Sat 25th May to 8th Aug
Plane from Dar was not full…
Arrived at Addis airport in the early evening… prices were higher so I think I paid $20 for 2 beers. Usual departure about 1am. Lots of space and my whole row was empty…so I could stretch out, but my head was too uncomfortable to get a good sleep. Early arrival Heathrow. Quickly through customs/immigration.
Victoria station for train to Eastbourne. My Senior railcard was still valid…in fact it was the last day of last year’s card. I saved £12-£14 on the fare. Went to Alan’s.
Sat 26th May…Gabriella arrived from NZ. Alex messed up with his passport which was expiring early June, so he couldn’t fly. Gabriella came alone. Then with such a short transfer in Singapore, her luggage went on a separate flight and arrived at a different Heathrow terminal. When she realised her luggage wasn’t on her plane she acted quickly and managed to retrieve it from the other terminal before it disappeared into lost luggage. Then the direct route to Victoria wasn’t happening because of tube line closures ( the same problem I encountered on the previous day).So, eventually she made it onto the Eastbourne train, only to be put on bus replacement services at Polegate train station. Gabriella made it, amazingly, to Eastbourne for around midday; she managed to navigate all those obstacles really well. I met her at the station and John drove us up to Peppercombe.
Mum had a big salad and cold meats late lunch. I think there was something similar the next day. But on Gabriella’s 3rd and last day she was taken to the Trident Fish restaurant for a slap up fish and chips. I think I was just too tired to go out. During the day we met up wth Alan and Karen at LoCo and then the bar in the Enterprise centre that’s linked to the Crown.
Only a three day visit by Gabriella but fantastic to see her; it had been about 18 months since I was in NZ. The next day I met her at Eastbourne station to go with her to Gatwick. Poor Gabriella, her travel issues weren’t over with. Her luggage was assigned to Alex’s ticket and the airline wouldn’t switch it to her’s, so she was liable for the cost of putting it in the Hold. Anyway, the least a Dad could do was to pay the £107…!! I think that was the last of her travel woes, and after a farewell hot drink we said goodbye and off she went to Budapest (I think!) and me back to Eastbourne.
So, May was characterised by returning from E Africa; immediately meeting up with Gabriella for a few days; being in Eastbourne at the start of June to begin my 3 main tasks/projects.
I’m going to summarise the Summer into approximate months.
June. I stayed at Alan’s for a lot of the time. At least I could use the Eastbourne HSBC branch (E Grinstead one closed down) to access and print my mortgage payments including interest element to incorporate into my annual Tax return.
The second issue to resolve was my mortgage renewal which I thought had to be done by the end of June. Whereas over a year ago I could initiate the process at the Bank in the High Street, this time there was a password and phone call etc etc….a bit more complicated.
The weather was not good…on the cool side and quite a lot of rain. This exacerbated my foot injury. This started in Tz as a tiny scratch on my left foot from one of the flip flop straps. The initial itch got a bit more painful and I put germaline on it. I didn’t take it seriously enough and it grew and spread to the point at which a large puss blister burst. It was also painful to put my shoe on.
Anyway, I was invited by Sienna to stay at her’s in Forest Row so I could meet friends and pick up my post from my Flat. The problem was that I couldn’t stay at Judith’s as she had a full house until towards the end of June.
Of course as I was in Forest Row I could go and see my doctor as well. An early morning call to the surgery got me an evening consultation and an antibiotics prescription which I couldn’t start until the following morning. The diagnosis was bacteria had entered, or about to enter the blood stream, leading to septicemia, and if left much longer could lead to sepsis.
My foot was pretty sore.
I returned to Eastbourne, and in fact stayed at Mum’s for 2 or 3 days, which made her happy. I was back in Eastbourne a few days before my birthday. I insisted..politely..that I didn’t want to go to a ‘fancy’ restaurant, and had settled on the Rodmill harvesters pub opposite the District General hospital.
It was a very pleasant evening with just Alan, Mike, Karen, Mum and John.
On the 24th June I went back to Forest Row and checked into Judith’s. This time I had the box room as George was staying permanently at his Mum’s and he was in the front room. Actually the back room was nice as it didn’t have the sunrise first thing.
From then on I was back to my UK routine of meeting friends…particularly at the Village Club and the Swan…and going on walks. I retrieved my bike from Linda, but I hardly used it the whole time I was in England.
I took Judith’s advice and applied for my ‘pensioner’s ‘ bus pass..!! That made going to East Grinstead much easier, although I tried to use the Pass just in one direction as I still needed my exercise. But, very handy when coming back with shopping. Oh, that’s free travel after 09:30, and free anytime at weekends.
I used the Pass once in June to go to Brighton where I bought a new pair of walking boots and a new pair of regular/swimming shorts as the existing ones suddenly developed a huge rip at the back.
4th of July we had a General Election, and a couple of days after that Judith went to Bouzies for virtually a whole month. It meant I could focus on my tasks in hand, and George wasn’t around much. It also meant I could do a lot of cooking for myself, which of course I enjoy.
I’d already applied for my State pension and at the beginning of July I received my first payment…half a month’s worth because of the date of my birthday. I also completed the necessary correspondence for my mortgage renewal which started at the beginning of August. And thirdly, I completed my Tax return for the year. And the good news there was that because I made a duplicate payment last year, this year I was something like £200 in Credit !!
The only other thing that required attention was my blog domain annual subscription renewal. I thought it would be straightforward and kept putting it off…which was a mistake.
What else happened…? Towards the end of July I went down to Brighton for the day to meet up with Mike and Paul. I was treated to a very nice lunch at the Greek restaurant in the Open market.
I had my eyes tested at Vision Express and bought 2 new pairs of glasses…one pair was reactolite, so I had the sunglasses side covered.
On Aug 1st I went down to Eastbourne. I met up with Alan and Mike at LoCo to remember Dad who was actually buried on the 2nd Aug six years ago.
On the 6th I had two jabs at the Forest Row Health centre…tetanus and typhoid.
On the 7th I met with the Smut Hour Crew of Sheila, Terry and Dawn at Wetherspoons opposite Victoria station. A good catch-up with ex Crown Agents work colleagues.
On the 8th I met up with Graham at Oxted.
A successful and yet also stressful 9 weeks. Tax, Mortgage, Pension, bus Pass, domain, specs. The weather was better in July, enabling hedge pruning at Alan’s and paving slab weeding at Judith’s. Very grateful to Judith, as always, for putting me up in her house; my only duty was to take care of Tinker. Just great to see all family and friends.