Home Again, Home Again

 Any idea I might have had about a nice quiet period at home devoted to rest and recuperation seems doomed at the moment. Deserved, mind you, but doomed. The last few weeks in Newport were hectic indeed, but a hint that the immediate future might not prove all that different was evident in my journey home. I knew it was going to be arduous with a 0300 taxi pick-up and three overweight suitcases full of books and other such paraphernalia likely to anchor me down at all stages of the trip. I had hoped that the extravagant devotion of my 'points' to a business class trip would ease my passage. And so it did, but not to the extent of neutralising what turned out to be a 15 hour delay !

I don't think it was really BA's fault. Apparently that day back in Heathrow, Immigration had been overwhelmed by the numbers travelling and required airlines to cut or delay their flights out from all terminals. Rather than simply cut my flight out from Boston, they put it on at the end of the day rather than the very beginning, after the other timetabled departures. They texted warnings of a delay but didn't say for how long so everyone turned up as normal at 0430 in the morning  So in an otherwise deserted airport there was a conglomeration of anxious and confused people and harassed staff at the BA desk. Because they had limited storage and had to save what they had for their normal flights, we could check in but couldn't unload our luggage. My half a ton of books began to seem quite threatening, especially as Boston is one of those airports that only has cafes and shops after security and not before it and obviously one cannot go through security with suitcases ! Fortunately, a nice young lady took pity on me and said she would take my cases, trolley and all, and stash it with a note explaining the situation, in a space beside the First Class Counter so that the police wouldn't blow it up or Japan airlines (who were shortly due to take the counter over) send it to Tokyo. She also gave me  kind of boarding pass so I could go through security. At about 0500 they were just opening up and I went through all on ,my own. The staff seemed in a holiday mood and were jovial and friendly and advised me to go through and walk along to another Terminal where they thought a Starbucks would soon be opening up. And so it proved !

          Thereafter I spent the next 15 hours shifting around both Terminals, having coffee, much later a nice breakfast courtesy of a coupon from BA and plugging in my laptop and getting on with various academic tasks. One of these was to check on line the index of my book, something which easily too took a couple of hours. I had a variety of make-do offices with different views of life in an airport terminal. 

 After 7 hours or so, I had to go out through security again and check in my luggage, just as Japan Air folded their tents and stole away. I got in just before the first rush for the next scheduled BA flight and the chap agreed against the rules to take my luggage (which I was very relieved to see still there) simply because it was blocking up the space. I left very pleased but wondered when I would see those cases again. And so out through Security for a second more crowded time. Thereafter, it was all plain sailing for the next 8 hours as the BA Lounge had now opened up, and there was space and quiet, snacks and G&Ts to hand, as passengers for the scheduled flights came and went. The only concern was telling my taxi chap what my new arrival time would be which remianed uncertain until the last minute, and wondering if he could make it. The flight was fine. For once I even dozed a bit.

          It all worked brilliantly. We arrived mid morning on the Friday.- 15 hours late.  It just so happened that I was one of the first off the plane. At immigration I could see that the passport reading machines were failing a lot of people, so didn't bother to try. Instead I went directly to the chap who deals with the failures, and was though in 5 minutes. Bearing in mind all the horror stories about baggage handling problems, my expectations about luggage claim were low. I was so early , there were only one or two other passengers hanging about the relevant luggage carousel. The carousel started up as I approached with my empty trolley  and to my surprised delight my three cases were first out, all arriving together. I was through it all in just over 15 minutes which must be some kind of record. I had just finished my usual cappuccino at Costa  when Alistair the taxi arrived. So swings and roundabouts, and everything worked out well in the end.

          But two nights without real sleep meant I would have welcomed some peace and quiet. But there were three suitcases to unpack, 4 months of post to sort out. The house was fine the garden a bewildering approximation of Borneo. Cherry's Goose was enveloped in foliage.

 

One of the big ash trees had obviously died and several Elm trees too, all along the roadside so obviously required urgent attention. Plans and appointment for the next few weeks had to be sorted out, the car (working well I was relieved to find) booked in for an urgent MOT, wondering whether to get a new alarm system,  etc etc etc.

          One break was  my first Church trip with the Friends of Wiltshire Churches  exactly a week after my arrival. The theme of the day was Victorian 'restorations' of parish churches. We learned about Pearson who conserved and restored while Butterfield remodelled and rebuilt. A lot of Wiltshire Churches have been well and truly 'butterfielded,'  but at least they haven't fallen down which they might otherwise have done. Talking of which the last optional visit was to a ruined Church at Sutton Veny  now conserved by a special trust. I liked it most of all for its ancientness, and also for  a wall memorial to  a George Martin of the East India Company who died in 1815 in 'Bellary' in the East Indies, - wherever that is. A project for my autumnal Singapore trip ?  Already Newport seems a distant memory, as more urgent considerations pack in.