Back to blighty

Manel drove us to the airport for our lunchtime flight. As usual, the morning security check queue was very long, due to the departure of a couple of big US flights within the same hour. And it is vacation time, after all. The queues (there are several) moved at a healthy rate, however an we were 'air-side' in fifteen minutes, cruising through the expanded range of posh bargain free shops, toting every kind of luxury imaginable at inflated prices. 

No sign of recession in airport retailing, although the summer sales flourish as ever in the city. I'd dithered all week about buying a LaCie portable hard drive at at a sale discount price. Discounts aren't applied in airport shops of the same store chain, so I lost my opportunity of a bargain, since the special offer price, even in strong Swiss francs was better than the sterling price I'd have paid on my credit card. However, I find it hard to convince myself I really need anything more than I already have.
 

France and England were entirely covered by cloud for the flight. The take-off was delayed ten minutes due to the queue of aircraft taking off.  When we arrived our new passports were processed for the first time by the new technology - the RFID chip once scanned gave access to a gated area where a photograph was taken of our faces and compared with that stored on the chip. Once the match was made, another gate opened and let us through. It took a couple of minutes. The access queue was shorter, so we passed through quite quickly. What it will be like when the majority of UK passport holders have moved on to new passports is anyone's guess.

We missed a connecting train at Temple Meads because the ticket clerk had to leave us, mid purchase to collect a batch of fivers to give us change, but six hours after leaving Petit Sacconex we were home again, greeted vocally by pussycat Ben, demanding food from each of us in turn, even though he had food on his plate. It it  a welcome home or a reproach for our absence, I wonder.

One of the better things about being retired is that you can be away for twelve days, and the pile of mail to be dealt with is not nearly as big or as urgent to be dealt with as it used to be. So the leisurely pace can continue just a little longer.