Tropical Hellos

Greetings from the tropics. Boy and I survived the coach trip down from Norwich to Gatwick. We basically stayed up all day Friday, and believe it or not I was actually ready to go an hour before the taxi came to pick us up! We left Norwich at 1.40 am and I foolishly had vague hopes of being able to sleep on the coach. Hah! When you've got a man sawing logs right behind you and another making horsey noise on the other side, you've really got no hope.

Gatwick was filled with stroppy people pushing their luggage like they were offensive weapons. That was completely fine by me. I hadn't had any proper sleep for 24 hours so I was in the right frame of mind to make my way back and forth between coffee and checkin. Unfortunately, the security offical had to make up her tick boxes so we pretty much had to strip down to our undies before they let us through. What amazed me is that every 5 mins there's a security announcement telling passengers exactly what they can take through, there are people dressed in bright yellow t-shirts handing out plastic bags for stuff you can take onto the plane...and there are arguments in the security queues. They are huge wheelie-bins full of perfume, deoderants, toothpastes, moisturisers, lipsticks and drinks bottles.

I'm shocked by the fact that the flight was on time. Not only that, but it was relatively pleasant, some screaming babies, but not overly bothersome. The food was tasty, the coffee hot. The landings were fine (I gave them a 7.5, Boy thought it deserved an 8). I was able to negotiate an earlier flight for the island hopper, which really is a ropey arrangement. Again, that was fine, hardly any turbulence and brilliant views of the rainforests in the Northern Range of the Trinidad.

Not too bad a deal considering there's a hurricane stomping around the Caribean at the moment. A lovely fellow by the name of Dean, left about 7 people dead and at last count was a force 5. It's very unlikely he'll come visiting, Trinidad is just below the hurricane belt, Tobago is more likely to cop it if he heads south. I think he stomped over Jamaica yesterday. Hopefully, having spent his fury there he'll burn himself out in the Caribbean Sea.

As far as family stuff is concerned, not much to report. My brother is adamant there's nothing much to do at the moment. Until the will is probated, we can't really do anything and so all the work I was envisaging having to do, has just disappeared. So this has turned into a holidayWe scatter Pop's ashes on Saturday in the same area that my mum was scattered and there will be a few members of family and friends around. Think of us then.

Apart from the jet lag, we're really well. I'll try not to rub in the joy of being back in a hot, Tropical climate. I won't go on about walking into the garden and picking mangoes for breakfast, having fresh avocados from the tree, freshly made passion fruit juice, or the warm weather. Cause that would be cruel.