Sunday 15th July. It’s Scoop’s 4th birthday and she and the rest of the family are spending the day travelling. First, from Sheffield to London, then across the capital to Terminal 5 at Heathrow and then, overnight back home to Cape Town. Door to door should be about 21 hours. It’s functional, it’s necessary and it’s no fun for any of us, to be fair.
As I write, the flooded East Midlands are flying past, reminding me just how crappy the weather has been since we’ve been over. It’s not too bad out there at the moment, although apparently it’s raining in London. Fortunately, we don’t have to go outside once we get there.
Sadly, while we’ve enjoyed our stay immensely, this will always be remembered as the summer holiday that never really got very summery. We can count three sunny days on one hand, which, bearing in mind we’ve been in Europe for over three weeks, isn’t great.
It’s gone so quickly, but it still seems like forever since we arrived: the days in London and Paris are like a lifetime ago. It’s going to take a long evening with the photos to remember and relive the details.
But right now, gazing out at the fetid industrial heartland of… erm… Market Harborough, I’m going to try and amuse the kids for at least some of the remaining 90 minutes to St Pancras.