Jetlag! Roof Collapse! Garden Devastated! Cold! Isn't it Good to be Back Home?

Our last day in Hong Kong started in some style as a large black Mercedes glided to a halt at the hotel to pick us up for the 40-minute trip to the airport – it certainly beat the shuttle bus. The only small hiccup on a very smooth journey to the airport was my inability to resist playing with the various controls surrounding my seat as I set both the rear headrest and my seat into “yo-yo” mode!

Neither of us were particularly looking forward to the 12 hour flight to Heathrow although the service and facilities provided by Cathay Pacific were excellent with the main problem being, having eventually worked out how to use the personal entertainment controls, which of the 350 movies and TV programmes to watch – never mind the 100’s of music tracks and albums which were also available. A generous supply of red wine also helped to pass the time.

Nearing the end of the flight there was a worrying announcement from the Captain as he alerted us that the temperature in London was 6C. Whilst not as cold as it had been a few weeks earlier, to those of use who had been living in temperatures routinely in the 20’s or 30’s, the UK weather was going to be a bit of a shock to the system. However, by the time we arrived, Sandra was so tired I don’t think she really noticed the temperature. In fact, going through Immigration and Passport Control, she was so dozy that she claimed the man in front of her in the queue was her husband and trotted off with him to get her passport checked. This was a problem as I had her passport and she somewhat sheepishly had to leave her new “husband” as I reclaimed her – giving a totally new meaning to the airport term “Baggage Reclaim”

Then came arguably the worst part of the whole journey. A few years ago, when coming back from India, we had booked a connecting flight to Edinburgh leaving London two hours after our India flight arrived. Needless to say the India flight was late, we missed our connection, there were no other planes that day so we had to stay in London overnight and pay extra for a flight the next morning. To ensure this didn’t happen again I had booked a flight to Edinburgh which gave us a six-hour window which I hoped would cover all eventualities.

And it did – except one – our Hong Kong flight arrived early leaving us with over six hours to kill in Heathrow. A visit to British Airways to see if we could get an earlier flight revealed that it would be possible to change flights if we paid a surcharge but it would actually be cheaper just to buy new tickets. When told this would cost £250 EACH we decided to sit it out and fly on our original £50 tickets (£5 fare + £45 taxes!)

The short hop from Heathrow to Edinburgh took little over an hour. Although the snow had all but gone there was plenty of evidence, in terms of melting snow mountains beside the runways and in the car parks, where the snow had been bulldozed in order to keep the airport functioning. As we emerged from Arrivals there was Jon to meet us and give us a lift home however, on the way to the car, the conversation took a familiar twist. It was raining and Jon said that this was the first rain there had been in Edinburgh for weeks – once again, in super quick time, the Rain Gods had tracked us half way across the world!

Back home and the house was in immaculate order however, as we were about to lavish praise upon Jon and Lisa’s house cleaning abilities, Jon confessed that he had engaged the services of a firm of professional cleaners to give the place a good going over before we got home. One place the cleaners were unable to perform any miracles unfortunately was the main bathroom that has now been out of commission since the snowfalls in early December led to the collapse of the ceiling. Blog readers may recall that we only learned of this catastrophe through Jon’s Facebook site where he had posted a photograph. He hadn’t bothered to tell us directly as he hadn’t wanted to worry us! Anyway the hole is still with us and I have started to hassle the insurance company to get a move on with the repairs.

The skylight in the kitchen, which was more or less wiped out when several tons of icy snow plus a caste iron drain pipe plummeted from the roof, has had a temporary repair i.e. the glass has been replaced. However it looks like there has been structural damage and major work is likely to be necessary – another insurance company hassle required.

Arriving home at night and in the dark we were only able to see the internal, weather-related disasters – the external disasters had to wait until the following morning before their full extent would be revealed.

The most immediately impressive disaster was the 100-year-old pear tree, along with its rambling rose companion, that had succumbed to the weight of snow and toppled onto a lawn. A great pity as, although the pears weren’t up to much, the pale pink rose which covered the tree for much of the summer will be sorely missed. However, on the bright side, we will be burning pear wood on the fire for years to come as soon as I get going with the chainsaw.

A fence had come down with the snow as had, and probably the most annoying of all, the fruit cage at the top of the garden where the weight of snow had snapped the wooden uprights and cross pieces as if they were matchsticks. A big rebuilding job for me I’m afraid – I wonder if Jon has this down as an insurance job?

Despite the three-day stopover in Hong Kong, Sandra and I are having difficulty with our body clocks and for the first few days back found ourselves snoozing in the afternoon then waking up at three o’clock in the morning. Mind you this has had some beneficial side effects – for some inexplicable reason, when she gets up at 3am, Sandra has an urge to make soup. Therefore, after three successive very early mornings, we now have a stockpile of Leek and Potato, Bean and Tomato, and Butternut Squash with Orange soups.

Finally, with our return to Scotland following an exciting, eventful, exhausting and thoroughly enjoyable year in Australia, this blog is now coming to a natural end. Despite requests from various people to keep it going I will probably only make a couple more postings in which I will firstly, attempt to summarise our trip to the other side of the world and secondly, thank all those people, many of whom were totally unknown to us before we left Scotland, who threw their doors open to us, made us welcome and went out of their way to help us.