Home Again..

We're home. The time went so fast, but then, it always does when you're on vacation. Close your eyes and blink and 3 weeks is over. We were up early again today, which means it was an extremely long day. It's 10 pm here, but 3 am in London, so I've been up for 23 hours. Our "People Carrier" arrived at 9 am. It only cost 50 pounds ($118 Canadian), as opposed to the 100 pounds we paid to get from the airport the day we arrived. Our driver was a retired British Army officer, and was quite amusing. He complained bitterly about the cost of living in London the entire way. After glimpsing our credit card balance yesterday, I can certainly sympathize with him. We made it to Heathrow in about 45 minutes, and then unloaded all of our luggage. Dan helped me check it all in, and then it was time to say goodbye to him. His flight was an hour and a half before ours, from another terminal. Saying goodbye was awful. I cried, the kids cried, I cried some more. It was far worse than saying goodbye in January. I think the events of last week made it much more difficult. After many hugs and tears, he went off, and we went through security. I've got to say, Heathrow was much easier to get through then Stansted. How shocking is that? We were in and out of security in about 5 minutes. Then we went off to buy souvenirs. T-shirts for the kids, booze for me (I had a feeling I might need a drink later). Despite the extra long wait in the airport, the kids were great. Only 5 or 6 trips to the bathroom, which might have had something to do with the pop I let them get in an emotional moment of weakness. We were the first on board the plane. The flight was fine, just very long. It was an hour longer then going over, but felt 5 hours longer. The kids were awesome, despite being bored. The flight attendants even complimented me on how polite and well behaved they were. I thought for a few minutes they had the wrong parent, but no. They even brought the kids cookies and chocolate for being so well behaved. The other kids on the plane were not so well behaved, and did not get any treats. After landing in Ottawa, it was time to clear customs. Of all the passport checks I've gone through in the last 3 weeks, this was by far the worst. Of course, it didn't help that there were 3 Muslim ladies who kept trying to get ahead of us. One had a burhka on, and was actually pushing the kids. You can imagine my reaction to that. After shooting her the look of death several times, she finally backed off. It was a good thing for her, because I was just about to lose it on her. You can imagine what kind of mood I was in by the time it was my turn. And of course, the customs agent asked me for my letter of permission to take the kids out of the country. Hello, coming back INTO Canada. Not once was I asked for it leaving the country. And as luck would have it, I had left the letter in my purse, which was in my suit case. I did however have my power of attorney with me, so he very graciously let me through. Big of him. Next time, I must provide the proper documentation. Sure, I'll do that. As I'm not planning on leaving the country any time in the near future, I'm thinking, it won't be an issue. By the time I left customs and collected all of our luggage, I was in desperate need of a Timmie's. And what do you suppose my buddy Charlotte had waiting for me when I came out? Ding, ding, ding. You guessed it, a large double double. Sweet glorious Tim Horton's coffee. Imust say, I really missed my Timmie's. We finally made it home shortly before 8. It will definitely be nice to sleep in our own beds tonight, but the house seems even lonelier than before we left. I've got to say, coming home alone sucked big time. It's definitely going to be a long 7 weeks.

“The bigger the summer vacation the harder the fall”~~Author Unknown