Day 26: Homeward bound

Today was supposed to be warmer and sunny. There wasn't a lot of evidence of that this morning, although the temperature did, I think, get to 15C.

We had breakfast, packed and met up on the outdoor area of the bar.  Sue managed to get us all free coffees. She did some sketching, I did some stitching and Alf kept us entertained, although not, this time, with his mouth organ.

Yesterday I forgot to mention that Turks, the company that run the ferry service, have a boat called Jeff, that they use mostly for events, that was a Dunkirk vessel. According to the young ticket collector on our journey yesterday, Jeff made three trips to Dunkirk, carrying 100 men each time (licensed, apparently, for 20). We looked for Jeff near Hampton Court, where our informant said it would be moored, but didn't find it.

Sue and Alf left around 1pm to catch their trains home. It was Sue's idea to take a selfie. I'm not very good at taking selfies (and no, I do not want a selfie stick!).

 This was my least un-favourite of the 4 we took.

For some inexplicable reason, Sue and Alf preferred this one.


After they left, I checked out, 1.00pm being the latest I had been able to negotiate as the hotel is fully booked tonight. I then repaired to the dining room to have some lunch, watch the river, and read.





There were some curious inflatables with outboards - rubber duckies I guess, battling the current.







I sat in the reception area to stitch and read until my car and driver arrived at 3.45. I had moved my pick-up forward an hour from 4.45 because I couldn't extend the room. As it turned out, the driver had been an hour earlier still but hadn't come in.
I was annoyed about that, until I got to Heathrow at 4.15, walked past the outdoor "passenger smoking area" to discover that the Qantas book-in counters did not open until 5.15.
There was not a single seat in the booking area, so I became second in the queue, sat on my suitcase and read my book until 5.15. It didn't do my suitcase a whole lot of good, but it survived.

The passage through customs, immigration and security was efficient and fairly quick, in spite of my artificial knee.

So here I am, at 7.15pm, in the fairly empty Qantas Lounge, topping up the charge on my phone, writing my last blog from Blighty for this trip and ready to stitch and read until my plane leaves, hopefully on time, at 9.15pm. I am ignoring most of the food and drink, but have just accepted a tiny plate of calamari.

My final post will be from home - just to round off the trip. It has been terrific. I always doubt my ability to manage on my own and surround myself with support. It has paid off, and I've had a deeply satisfying month. Thank you so much to all the friends and family who contributed and made it so.