They've arrived!

November 6, 2009 3:03 PM

Woohoo! My long lost friends have landed back on UK soil permanently and all that stands between them and me is about 60 miles! With that in mind I am up at 4.30 this morning and out of the house by 5AM heading towards Heathrow to pick up the Gardners and welcome them back home :-)

The trip down there was good enough with no problems other than my decreased driving ability due to the unearthly hour, but I arrive there with plenty of time even considering their flight had landed early due to some rather rapid tail winds.

Whilst waiting for them to get through passport control etc I meet up with Brian who is also at the airport to greet his family back home. I was a little shocked when I saw that he had a suitcase with him and so tentatively asked what his plans were, which apparently involved coming back to our house as he and Paul were going to head up to Liverpool in the wee hours of tomorrow morning. Now this was no problem except for the fact that I wasn't quite sure how we'd get everyone and all the luggage into the BMW considering it's a tight fit at the best of times, but I figured we'd just wait and see how much luggage and flesh we needed to accomodate before reverting to plan B (not that there was a plan B!).

Brian and I grab a coffee and a croissant and its not very long at all until the crew are with us looking very tired but excited to be back, so we make our way up to the car in the hope that the suspension and cabin space will hold up to what we were about to subject it to!

It has to be said, if I ever need a career change I should seriously consider some sort of job where you have to squeeze lots of stuff into a tiny space. It took some work, but eventually the BMW was loaded with 3 large adults, 1 normal adult, 1 child (with booster seat), 2 large suitcases, 2 small suitcases, 3 holdalls and 2 laptop bags, oh, and a granola bar.

Not suprisingly then it was a cramped trip home with 45 minutes of the 60 minute journey spent talking deliriously due to lack of oxygen and the remaining 15 minutes spent in silence as people passed out or went into temporary paralysis as cramp set in and their muscles gave up. What was funnier was trying to extract Paul from the back of the car when we arrived home, in Cara's own words, she "felt like a midwife".

Once the car is unloaded we all settle down to drink tea and plan what we need to do today to keep everyone to schedule, and first on the list is to get a car so that the gang can be independant and get around where they need to go. After I've been to the dentist to get my tooth filled (hurrah! it's finally done!) we go over to Swindon to one of those big car supermarket places where Paul finds something half suitable, but hits upon the problem of paying for it in the conventional way as they don't have any UK bank cards here. A short trip to the bank later and we fail miserably to get a bankers draft and get asked to return tomorrow with a more suitable form of ID such as a passport, as not surprisingly just saying who you are isn't enough. We will just have to go back tomorrow and sort it all out then and hope the car hasn't gone.

On the way back we stop at KFC to get a snack as everyone is hungry, and then when we get home it isn't long after that I'm ordering a curry takeout for everyone.

With no car in the offing Paul decides that despite the rather overbearing sales technique of the car shop he will return tomorrow to pick up the car he test drove once he's got the bankers draft, and this time he'll take Cara with him so she can see if she likes it too, since it's likely this will end up being her car. He'll then head up to Liverpool once it's all been sorted out so he can see his Mum.

Oh well, roll on tomorrow, I've no doubt it'll be as hectic as today :) Still, it is good to have me crew back :)