Or back to The No Future as some wags may say....

Got up early on Friday to say farewell to Tim Davies who was heading off back to Blighty to attend his son's Birthday Party. We all took it easy and later got up around lunchtime. Tim had the lunch on the go and we sipped on a cheeky bottle of Rose to blow away the cobwebs. Friday was a bit of an admin day as Tim has some house guests coming in a day or so and had arranged for the garden lawns to be tidied up. Tim's local friends help out at the Casa and came up with proper agricultural equipment to get everything ship shape. Later on we headed out in the Land Rover, we passed a place called Pontecodi and headed up the mountains. Tim knew of a restaurant up in the hills and it had a great view. We hung around taking some pics of the sun going down and then went inside for some top notch food....the local wild boar was something else. We then headed back to the Casa.....and once again Rhid & myself stayed up late......too late. Tim herded us up in the morning........some more helpers were heading to the casa to make sure everything was spick and span for the incoming guests. It wasnt long before we were in the car and heading to Pisa Airport.....this trip was coming to an end. Tim was heading to London on an early flight and would then be heading back to San Francisco in a couple of days. Tim went through the gates whilst Rhid and myself hung around outside the airport watching the world go by. Pisa Airport is small and so it's quite relaxed with none of the major security nonsense you get in the bigger airports.

We boarded the Sleazy Jet Flight back to Bristol easily enough and settled in for the journey. A large Gin & Tonic courtesy of Rhidian did the job. It seemed funny flying over the Alps and makes you think just how fast travelling by plane actually is, when you think it had taken us seven hours by train to pass through this mountain range a few days earlier. The flight was like most others, uneventful and eventually we landed at Bristol Airport. The usual nonsense of going through passport control and then we were met by Rhid's better half, Helen. The weather was pretty good back in Blighty and in all honesty we have had a long Summer here, which doesn't happen that often. Helen drove us to Newport so I could catch the train back to Cardiff. We said our goodbyes, Rhid has been great fun on this trip and we have had a right laugh. True to form I just about made it to the train that was about to depart Newport station. Getting on board was a bit of a shock, we'd been spoilt by nice clean train carriages in Europe. This one was covered in rubbish and litter. Nice of Arriva trains to take pride in their rolling stock. The bloke with the snacks trolley couldn't care less as he trundled over the litter. What a mess.

The train got into Cardiff Central quite quickly but there was a problem and we were held outside the platform for 15 minutes. Once outside the station, the early evening chaos of a Saturday night in Cardiff was taking place. Cardiff is known as a bit of a party town and gets very busy. Lots of people were arriving by train and buses and once again it was an eye opener. Britain's obesity problem was very evident and young ladies resembling Bouncy Castles in skimpy clothing waddled towards the night spots. Grant and myself have a bit of a pact, that after a trip abroad, it's customary to touch base at The Prince of Wales pub in Central Cardiff and finish off with a pint of Abbots. I did and took in the sights and sounds - I was surrounded by groups of heavily tattooed bellowing apes. Oh yes my friends, I was now back home.