Another memorable travel day

The alarm went of at 4.00am, and we were in our uber to Victoria Station at 4.30am - even the tube doesnt start till 5am and the first Gatwick Express leaves at 5.05am! So our friendly uber driver drops us off at the designated point which is actually the loading dock at the rear of Victoria Station. Seems a bit suss, but who are we to argue and we see another younger traveller heading down the stairs to Platform 14 so we duly follow. We passed through 'open' turnstiles, so I reasoned that we hadnt actually had our tickets validated, so lead the way to the main platform entrance at the concourse. There, to greet us, is the station security guy, loud cheery and with a fabulous sense of humour who along with the small gathered crowd, laments the fact that there is not a single coffee shop open on the concourse. Our fellow traveller happened to be a young Aussie, heading back to Berlin, where he was apparently 'living his best life' and leaning on his Mums purse strings, with some money to buy himself a ' warm jacket' for the winter. You've gotta love Mums!

We're out at Gatwick Airport in 40 minutes and 20 minutes later, bags dropped, security checked and we even manage to pick up a couple of bottles of Tanqueray gin for £12 each, a genuine bargain. Coffee and breakfast is a priority and there's no shortage of options so we're soon feeling more 'normal' and make our way to the gate with plenty of time to spare. There's only about 30 passengers to board so that's pretty simple and our female pilot announces an on time take-off ✅️ with a flying time of just over an hour. The on board service is flawless, no need for the cart with so few passengers so its very personal and chatty. Another coffee will keep us both awake.

And here's where it gets interesting. We are lined up on final approach and nose down into the solid cloud base, wheels go down and we anticipate our impending touchdown. But that was not to be. All of a sudden we are at full throttle and climbing back up through the clouds to the bright blue sky. The captain promptly explains that she had no 'visual' on the runway so had no option but to abort the landing. Oh well, better safe than sorry. 'We'll do some circuits for about 10 minutes and then reassess the situation'. An hour later she kindly announces that another plane has also had to 'go round', but she was prepared to wait a further 30 minutes before having to head south the Bordeaux. In the meantime she would switch off the 'seatbelt sign' so we could use the bathrooms. Given the small number of people on board, this enabled not only a loo break but time to stretch the legs and chat. Low and behold I meet another fellow Aussie, a mature business man who is flying to La Rochelle to catch up with friends for lunch. Bon appetit.

We finally take the dive through the cloud cover after 1½ hours of sightseeing at 4000 feet and land safely on terra firma. A brisk 10 minute walk to our car and we are 'home' at Les Petites Rivieres in 45 minutes. Emma Louise is there and lunch is in the oven.

I spend the next 48 hours working overtime, joining the dots and following up on the remaining major tasks to bring the 'cuisine de campagne' - country kitchen to completion. The kitchen cabinetry needs refining, lighting confirmed and outside there is 'creppi' (the finishing render) to be applied, the upper and lower terraces to be formed and concreted and then the plumbing and electrical fitoff and painting. An onsite meeting with Willy assured Emma Lou that all of the above would be completed by the end of November - except for the custom made island bench top which won't arrive till the 4th December.
We're off for our 6 day immersion French 'holiday' on 5th December so we may or may not see the completed project. Cest la vie!

We took Emma Lou to Bordeaux airport on Friday afternoon for her late night flight back to Gatwick, and after a short break at a motorway cafe, where I duly noted the nod to October's Breast cancer awareness with the pink toilet paper in the ladies loo, we were eventually home just after 9pm.Läs mer