it’s the time warp.

28/2/12-

We landed in San Francisco before we left Auckland. This messed with James made something rotten and I just wanted to know if it meant we would have to spend less time on the plane. Alas it was just the vagaries of the international time line. The journey its self was not too unpleasant. We have emergence exit seats on what could only be described as narrow. OK as we are not that large but the man next to me was and consumed his space, both arm rests and what felt like my space. I opted to turn it into an advantage and use him as something to sleep against so all was well.

Getting to San Francisco was relativity un painfully. Yes we were tired and yes we had class envy. First class has a bed and a bar. The free bag of nuts and a glass of wine in cattle class suddenly feels less fantastic! Anyway we landed and joined the line for immigration. James of course beg to sweat and look shifty so when we got to the official James got the third degree about where he was going, had been and how much money had had. The official that dealt with me simply looked at my onward ticket, noted it was due to leave in 4 hours and said ‘you going home then?’ I nodded and he stamped my passport after raping me of my personal data including 10 finger prints and an iris scan!
Unusually for the US there was a good public transport system from the airport to down town San Fran so with four hours before we were due to board another plane we decided to nip into town. Initial impressions are that few independent places to get food in the centre, the coffee is shit and there is a lot of poverty. That said we did rather like the 100meeters we saw and think we will return. The place had a buzz about it, it looked exciting and I was served a huge steak for lunch which always gets plus points in my books!

After an hour of freedom we were back in captivity and boarding another plane. Blissfully this was not too full so James and I were able to stretch out. All was pretty uneventful apart from when I brushed passed an air steward and dropped a sleeping tablet. 15 minutes of me and two staff scrabbling round on hands and knees followed. Funny for a spectator not so much for me. Yes even I got a little embarrassed!

Some 36 hours after we left NZ we were arrived in London. Despite the lack of welcoming party and five gun salute we are happy to be back on familiar ground. With a quick diversion to a remote stand as the air bridge was not working we were soon off the place and to passport control. Normally we don’t like doing the electronic enter but having given every personal detail short of DNA to the Americas we thought sod it and went through the new automatic gates.

Soon we were at Kings Cross with another 4 hours to burn. This time we opted for the Hobo look, put on all of our warm clothes, drank coffee and shivered on the concourse. The train to York was on time and 41 hours after we left NZ we were embracing Carol and Paul.

So being back. A strange mixture of being excited to see friends and family combined with a sense of uncertainty about what is ahead of us. The traveling was fantastic, living in a community even better but what next? I only have a plan for the next four weeks….