Happy New Year!

As wonderful as it is go away on holiday, it’s also good to get back home. It’s lovely to sleep in my own bed and pure luxury not having to share a bathroom with a load of cockroaches. Ohhhh and need I mention boiling hot scalding water. Joy! It was gone 9pm when we finally get back to the kebab flat after a very long journey home.

As Phil said in his last blog, Dabolim airport in Goa is an absolutely nightmare and although we have been in and out of it 6 times now, the misery and chaos always catches us by surprise. When you arrive at the international departures you have to queue to get in the front door, which is where you get the first passport check. You then have to queue to get your hold luggage scanned and taped up. Next you queue to get new immigration forms, that is, you’ve lost them like we did. After this, you get in the queue for our check-in. We of course, got behind the family from hell. They took over 45 minutes to check in and as they were taking so long one of the stewards moved us over the premier check-in queue. I joked to Phil that I hope we don’t get sat behind the FFH and he agreed. After check-in we queued up to go through immigration for yet another passport check. Throughout all this, we had an orchestra playing in the background. Reminded me of the Titanic when the orchestra played as the ship sank. Anyway after we cleared immigration we had another hand luggage scan and we just had time to grab some bottles of water, a bag of samosas and some duty frees fags for Harriet before boarding the plane.

And wouldn’t you just have guessed, our seats were directly in front of the family from hell, all 10 of them. Within minutes of them sitting down, we knew we were in for a rough 10 hour ride. Fortunately there was an announcement to say that there were some extra leg room seats for sale so we jumped at the chance to move. They cost us £35 each, but I tell you it was worth every penny. The flight was uneventful and we arrived at Gatwick only half an hour late. We just had time to jump on the coach to Milton Keynes and arrived at the coach station just before 9pm. Our phones weren’t working so Phil decided it would be a good idea to walk back to the kebab flat. His reason being, that we could get home before the cab arrived. It was freezing cold, damp and not a lot of fun walking up hill wheeling cases in the dark but we got home without being mugged.

Three days home and its like we have never been away. It’s hard to imagine that only a few days ago I was swimming in the Indian Ocean. We had a good time in Goa but this holiday, the place had lost some of its magic for me. I don’t know why. The sun was hot; we had some fabulous food (and drink) and generally had a good time. But I think it’s time for me to explore new places in the world. Phil wants to go back to Goa early April before our visas expire in May. This maybe will be our last time.

We’ve been back 4 days already and I’m not sure where the days have gone. On Monday I did the housework, shopping and ironing while Phil picked up Georgina and took her to the cinema. They watched the film Australia and when they got back we walked to the hub and had a very late lunch in Zizzi. It was alright but Phil’s Calzone was overcooked as was the chicken in my chicken Caesar salad. Really we should have complained but we didn’t, just paid the bill and left a meagre tip. For some weird reason we are struggling to slot back in to UK Greenwich time. On Tuesday morning we were in the wide awake club at 4am so we decided to get up and watch all the programmes we had recorded whilst we were away. Aside from a quick trip to the market for fruit and vegetables, we spent 14 hours in front of the TV. Very naughty but very nice!

Yesterday was also quite pleasant. I went to the gym while Phil caught up with some of his programmes. Well actually that’s not strictly true; my car had a flat battery so I took the Land Rover, leaving Phil to wait for the man from Green Flat to turn up. Turns out the battery was flat so Phil had to pause his programmes and take my car for a good run to charge up the battery. In the afternoon, we walked along the canal to The Giffard, where we met up with Shane & Harriet for a late lunch. It was steak, pie and chips all round, over a bottle of wine and a few beers and thankfully Harriet dropped us back at the kebab flat, saving us the long walk home. We didn’t stay up to see in the New Year; unfortunately I fell asleep on the reclining sofa at 5.30pm and Phil went to bed at 10pm. The fireworks nearby woke us just after midnight so I suppose in a different kind of way we did see a little bit of the new year.



Today, we intend to chill out and generally do nothing. We have a fridge full of champagne, cheese and chocolate to get through and a whole load of TV recordings to watch. Indeed we’ve been up this morning since 4am and I’ve already eaten a whole box Elizabeth Shaw chocolate orange flutes. Very bad and the diet, without a shadow of a doubt, must start tomorrow, another day. For now we wish family and friends, near and far, a very Happy New Year. We wish you all a very happy, healthy and lucky 2009.

Cheers!!!