Twelve days out of Cyprus

In my last post, I wrote about some of the things we do to prepare the house (and ourselves) for Summer in Cyprus. July and August are always hot, and usually humid. Computers don't like temperatures higher than about 28-29 Celcius, and this human doesn't either. So it was important to have our air conditioners clean and ready to be used.

We did all this towards the end of June because on the last day of the month we flew to the UK for a 12-day visit. Sometimes I stay for rather longer, but it wasn't really going to work out this year. We needed to be there for July 1st as our younger son was ordained as deacon in the Anglican church. It had been his dream for most of his life and we were thrilled to be at the service, where the Bishop of London was presiding.

Not that we could see very much; there were nearly 50 ordinands, and about 2,500 people in St Paul's Cathedral, but we could hear - and were then able to see the live-streamed service afterwards, which gave a rather better view. Our other son came down for the day, one of my brothers came to the service too, and we were also pleased to see a friend from our early days in Cyprus, who had known our sons well when they were children.

Being in London, staying a couple of nights at the Heathrow Premier Inn, we didn't rent a car at first; instead we either walked or used the Underground. I don't much like it, and find it difficult to understand; but Richard's familiar with it as he worked in London (albeit nearly half a century ago).

I did like the new 'Elizabeth' line which runs from Heathrow, and I quickly got used to the payment system: one taps a credit or debit card going into the underground area, and again on exiting, and the full amount is debited at the end of the day. However it won't deduct more than the cost of a day-saver travel card.

On the following morning we travelled back into London, this time to attend the morning service at the church where our son will be working for the next couple of years.

Afterwards we had a Subway lunch, which we ate outside in a nearby park area. We were surprised to see how tame one of the squirrels was, running around near the benches, evidently hoping for some crumbs. And when it found something, it sat there in full view, nibbling. 

After this we went to look at the flat which our son and his wife will be renting for the next year or two - they had only just been given the keys, so it was still empty. The cost of renting in London is horrendous, and the flat is tiny; part of a converted Edwardian style terrace. But the ceilings are quite high and the living area looked surprisingly spacious.

We had left most of our luggage at a nearby station, so we collected that, and then got the train to Cambridge for a few days. Our son and his wife will be renting out their house - a small but very nice 'starter home'- so our task was to help them fix a few problems (such as a rusty access chamber cover) after the movers had collected their things on Monday.

It was a full and active few days; not that I was able to do much to help in practical terms. Richard was happy to help our daughter-in-law learn to use some power tools, and although there were more things to do than expected, and - inevitably - it all took longer than planned, our task was finished by early afternoon on the Wednesday. 

Two of us took the train to London while the other two packed all the remaining bits and pieces into a rental van, and drove to London - which took considerably longer than the train journey.  So we moved and even unpacked a few of the boxes from the movers, in order to make space for the extra things still to come. 

As we ate a cold supper, perching on boxes, we realised that it was only five days since we left Larnaka...

Richard and I took the van back to Cambridge that night, and in the morning went to exchange it for the rental car which we had booked for the next week. We used Enterprise Car Rental, which we hadn't tried before. Their prices were good - significantly better than our usual choices - and their staff were friendly, and helpful... but clearly over-worked. Although we arrived in good time to pick up our car we had to wait over an hour before it was ready. Someone else, who arrived before us, was waiting even longer.

Then when we had only driven for about two hours, an engine warning light came on, and the car lost most of its acceleration. We were perhaps 15 miles away from the village where my brother and his wife live, and we were due there for lunch. So we kept going, puttering along, struggling on the hills, very thankful this had not happened on the motorway.

One excellent lunch later, Richard spent a considerable amount of time on the phone to local Enterprise Car rental places, only to be told - eventually - to speak to the one in Cambridge. They were most apologetic, but after some research told us that our only option was to have a much smaller car than we wanted to get us up to Carlisle, and then exchange that for a bigger one the following day.

We had hoped to arrive at our older son's house in Carlisle by about 5pm, in time for an evening meal with the grandchildren. But it was about 8.30pm by the time we finally reached our destination, and our granddaughter was already asleep.

However, we had a very enjoyable 'long weekend', relaxing in the family environment, with lots of hugs, and books, and games, including 'Meeple Land', which reminded me of the old 'Theme Park' computer game which we played a couple of decades ago. 

The weather wasn't ideal, but among other things we did manage to go out for a walk, taking the grandchildren roller-blading in the nearby park:  

We went to their local church service where I was very moved by our grandson answering the question, 'Who would you most like to invite to a meal at your house?' (real or imaginary, living or dead) by saying, 'My Great-Grandpa, because I had such a good time with him when he was alive.' 

And we also helped our granddaughter with some school homework: compiling a bar chart of her extended family's preferences for different zoo animals, with a choice of eight: 

But all good things, as the saying goes, come to an end. So, after walking to school with the grandchildren on Monday morning, we said our goodbyes and set off down the M6. The car acquired in Carlisle was comfortable and, Richard said, very pleasant to drive. 

We had a brief break in Birmingham, having lunch with one of our oldest, closest friends, and then a couple of hours with my step-mother. The next phase of our journey was to the Gatwick Travelodge. We hadn't been there with a car before, and were a bit shocked at the parking charges, but we needed the car for the following day when we drove even further south to spend the day with Richard's mother. 

We returned the car to Gatwick that night, not wanting to get up early the following morning (or pay for another night's parking!) so we got the friendly 'Gatwick Hopper' shuttle-bus to our accommodation. 

After breakfast on the Wednesday Richard finished all the packing - he is much better at this than I am. Our flight was not due until 15.25 but we didn't see much point remaining in the Travelodge, so we got the shuttle-bus back to Gatwick shortly after 10.00. We should probably have waited longer as it was hard to find anywhere to sit, at first, and we couldn't check in our luggage until three hours before the flight was due. 

We had flown out with two full-size cabin baggage cases and two backpacks - which is still the free allowance on BA flights. We had not used BA for some years, as they don't fly to any of the airports we generally use, and they tend to be pricey. But since we needed to fly to Heathrow, and the only other choice was Wizz Air - which charges vast amounts for any luggage other than a small carry-on bag - we used BA on our outward flight. They weren't too expensive, their luggage allowance was generous (by today's standards) and even their boarding procedure seemed quick and efficient. 

However, returning from Gatwick, the only option was EasyJet, an airline we've often used and which we quite like. We had booked their 'speedy boarding' category which costs a bit more than the basic flight, but includes full-sized cabin baggage. And we had booked an extra piece of checked luggage, since Richard had ordered a large piece of equipment that came in a big box. 

We had also bought a few extra things, as one does in the UK, from Amazon and elsewhere. In Cyprus we can't easily find things like Roomba replacement parts, or filters for our cats' water fountain; getting them posted from the UK costs more than the items themselves. Sometimes we ask visiting friends to bring out items we've ordered, but this time we were able to bring them ourselves.

We used an airport trolley for the first time in many years:

The flight was a couple of hours late, but managed to catch up some time due to a useful tailwind. Our friend Sheila met us at the airport; our cats were very pleased to see us; and we finally got to bed about midnight. 

It had only been twelve days. It felt like we'd been away for at least a month....