Ireland's Call

Ireland's Call - video

Right now we're at Yardley Court waiting for the packers to arrive ahead of the move tomorrow. The phone company managed to cut us off yesterday a full 24 hours ahead of schedule just as I was trying to sort out services at Porter Lane. It took a long time working out what companies could provide the services we required and it may be a few days before we come back on the net although our phone number should remain the same.

OK now that's out of the way I'll fill you in on what I did in the UK last week apart from work. Kitty and I went to Demuth's, a veggie restaurant, for dinner on Monday night. Kitty gave me a brilliant homemade card and a couple of birthday presents. On Tuesday I picked up Catherine and took her to the Indian restaurant across the road from the hotel, and after dinner led her and a group of Americans into the real countryside for a pub crawl.

On Wednesday I met up with Lawrie who had arranged to stay in the hotel as he was working in the area. We had dinner at the same Indian restaurant across the road, one of the few things I miss about the UK, and then sat in the restaurant bar watching the England Germany football match. We exchanged birthday and Christmas presents; I hadn't given Lawrie his birthday present from May this year.

On Thursday I met up with Kitty again and after running a few errands we met up with Sybil for dinner and got more birthday presents as well as a birthday cake! On the way back we stopped of in Sainsbury's to do a bit off shopping for things that are difficult or expensive to get in the US; daddies sauce, marzipan, bisto, tea bags and chocolate. I also took the opportunity to sample some new quorn products; pork pie, party egg and sausage roll!

Now for the fun bit! I had a bit of a panic about the bag being too heavy so I transferred a few items to my back pack just in case, but when I got to the airport the bag was well within the limit so I transferred them back and headed to check-in with cake in hand. When I got to security I realised I had left the marzipan in my backpack and had to go back to check-in. At last, after the cake was x-rayed, I had a quick cup of tea and boarded the plane.

Mid-way through dinner I felt the plane slow, start to descend and then a short while later decelerate and descend rapidly. After a few minutes the pilot informed us that the over-temperature alarm for the undercarriage brakes had come on but could be a spurious alarm. The plane turned around and when it had slowed enough they lowered the undercarriage to see if they could spot the cause, plus if there was a fire it might get extinguished by the airflow. As the results were inconclusive and to play it safe we overflew Shannon airport so the control tower could look at our undercarriage. Again the results were inconclusive so we landed at Dublin airport with the fire service standing by. After a few hours, and some uncertainty over whether we would return to Heathrow for a new plane and even a new crew due to the delay, the cabin crew bought some sandwiches and crisps for our journey on to Dulles.

We were all very tired when we arrived and as I stood at baggage claim after breezing through security I suddenly realized I had left the cake on the plane! The ground crew were kind enough to fetch the cake for me and after queueing for an abnormally long time to get through customs I met up with my driver for the trip home. Even though it was late I ordered pizza and, as it had been my birthday for some time (GMT) I had a glass or two of scotch and then went to bed; aaaaah!