It was touch and go for a while with all the storms, even on Thursday evening I couldn't believe that the winds would drop enough for us to fly. However, the weather forecast said it would be sunshine through clouds and 10mph winds. The weather forecast was right for once.
I mentioned I had a trip planned, it was last weekend and was up to see one of my closest friends in Scotland. I was travelling with another friend who lives near Horsham. She has trouble with her legs (MS) and so it required a bit of pre-planning.
I had purchased parking in the long-stay car park, but in the end friend wanted to bring her wheelchair so the plan was for me to drive to their house and park and her husband would take us all to the airport. When we were originally parking in the long stay car park, the plan was I would pick her up at 04:45.
She let me know I didn't need to be there until 05:45, but so fixed was the time in my brain, I set my alarm clock for 03:00, got ready and I was at her house at 04:45 on the dot. Arriving at her house it was all very dark, so I whatsapped her to let her know I was outside.
She very quickly (impressively) sent a message to me saying she was still in bed and I wasn't due for an hour (doh). She has a husband, dog and 3 kids, so I knew me coming into the house would cause chaos - quite aside from the fact that it would be a challenge for her to get downstairs.
So I messaged her to say I'd wait in the car. Fortunately it was unusually not that cold. So I put my car seat down and curled up with a podcast and the hour went bizarrely quickly (I must have nodded off).
On the subject of car - how impressed was I with the space I got the car into. The planets aligned and I went in at just the right angle. There was about 2 inches on either end of the car.
Once everybody was awake everything went like clockwork. We went off to airport where we arranged special assistance to get us a lift into the aircraft and before you knew it we were in the sky and on our way to Glasgow.
Once at Glasgow we were out of the airport quickly as we'd just taken hand luggage. It was amazing to catch up with my friend up there, who picked us up from the airport.
First stop was Loch Lomond (see photo). She's taken me there before, but it's just so stunning. We had lunch in a cafe there and just had a jolly good natter.
Then we went back to friends house and unpacked and the fun began. When I say that much wine was drunk I'm not under exaggerating. By the end of the night the karaoke was out - we were dancing around the room to Born Slippy and friends poor teenage daughter and one of her friends had been forced to join in with us (I gave them £20).
Woke up the next morning feeling, not quite as bad a I do sometimes after seeing Scottish friend. We had a quiet day and watched Elvis and then in the evening we went out to a restaurant in Glasgow. All very civilised. I'm very impressed with my friends as they had more wine on the Saturday night (there was no way I was going to go there again!). Though to be fair on Horsham friend she's always very careful.
The next morning was all very quick as we had to get to airport. Once there we were looking forward to being back with families (more in a mo). But the flight was delayed. Not too painful a delay, but even so I was feeling somewhat shattered and looking forward to the journey being over.
We waited to get on board at the special assistance area. There was one other lady there who had been supported to get to the flight and was taken on first. When we got back to England she leapt up and was one of the first off the flight - like a greyhound. That makes me utterly sick. Those people at the airports that do the special assistance work so hard and are so cheerful and lovely and then you get these ghastly people that use it as a way of getting onto flights early. If you are one of those people you are disgusting. What about the disabled person that needs help, but they don't have the resource to support them?
I mentioned family, my Scottish friend was getting regular updates from her son and my Horsham friend was stalking her family on the ring doorbell. They knew that she was so when they came into the house they waved at her and smiled or said 'Hi mum'. Now my family contacted me once - that was simply to tell me that they'd been woken early on Friday because the dog was howling because I'd left the house and not come back. I feel very cherished :)
Fortunately, I'd booked Monday off - I had a VERY lazy morning just catching up on some of the trash tv I'm currently watching (Big Brother & Married at First Sight - I love trash telly). Then when I'd had enough rest I got on with my big plan. To de-spade the study. I gave the study a really good tidy and clean. It's also my dressing room. There were clothes everywhere. I'm proud to say that all my clothes have now been put away. I've even emptied the washing baskets. What's more I went through my summer clothes and I've put 6 dustbin bags of clothes not worn for years into the clothes recycling containers.
It goes without saying that in the next few months I'll need at least one of the items I put into recycling. I always do, but to say I still have loads of clothes is an understatement. That's the problem as you get older, you can't bear to get rid of perfectly serviceable clothes. I've got sweatshirts that are at least 25 years old. The longer you have them the harder it is to get rid of them, because you start to reminisce about the things you did wearing them. So what I tend to do is to do it in dribs and drabs - that way it doesn't feel so drastic.
So that was the weekend. This morning my regular supermarket released it's Christmas dates at 06:00. I set my alarm for 05:00 and before bed last night I pre-arranged orders so all I had to do was change the slots. At 05:15 I logged onto the app and it said that the orders were paused. At 05:50 I logged in again so I was one of the early birds - only to receive a message to say that there was a 50 minute wait until my turn. Gagghhhhh, This quickly went down to 30 mins, then went up to 1 hour 15 mins. I was getting itchy with stress.
In the end I did wait about 50 mins. I got all the slots I wanted too - but that was a real waste of a morning because I couldn't get anything done whilst waiting. What's worse I was on my phone (my laptop still says I've got at 5 minute wait!), so I couldn't do anything else.
The only other thing left to report is how proud I am of my Scottish Friend. She's already had one play she had written put on in Glasgow and she and a friend have been working on a script that's just been shortlisted in a National Film Script competition. I'm hoping I get to go to the premier. Exciting.
That is one of the better things about getting older. You start to see the stars align for people you've known for years and who have stuck to what they love.
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