Home for a day, unpacking, a lot of washing and packing once again.

I don’t believe I’m saying this.....

I am so not a morning person as many of you will know....... if pushed I am able to get up before dawn if it’s a special occasion..... but generally I love my bed and am always loathe to leave it ...... Dear Richard , on the other hand, is generally an early riser, which suits me as I get a cup of tea in bed every morning...... not always as a gesture love and affection though.... more I feel as a way of waking me up and getting me out of my pit before lunchtime!!!!!

So, this morning , you can imagine how surprised he was, when I was up and ready to go to breakfast without the usual gentle persuasion required to get me moving. (Obviously, I still needed tea....... which he provided , but none of the other cajoling which normally accompanies my morning beverage. )

We had to go down the road to a little cafe which had struck a deal with the hotel to offer breakfast to its patrons. We had been presented with a voucher when we checked in, this entitled us to one savoury item, one sweet item, one piece of fruit and a hot drink.....now, we are not big eaters but on our trip we have fallen into the habit of eating a substantial breakfast, missing lunch and having whatever for dinner...... the voucher did not appear to offer anything approaching substantial but we figured that if we were still hungry after scoffing the items it included then we could buy more. As it happened the food on offer was surprisingly good and very filling, and the coffee ( cappuccino for Dear Richard) was delicious. And as if to confirm that Pisa wins first prize in the town with the strangest inhabitants competition we witnessed this.......

The picture is fuzzy because I was taking it surreptitiously..... some people are a bit touchy when it comes to putting dogs in pushchairs!!!!

Breakfast done we collected our cases and set off for the station.....Pisa has a very handy train that goes straight to the airport, called the Pisa mover and it does just that, so ten minutes later we were there.

We were well early and our check in desk still hadn’t opened so we kicked our heels around the airport for what seemed like flipping ages..... we were sitting opposite a clothes shop ...... it was manned by a single assistant but she didn’t have many customers..... in fact all she sold during the hour and a half we were sat there, were two suitcases..... they were half price and obviously a bargain..... in fact I almost went and bought one myself..... only the fact that we wouldn’t have been able to get it on the plane prevented me from making that poor” bored to tears” , girls day!!!

Finally we were able to check in.....there was a long queue for speedy boarders, we were not in this category so joined the line for those of us too tight to pay for the privilege of getting on the plane first , even though we have all got assigned seats. Turned out that most of the speedy queue were not speedy and were standing in the wrong place ...... that caused some ructions as you can imagine........ there was a lot of muttering and complaining as they were required to get behind all those of us standing in the correct place!!!! ...... I was maybe a little smug at this but did my best to hide it!!!!....

Check in completed we got safely through security (despite me forgetting that I had water in my re-usable water bottle and having to go out through a side door to empty it down the sink!!!) and decided to have a coffee..... the airport was heaving, there was nowhere to sit..... it was hot and we just wanted to get home..... so guess what ....... yes darlings the f**king plane was delayed!!!!!

The minutes ticked by, I went for a look around the shops and contemplated buying a bottle of vodka to help while away the next hour or two......Pisa airport isn’t very big so it didn’t take long to visit the few retail outlets , if I could have, I would have popped back to cheer up the bored sales assistant, but she was on the other side of security and so out of bounds!!! Finally ...... finally as we were about to die of boredom , we started to board....... and ....... oh this pisses me off no end...... the minute someone shows up at the desk..... even if it’s a cleaner..... everyone gets up and starts to shuffle towards it......then they stand there like lemmings waiting for their turn to go over the edge.....I tend to do a lot of muttering while I watch them all.... but then of course if you leave it too late there is no room in the overhead locker, so all the precious things which you deliberately put in your hand luggage to keep them safe from thieves and baggage handlers end up in the hold anyway!!!!! and halfway through the flight you suddenly realise that the thing you need most in the world at that moment is squashed under all the other bags way below you in the cargo section..........boy am I glad that our next flight is in business class...... I can’t bloody wait!!!!

Luckily, despite the hoards of people in front of us, there was room in the locker and so disaster was averted.....I had taken a Valium..... necessary as I am not over keen on flying.... and all that remained was to try and doze off. We didn’t have anyone sitting behind us who suffered from verbal diaorrhea which was a bonus, nor were there any crying babies or overly chatty children or seat kickers, and so I happily went to sleep. I fancy Dear Richard had a bit of a nod too but as I was away with the fairies I couldn’t swear to that!!!!

We arrived at Bristol Airport in weather which was much the same as it was 4 weeks ago when we left.... but it was quite a lot colder.....the man next to Dear Richard told us it was 10 degrees but he was lying..... it was more like 5.... we could see our breath for f**ks sake!!!! and not being used to such low temperatures we found it most unpleasant!!!!!

We exited the customs hall.....gosh it’s a flipping long walk from the plane to immigration and baggage pick up now that the airport has been improved??......and went to buy coffee to revive us..... when we had recovered from the shock of how much it cost , we made our way to the bus, picked the car up from silver parking.... it wasn’t silver, it was just drab and grey by the way....and finally were on the last leg of our journey home.

Knowing that the larder at was going to be bare we stopped at Tesco to pick up enough food to last us one night.... ok, and a bottle of wine too...... I feel that due to the fact that we are only home for about 24 hours, we are still on holiday ....... and so it’s allowed, thank you very much !!!!! Gosh it was weird doing proper shopping again......everyone was still going about their lives and it was familiar but strange at the same time...... It’s a funny thing isn’t it.... when you have been away on holiday and you get home everything looks the same but somehow different..... oh and the house was lovely and warm because I had left the heating on the wrong setting,so it had been merrily blasting away for the last month , luckily there had been enough oil in the tank otherwise we would have been sorting a new boiler I suspect.

And so we unpacked and made good use of the sweltering heat to dry all the washing we had accumulated. It was draped over every radiator and filled two clothes drying things..... and anything which wasn’t in danger of major shrinkage went into the tumble dryer. After all that, which I can assure you was exhausting after a month of doing sweet FA, we sat and watched TV properly for the first time in 4 weeks.... I made Dear Richard watch “Strictly“, which he is really not keen on, in exchange for football at some point to be agreed in the future!!!! We drank the wine and fell asleep on the sofa...... well it had been a busy and at times traumatic day..... and tomorrow promises to be pretty full on as we re-pack and get ready for the second leg of our trip ......

So excited..!!!