Goodbye, goodbye....

Calmer today, with cases packed and documents found. Chiara brought the grandchildren round and while the two younger ones had a swim in the pool, Phil and I walked along the beach with the dog. Precious time with a very special grandson and communication was easy, with none of the teenage inhibitions that often keep him silent in company. We were out there for longer than the schedule allowed, but I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. This mammoth jelly fish brought back memories of a week in Ireland, where a hot sunny spell found us on a beach near Cork, after which we had to find a beach for Phil everywhere we stopped – and there were jellyfish galore.

Then it was time to return the hire car and Chiara, bless her, wouldn’t let us take a taxi to the airport, but insisted on taking us herself. She and HH loaded her car (a sporty little number, amazed they fitted it all in), while I dropped by Thaisa’s house to make my farewells. Wonderful hugs all round, then off I set – only to realize I’d never find Avis without the help of Chiara’s SatNav, so waited for her and HH to catch me up.

Car returned, we went straight on to the airport. With oodles of time to spare, we were able to say a leisurely farewell to Chiara (in the decidedly shabby and unwelcoming outer terminal of Manchester airport) before going through the security check – and what a log jam that was. The officer checking our queue examined every item that passed through his X-ray machine with the minutest attention and several of us had to open our cases for inspection. Other queues came and went, but ours just grew longer. Eventually we were free to go through and chill over a Cappuchino before walking miles through a labyrinth of Duty Free shops to the gate. However, this was still not a patch on Frankfurt, where we had a forced march through MILES of corridors, with far too few moving walkways, to get from one gate to another. We’re now in the plane, ready for take-off. And I found Peter May’s “Entry Island” at the airport, so will read for as long as I can keep my eyes open.