NOW THAT I'M HOME.....

It's been a whole month and two days since I left home for England, and things went pretty much as planned. Of course that does not mean that everything went as planned! Orna and I got me packed and we thought we had everything covered. So, what got left behind this time? When I got to Zahava's after a day with Bat Chen, I discovered that the charger for my cell phone had gotten left behind, but I decided to just get another one from the company at the airport. The flaw in that plan was that I miss read the ticket and almost missed the flight! That meant no charger and no duty free fags. I did get fags on the plane, but no charger! Leia, bless her, was waiting when the wheely pusher shoved me out of the arrival area, and we went to pick up the rental car. Insanity promptly reared it's head in the form of a naughty credit card that should have worked, but didn't. We retired from the counter to try and sort the issue and come up with a Plan "B". Plan B was to go to the head office and try to figure out a way to do a combo credit card, cash deal, which actually worked. We had wheels! Now, all we had to do was get the ball thingy installed at 4 o'clock on the steering wheel. The bright bulb there thought we meant 1600 and it took a few minutes to explain. Then, we had to explain to the guy whose assignment was to actually put it on, how to do it. He was not having a good day and had to go find the correct tool to tighten the nut. That only took 30 or so minutes, then, he decided that something was wrong and went off to get the head mechanic to help as the more he tightened the nut, the more the ball spun. Well, duhn, it's supposed to spin. That's the whole point! So, we finally got it installed and promptly moved on to the next challenge which was to get me into the driver's seat of that tiny nazimobile! We had a VW Golf, which is small. I am large and my left leg did not want to fit in. I did my pretzel imitation and was in! Leia was well prepared for the drive to Bournemouth with an air chart of the area. We somehow managed to get onto the correct "M" road and I was doing sort of ok on the wrong side of the road. Then we realized that I had no idea how to turn the headlamps on, which seemed like a good idea as it was getting dark. It was decided that we'd get off the "M" at the next rest stop and find someone else with the same car, and eat as long as we were there and there was a KFC. We accosted a very sweet guy with a Golf, who was more than happy to show me where the switch was! He quite enjoyed the fact that he could help an Israeli as he was from Norway and they were not on anyone's top 5 list of likeable countries. So, off we drove, only to have a cop come flying along behind us with lights and siren going full blast. My instinct was to pull over to the right, but as there were streams of cars coming along behind us and thanks to Leia's quick thinking and my lightening quick (pry tongue from cheek) reflexes I got over to the right(Oops, I meant left. You'd think that my age I'd have left and right sorted, but alas, I really haven't yet) and saved us from being 'done' by the copper. There was a bit of concern about finding the hotel as it didn't appear on the air chart, but luck was with us as there were AA signs up to point the way. Parking immediately became an issue as the hotel was full. Leia went in to ask where we could park and we were directed to the staff car park.
That having been sorted, we ran head long into the next challenge, which was 'how to pay the hotel? with a non functioning credit card' Again, Leia saved the day, or should I say, night? She whipped out her debit card and we had us a room. We went up to our room, parked the left over KFC, then, down to the bar. We left the check in to the con until morning. Being the efficient creatures we are, we checked in to the con, then went for breakfast, only to be told we were late. Leia sweet talked them into letting us have something so I could take my meds properly, we also promised never to be late again! I'm not sure I recall exactly what we did next, but we did go to the dealer room and look things over. We also spent a fair amount of time in the bar, and went to the big hall for a few of the 'star talks'.
The bar became our headquarters and we had a great time people watching, until the rugby match between Wales and England. Us Wales supporters scared the England supporters out of the bar. Wales won of course.
As we went to that con as a kind of restitution for the one in Holland and neither of us really had any idea who the stars were, we spent most of our time in the bar just chilling and enjoying ourselves. On Sunday, I think, we decided to go and look for an ATM and maybe a place to put air in BBC's tyres, and to buy a charger. We found an ATM and it gave me money. When we tried to put air in the tyre, the air in it went out. Back at the hotel, after getting a bit lost in Bournemouth, Leia decided(wisely) to look for a place to buy a bicycle pump, on foot, which she did, and I stayed parked in the bar like a good gimp! The big gala dinner was that night and I asked Leia to check the table listings for my old pal John Cox. Yup, he was listed, but in the other dining hall. We caught up later in the bar for a great reunion. I do adore him. Leia and I ended up wimping out and heading for bed before I could get a picture with John. (sad sigh).
On Monday morning we checked out of the hotel and headed off to the Old Sarum flying field using the trusty air chart! We got there well and truly early and staked out a corner of the coffee shop until Leia's friend Simon took us on a guided tour of the circa WWI buildings, then back to our corners for lunch, where we found ourselves in the middle of a Spitfire club luncheon. Then Paul landed in his one of a kind aeroplane and Leia caused a mild sensation among the Spitfire crowd by jumping up and yelling Paul's here!
We had a lovely visit until it was time for me fly with an instructor named Wilco. What an unbelievably handsome man he is. Oh, right, there's an Israeli guy who works the air control tower there and we had a nice chat in Hebrew.
Next challenge: How to get the gimp in the plane? Easy, she scoots up the wing with someone pushing the left (useless) leg. WOOHOO. I actually flew that plane. Ok, I've ridden in and driven baby carriages, tricycles, bicycles, cars, motorcycles, buses, truck tractors, power boats, sail boats, wheel chairs, electric scooters, roller skates, and now, flown a plane. I have yet to drive a train, or go up in a hot air balloon but that's about it. I'll get to those too. After my flight, we left for Wales and a very unpleasant incident with an insane lorry driver. It was dark and I didn't know the road, but that didn't stop him from flashing his lights and honking at me. All that did was cause me to go even slower. He finally passed us, and we saw him stopped in a roadside rest place a few minutes later. How rude and dangerous! Leia took his plate number to complain. The idiot had a load of huge heavy logs and was tailgating us. It could have been very bad.
We eventually arrived safely in Wales and at Leia's.
I'll pick up the tale from here tomorrow.