Back to Blighty

Well the start of the six nations England v Scotland match was certainly worth travelling through the night all the way from Canada to see.

The trip to the airport was a little strange because just as we got down out of the mountains we left the sunny blue skies and the weather conditions got really bad. most of the way it was a white out with quite a bit of snow falling. So much so the flight was delayed while they had to deice the wings.

The airport was fun mainly because the customs desk is miles from the air canada desk (I had to get my receipts stamped so I can claim the tax back on the stuff I bought). Also we had a little fun with the check in as my medical clearance to fly didn't show up on their system. fortunately I had all the documentation on me and was able to get it sorted that way. They got me a wheel chair and I whizzed through passport control and past the xray machine. They xray my stuff including the crutches but I just was given a quick hand search (ooh missus!). Then they wheeled me up to the exit gate and parked me until it was time for the flight. This was all great but by the time they loaded me onto the plane, I was first on, I was busting for a pee.

The flight was nice, especially as I was in first class. the meals where on proper plates and the wine in real glasses. This was demonstrated by one of the air hostesses when she dropped a couple of glasses and covered the floor in bits of glass. I decided not to take my shoes off for this flight. The seats where nice and big with controls to electronically lift the foot rest and lower the back. The seat also had a built in TV and I watch the film 'The Prestige' (good) and 'The Illusionist' (better) again despite the entertain system crashing a couple of times.

I was struck, while we were coming in to land, by how much I had missed the colour green while I was in Banff. The fields and trees where very colourful in the briliant clear sunshine as southern England was having a very nice day.

At Heathrow I was last off the plane and got another wheel chair ride back out through the special medical and cabin crew gates and out to meet my dad who was waiting out the front.

So it was off back to Watton to catch up with everybody and then off to Ivy's party, which was fun although by that time it was all I could do not to fall asleep.