Homecoming

I set my phone alarm for ten to six, but woke up at ten past five and couldn't settle, so I got up stripped the bed and took everything that needed washing down to the machine, ready for Pat to deal with when she come in to clean. Breakfast, then the rest of the packing, and emptying the bins. The taxi arrived at twenty five to six, and by that time, my luggage and the remaining bin bag were outside, ready to leave ahead of schedule. We stopped to drop off the rubbish bag at the bottom of the hill and then too the N340 to Torrox and the A7 to Malaga.

I noticed the the taxista drove somewhat faster that the speed limit in some stretches on the way to the airport. The traffic wasn't as congested as it has been when leaving twenty minutes later on previous occasions, and no traffic cops! As a result, the fifty five minute journey took just fifty, and I walked into airport security clearance at twenty five past seven. There was a long slow moving queue, but when it was my turn, I had a setback. My cabin bag alerted the scanner to an anomaly, and had to be searched. Just as well I wasn't late. That was when the jars of honey I brought to take home were confiscated, as they were bigger than the 100ml limit for liquids. I was bewildered by this, as I took a larger jar of honey home in my backpack on my last trip. Due to the dense character of that particular product, the scan system didn't register it as a volume of liquid over the prescribed limit. 

I drew the wrong conclusion from this in the light of the confusing stream of news about security scanning improvements making it possible for an individual to carry up to two litres worth in hand luggage. So far improved scanning has led to your little plastic bag of 100ml liquids no longer needing to be taken from hand luggage for display. Some airports are equipped for the higher limit, but others not, UK government has flipped and flopped on this recently. I'm not sure if policy is uniform across the EU or airports within a country, but I was misled and less scrupulous about checking than I usually am. What a waste of time and effort. I hope unopened pristine products confiscated go to a deserving cause and don't get trashed, as that would be obscene as well as unfair. If that honey had been crystallised, would it register on the scanner. I asked this of the officer who deal with me, and he said yes. Or he didn't understand the difference between honey in crystalline suspension and the pure liquid form.

I had more than a two hour wait until our flight was due to board. When everyone was on board the pilot announced a twenty minute delay, due to the fact that his detachable pilot's tray table wouldn't detach, so a couple of mechanics had to be called for to sort the problem out before the aircraft could be flown. We were fifteen minutes late arriving in Cardiff. Being near the front, I sped my way up and down many sets of steps to the automated passport gates, and only had to wait five minutes. I was out of the building by ten to one. A five minute dash to the coach stop, and still I had no ticket. 

I'd been uncertain about booking the night before, not know if I would be able to get the 13.00 coach. I couldn't access the internet at the airport, and was unable to book. Then the nicest thing happened. The coach driver told me to get on and book while we were going non stop to Cardiff. It took me half an hour to do this on my phone with the bus moving about and me making many mistakes and having to repeat the exercise. I lost the opportunity to use my coach card and paid more than I needed to for a ticket, but I was just so glad not to have to wait around for another two hours. I walked home from the Sophia Gardens coach station and was in the house re-united with Clare again, at three.

While I was on the coach, I had a voice message from Owain's friend Jennie in Nerja, getting in touch as a result of a conversation we had about partnership working between Nerja's New Life Church of which she is a member, and Nerja Anglicans. I was pleased to be able to tell her about Peter, my successor and pass on his contact details. Also I had an email from Fr Sion, our newest team member, inviting me for a chat this week. We met in times past at parties given by Martin, but not apart from this. So we've arranged to get together after Mass on Wednesday. 

A long day, with plenty of exercise one way or another, so I didn't go out for a walk but stayed in, and after supper watched a couple of episodes of 'The Sketch Artist', the French Canadian crime drama, to relax with a little entertainment, until it was time to sleep.