Yesterday I took Jack the whippet for a long walk and savoured the autumn colours and smells. We walked down the little country lane opposite the marina:
I felt so guilty that I would be abandoning him for a month, we have become very attached and although he adores his owner, he does enjoy popping in to see P and I several times a day and he loves his walks!
I looked at the sunset over the boats for the last time in a while:
I cooked a lovely meal for P and me and for A on the next door boat. A is a bit of a dark horse and among his many talents is his ability to make fantastic fireworks, so he treated me, T and P to a surprise going away display in the car park:
This morning I spent some time wandering around just soaking up the place that I am going to miss so much:
I then spent a couple of hours trying to get within the required weight for hand luggage. I have to take quite a lot of paper work in my cabin bag so that I can still function on the work front if my main luggage goes astray. This leaves very little left for personal items. In the end I had to jettison most of my personal stuff, ending up with just my toothbrush, face cleansing wipes and my kindle. I felt a bit like I was on desert island discs having to choose just one or two items I couldn't do without! Considering that I leave tomorrow morning and don't arrive at my final destination until late Tuesday night I think it is going to be quite hard going!
The upside is that both my lovely sons have made sure that they will be in touch while I am away. Son number 2 has added me to his skype account and son number 1 has let me become a 'friend' of his on facebook - an honour indeed!! This is with the proviso that I am not to leave any embarrassing messages on his 'wall' or he will de-friend me instantly!
I have to say that I am amazed at the technology we have these days with skype, mobile phones, facebook and all the different ways of communicating that we have. I am showing my age now, but when I was at primary school, we had a small round piece of wood to which we attached a metal nib and in order to write we dipped this in ink which was in an inkwell on our desks!! If we were anywhere other than home and needed to contact anyone, we had to go to a red 'phone box and go through a complicated process of pushing buttons A and B to get through. Letters took several days to arrive! In my lifetime I have seen such amazing changes!! My boys take it all for granted but it never ceases to engender a sense of wonderment in me!
Lots of friends of mine have also added me on skype so that I can keep in touch. That makes me feel great! I remember 35 years ago when I travelled to go to Germany to study as a post grad. I felt really frightened and alone. I had to get the ferry over from Harwich and travel by train through Holland to Detmold. This took the best part of two days and my German wasn't good in those days. It just wasn't possible to contact anyone in the UK apart from by letter which took over a week. It was a lonely and scary time - how much easier it all is now!
I am now at the airport hotel. I'm not sure when I will be able to blog again, but I am back in the UK on 5th December so watch this space!
Al :)
1 comment:
Lovely photos!
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