It has been 11 days since I came and now it is only two days until I return. I am actually leaving my friends' where I have been staying tomorrow in the early evening and staying in a hotel nearer the airport for my early flight on Tuesday morning.
So in reality, while I will still have most of tomorrow, today is my last full day here.
One of the things I do when I come back is to stock up on UK groceries (our food really isn't that bad I promise), but the thing I value most when I am here, is seeing those people who I don't get to meet very often. You may recall that a couple of nights ago we, some old school friends, had a bit of a reunion in a repeat of something we did two years ago when I was last over. There were a couple of changes; one who made it last time couldn't this time (owing to it coinciding with his 10th Wedding Anniversary - we were never going to compete with that!) and three who weren't there last time made it this time. This included my best friend from primary school who I hadn't seen since 1988.
I quipped that if we were to leave it that long again it would be 2064 before I see him again!
I do sincerely hope it will be sooner.
One of the things that does tend to happen, because it is not totally dependent on me and those friends / family members, have their own lives too, is that at the end of the visit it becomes very cramped as suddenly those I have been in contact with about meeting suddenly realise I am on the verge of leaving. On average I have been meeting somebody every other day and some of my closest friends more than a couple of times during my visit and I made special provision to make sure I spent as much time a I could with my dad ("the old man") and his wife, having not seen them for 12 years. Yesterday our family gathering with my brother went well, very well in fact, but I did make sure I was on time!
Read yesterday's post if you don't know what I am on about.
Today my plan is more like a business schedule with four meetings planned. At 11 I am meeting two siblings, then their Aunt, then one of the siblings' sisters (there are six siblings in total - although because of the circumstances I only really meet four of them) before meeting one of my best friends from secondary school who had to pull out of the reunion a couple of nights ago because he put his back out.
Then tomorrow I am meeting the one sibling I haven't seen yet and then I think I am done.
Today promises to be a very busy day!
Then, from Tuesday life returns to normal. I am looking forward to getting home to Mama_Rah and the boys and I would like to think it will be full of big hugs as daddy comes home, but we will have to see - kids being kids after all.
In the meantime, despite the congestion and travelling, I will try to keep my streak going! 181 days and counting.
As always stay safe and well my friends.
