DAY 208 - Orpington, England

Well, It's good to be home. In general...

 

We had a few nervous hours at Delhi airport. We knew there might be travel problems on the drive from the hotel as the fog was so thick we couldn't see more than ten metres ahead of us. True enough, planes were being delayed and cancelled while we sat waiting to hear about our own flight. Fortunately, BA seemed not to be suffering and our flight touched down in London only an hour or so late. The Air France passengers weren't so lucky and spent the night in a hotel. The Jet Airways passengers got the budget treatment of a cup of coffee and the departure lounge floor. 

 

If that wasn't exciting enough, a couple of hours after arriving home a pipe burst in the attic creating a rather surreal waterfall through the landing and hallway. I'll spare you the details of the hassle i've had so far with the insurers, the drying specialists, the builders and the loss adjusters (who i can only assume don't like each other given their unwillingness to talk to each other). Suffice to say, the woodwork's cracking, the ceilings are staining and that lot can't make up their mind who's doing what, when.

 

Rather than sit around the house doing nothing, i've been catching up with friends and family for the last three weeks. An unfortunate side effect has been a big increase in calories, just when i was congratulating myself on the 6kg (1st) i'd lost while away (if you want to lose weight, spent a week in Tibet). All the cravings i had whilst away, namely cheese, bitter and (rice-free) lasagna, have now, i can confidently say, been sated.

 

We had a short break in St Ives, Cornwall last week which was very pleasant. Yes, it rained and wasn't very warm, but there's something rather fantastic about wandering around the muddy British coast in such conditions. The beer down there is the best in Britain but the food was shockingly overpriced. We stopped off at Cheddar on the way home and bought six months worth of cheese having eaten one months worth in the tasting room.

 

We've got a couple of weeks now before we head off on possibly the best bit of the trip - Antarctica. If anyone fancies a pint before then, let me know. I need to get three months worth of bitter down in two weeks...

 

Rich.