Before the euro-6 (or 5 for now) got up in their new "house" in Kaikoura I was arriving at Abu Dhabi airport !! When I arrived at Abu Dhabi the plane was slightly late so it left me little time (about 50 mins)to get across for the next plane to Heathrow.. My problem was they start to board an hour before take off and I was running close to missing it !! Following the transfer signs again I came into the security area and there were hundreds of people trying to get through !! A sense of panic started to set in as it seemed that I had no way of getting through on time but I was lucky as one of the staff came across and asked if I was on the London flight? When I said yes she said come this way please and got me through a different gate. They really helped and bypassed everyone ! When they lead me to the boarding gate the plane was already loading but again they got me through and the lady at the desk said it was ok they would have waited as they knew that I was somewhere in the airport ! So up in the air again, this time for 7.5 hours .. Had quite a nice man next to me from India this time so the flight seemed to go quite quickly ... As we neared the time for landing at Heathrow the pilot told us that we were being put in a stack and would be a bit late.. Hope it's not too late, I thought, as Ken is down there waiting.. However, it was not too long and we were down.. The next problem was passport control... No e.passport desks so hundreds of people in the European queue were filtering through 5 checkpoints.. Total farce... A sign said 10 min from this point.. Well that came and went and so did another 25 mins.. Eventually though I did get through and found poor Ken sat waiting patiently wondering what had happened.. Apparently he had arrived and parked up having checked the plane was on time.. By the time he got to the coffee shop it was saying we would be late.. Typical .. Having met up with Ken that should have been the end of the day's sagas but no chance.. As we were leaving the airport we ran into traffic almost immediately.. Got through that and we're heading down the A3 towards Portsmouth and more traffic stoppages. This time it was an accident that looked quite serious (no apparent injuries but lots of damage to a lorry and 3 other cars) and the worse part was the traffic on the other side of the dual carriageway, which was clear, were moving more slowly than we were!! Eventually though we did get through and we made it home !! At last.....

It was straight into preps for the funeral !! Iron the suit and shirt, clean the shoes check the tie, camera and batteries done... Anything else ??? Mind wasn't working ... Where is the car key ???? Had to ring my mechanic Pete who had MOT'd the car whilst we were away, he had returned the car but still had the key !!! On the phone, Pete brought the key round.. All done ready for tomorrow !! Phew .......