desk at the airport, just the check in queue. Join that then. We got to the front, she went ‘tappy, tappy, tappy’ and said, you are going via Dallas. I hadn’t wanted to go via Dallas as it’s a huge airport, but ok, if that’s what you say. Except the connection time is about the same as via Austin, assuming it doesn’t get any later! I’ll put you on standby for the earlier flight, then. That’s one first, never been on standby. It’s weird watching people board, not knowing if you can join them. We were first in the queue, but just in case someone more worthy showed up we really had to wait till the last second. They didn’t, so we were allowed on. Not sitting together but for an hour and a quarter, that’s fine.

Taking Cookie and Cracker for our first morning walk after starting our eight day housesit for them in Bishampton, near Evesham, Worcestershire, back in the UK. After forgetting to take a photo of Don and Eileen in Albuquerque as we were too engrossed in conversation, I also forgot to take a photo of Donna and Keith at the Ounce Restaurant in the village for the same reason. I must do better!

Leg one, tick, and our luggage was in Dallas, so I was told, hurrah. Sit and chill then till the Heathrow flight. We were all called forward in dribs and drabs for ‘security checks ‘, but that’s fine. Hmm, we seem to be passed boarding time, wonder what’s going on? With that, an announcement was made, by the captain, no less, “the plane is fine, the crew is fine, but BA has a problem and can’t issue flight plans. No flight plan, no flight. No idea when/if they can get it fixed!” That’s not what anyone wants to hear. An hour later, another announcement “we still know nothing, but I’ll get you all issued with refreshment vouchers”. An hour and a half after that “I’ve given them till 23.30. If we have no movement by then we’ll have to wait till the morning “ 500 people sitting around looking miserable, though all impressed by the captain. About 23.15 there was a cheer and we were moving onto the plane. We took slightly longer than expected to actually depart as 7 people had not boarded, and were nowhere to be found, so their luggage had to be found and taken off, but finally, 5 hours late, we were off.

Welcome to an English winter on the shortest day of the year. Cookie in the foreground and Cracker behind trotting along in the drizzle/light rain along a muddy track. It's around 8 C (46 F), gets light around 9:00/9:30am, dark around 4:00pm and the days start misty and continue dull, where headlights are on when driving during the day and the fallen leaves and twigs clog your shoes. Warm, cozy pubs with roaring log fires, real ale and proper British hospitality, along with friends and family nearby give a lovely, homely familiarity that's hard to beat. I wonder how long that feeling will last before the cold and dark get the better of us!

Just the coach to Birmingham to worry about now then. Even with a ‘fully flexible’ ticket, you have to say you won’t be on your booked bus before it is due to depart. You can’t do this online and it’s the middle of the night in the UK. Brian sent lots of messages into the ether, not expecting or getting a response, but what else could we do? As it turns out they were actually very helpful, once we arrived and rang. We got one bus from terminal 5 to Central, and watched as a Birmingham bus pulled out, apologising that he couldn’t stop! The one an hour later however was direct and might actually have got us in before the earlier one! Into Digbeth Coach Station just before 20.00 and into an Uber to mums! Don’t we all just love a 30hour travel day?!

This takes some beating! Relax and stroke dogs

Wednesday we didn’t really know which way was up, but managed a little bit of shopping and got our flu jabs. Thursday unpacking and repacking and head to Bishampton to sit for Cookie and Cracker, two lovely dogs that we sat for in May. We arrived about 16.30 and went to the pub with Donna and Keith. Lovely time, and a great Chateaubriand. We were early as they were off at ‘silly o clock’ and had yet to pack. Suited us. Brian managed a good nights sleep, but I am still waking at 02.30 as my brain thinks that’s 07.00 so waking up time! Into Redditch to the opticians, due for eyetests, anyway but Brian’s glasses that he glued while on the Housesit in San Luis Obispo, hadn’t survived, so he needs new glasses, the sooner the better. Tomorrow? Nothing except dog walking. Hurrah!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!