Arrivederci Agnese!

We're late, we're late, for a very important date... but it looks like we're not the only ones!

It's a sad day today because after over year of having my mad Italian friend around she is finally going back home to pastures new and a whole world of exciting possibilities. So after a morning of doing work stuff I head on down to Newbury to pick both her and Elisabetta up so that I can drop them over to Bristol Airport for them to catch their flight back to Italy.

Check me out... or in even...

Everything is going great, up to the point where we get onto the M5 and the traffic stops dead with no movement in sight. So we turn around and head on back to the M32 and try that way instead which is equally rammed and we don't get anywhere fast. By 5.30 and still stuck at the outskirts of Bristol we are resigned to the fact that there is no way in hell we are going to get the girls to the airport on time.

A quick call to Phil and we discover that there plenty of flights out in the morning so we resign ourselves to getting to the airport when we can and seeing if we can get them on one of the flights tomorrow and finding a place for them to stay overnight.

When we get to the airport at 38 minutes past 5 we thought we'd just see if there was any chance they could get on the flight and by some miraculous event the bloke at the desk said YES! So it's a mad rush to get the bags checked in then the ladies scoot upstairs through departures and to what I assumed would have been the plane, so I go back to the car and head off towards Ikea to pick up the stuff I wanted.

Fancy architecture

I then get a call not long after from Agnese to tell me that the flight had been delayed an hour! So it was a mad rush for nothing with hind sight, but the most important thing is that they both got on the flight and will be home later in the evening.

I finally get to Ikea and on the way get stuck in more jams giving me the opportunity to take a picture of some sights I saw whilst not moving anywhere, notably St Mary Radcliffe Church which was a very nice gothic building.

I thought I'd hit it lucky whist looking at the show room in Ikea since there were very few people there so I decide what I'm going to get and then head down to the collection area where it all went a bit awry. It took me absolutely ages to find some of the wire baskets I wanted and by the time I did find them and head to the check out a tsunami of customers who must have arrived after me were also heading for the checkouts so I got stuck in ANOTHER queue! Nightmare. Anyway, I thought it most kind of Ikea to pin gargantuan hot dog posters everywhere considering I hadn't eaten since 12 noon and it was now 8.30 at night!

Food from Ikea, Meat included, for sauce go to Aisle 28
location 10

I finally get to pay but not without fretting as I couldn't remember the pin number to my card and when I escape the Swedish clutches of materialism I head over to Tesco to buy a sandwich and also the biggest bottle of mineral water I could find to try and dilute the tar that is pretending to be washer fluid in the car. After eating my dinner and topping the car up with the mineral water (how very posh!) I am on the M4 by 9 and home by 10 which gives just enough time to unload the car, catch up with Phil and head for bed.

I can't wait for tomorrow, I love putting flat pack together!

Posted by Abi on the September 4, 2009 10:25 PM