Back To London

My time in Dublin has come to an end and I am going back to London for a few days before heading off on the next part of my journey.

I had a late night finalising my luggage for today and I had also been replying to some emails that needed doing and also finding out some information about the weather in Florida as there has been some wild storms and cyclonic winds within about 200 miles of where I will be going on Sunday. I also decided to pay my account before I went to bed in case there were other people trying to checkout at the same time in the morning. I finally got to the concierge to pay my account at 2.05am and then went straight off to sleep.

I was up, showered and out the door by 7.05 and had to walk to the other end of Temple Bar wheeling my suitcase and carrying my by now very heavy carry-on bag for the plane. I waited about 15 minutes before the Aircoach (special airport coach) came along and I were off to the airport. I had plenty of time to sit and have some breakfast while watching some more Olympics on the T.V. I then went to the check-in to get my suitcase loaded and it weighed in at 24.6kg. I knew it was going to be way over the 15kg limit so I had packed a big cardboard shop bag full of bits and pieces and after I had taken that out of the suitcase I got the weight down to 17.2kg and the attendant was O.K. with that.

I went through the customs and walked the 15 minutes it took to get to the gate my plane was leaving from. Not long after I got there an announcement came through that my plane was going to by half an hour late. I had a good book to read so I did not mind. Well the 30 minutes came and went and we were still sitting at the gate with no plane in sight. Finally it came and there was a mad hurry to get everybody onto the plane and get it in the air. It finally left about 1 hour 15 minutes late.

Stewart was waiting for me when I got to Gatwick and we went home. I spent most of the afternoon doing some washing and on the computer trying to arrange a freight company to arrange to get me some boxes sent home. Because I have not left myself enough time to get the boxes delivered in time to get them packed before I leave on Sunday. In the end I am going to get some boxes myself and will then get the company to pick them up from Stewart’s after I have gone.

Stewart, Jeanette and I went out to a restaurant called Frankie and Benny’s for dinner. It is based on a 1920’s American style diner which would have been run by an Italian family. The food was quite good and cheap compared to some of the places I have eaten at while I have been away. After dinner we came back home and watched T.V. for a while before getting an early night.