Tues, Dec 30th

I can hardly believe where the last two weeks have gone. Every day felt like Groundhog Day. We wake up every morning with Brady and Jim still sleeping in our spare room. We then spend the rest of the day planning what to eat or where to eat. My stomach has been crying out for a break. But I digress.

We all woke up somewhere between 4am and 4:30am and showered (not all together). No breakfast this morning. We had a tight agenda and wanted to get on the road. Just coffee and tea.

At 5:45am, after I had scrapped ice off the car, we set out for Gatwick Airport with the temperature gauge showing that it was -3 degrees Celsius outside. And as we headed further south, it got even colder and reached -6 degrees C. Brady and Jim may have escaped the so-called British rain, but they never escaped the British frost. Thankfully Brady bought herself some nice and warm cosy boots and a yak hat.

The hour and three quarter journey passed well, apart from the toll on the Dartford Bridge rejecting one of our coins. It gave Brady and Jim plenty of time to book in their luggage and grab some breakfast. Except for Jim, that is. We stopped by Joe's Cafe and downed a hot beverage with some food. Although Jim declined ordering food, he did share Brady's egg on toast. Dawn had a veggie breakfast and I had a fry up.

One image that will forever be ingrained in my mind, though, was the sight of several British police officers wandering around the airport toting machine guns across their arms. I did ask if I could take their photos, but they were modest and declined.

We did a little window shopping before Brady suggested that we should make a move rather than wait around the airport for a couple of hours while they waited to board their plane. We both appreciated the thought. Shortly after, we all said our good-byes, adding comments regarding the last two weeks. Then, within minutes, Brady and Jim were heading towards the escalator and the departure lounge and we were heading back to the carpark. We'd waited all year for Brady and Jim's vacation and it was now over. Just as Christmas had flown by, and the whole year. We were left with the drive home to contemplate all we'd done.

Back at the house, Tiny was in 7th heaven. She finally had her house to herself again. She loved her new tall house that Santa brought. But, she's a cat, and at the end of the day she loves her routines more than anything. Dawn and I, on the other hand, chilled out with a newspaper and the Christmas Day episode of Dr Who. For dinner we got a chili out of the freezer, started planning out our meals for the next ten days, and more than anything tried to get ourselves back into OUR routine. I don't think we succeeded. Neither one of us could get our brains working again.