Home again safe and sound
I was caught up in the terrible storm Gloria, we had been monitoring Alicante airport due to the fire they had in the roof which resulted in the airport being closed for a while, but then the forecast for the storm was the next blow.
We had high winds and copious amounts of rainfall at home, but escaped with very little damage compared to surrounding areas, especially the coast.
My flight was an evening one leaving at 19.15 but I had notification that this had been cancelled.
After a few hours of deliberation and trying to find out information as to the next available flights etc, I was informed that the flight was back on, but would be landing at Valencia.
In terms of road journey time Valencia is only about an extra 20 minutes and as it turned out the storm cells were moving south towards Alicante, which meant the roads would be horrendous in that direction.
My incoming flight was delayed by an hour as they had difficulty leaving Spanish airspace but the journey out was uneventful in itself until we reached the edge of the storm, the plane was tipping from side to side, also lurching up and down, in fact there was a spontaneous round of applause when the pilots managed to successfully land.
Valencia is a smaller airport and we were parked out on the tarmac with buses ferrying passengers back to the terminal. It was absolutely tipping it down, drenching people as they clambered aboard the bus. As I have special assistance I was asked to wait for the ambicar.
No problem, I´m used to that
To be honest I think they forgot me as I had to wait for nearly an hour, feeling rather embarrassed that I was the only passenger still left waiting with the crew.
I then found out that they were also waiting to be refueled before they had to fly the plane to Alicante, they had to off load passengers as it was deemed to dangerous to fly further with a load.
I made me smile that border control/security were waiting too just to wave me through before they shut up shop and left for the night.
Chris had driven up to collect me and had quite a difficult journey, on the way home the noise of the rain in the car was so loud it was impossible to be heard.
We were watching the storm cells on the satnav and half way home we found we were dodging between them so it became more pleasant
From the time of leaving Reading on my 2.30pm train, I finally arrived home at 3am.
It was extremely emotional to leave Rebecca and little Theo but we had decided that we needed to rip the plaster off quickly say goodbye and just go.
Quite apart from welcoming beautiful Theo into the world and the privilege of being able to enjoy and share his first week with us, I was glad to be there to help and let the proud parents get used to their new baby without worrying about the mundane but essential chores. So cooking, cleaning, washing, ¨Mum, I don´t believe how many clothes he has got through¨ sterilising breast pumps and ¨please could you have Theo I just need to sleep¨ who could resist!! Grandma cuddles, yeah!! enabled them to just relax.
I am planning on returning in a few weeks, try stopping me! and have in fact booked my flight, but I am very aware that they need to bond together and find their own routines, especially when Antoni´s paternity leave finishes. Two weeks is certainly not long enough.
Theo has had his first outing in the car (apart from coming home) and he certainly let everyone know his opinion by screaming, new experiences for both parents and bubba.
Thank goodness for modern technology which enables us to keep in touch so easily
take care
xcx
