Getting Home.

Wednesday lunch time in Sydney and the temperature was 28 degrees which was exactly the same temperature in London when I arrived there on Thursday morning. The difference was the Sydney value was in Celsius and the London one was in Fahrenheit. Big difference. I had 4 hours from getting off the plane at Heathrow till my train left at 10 am. I wasn't in any hurry and was even slightly miffed when the plane landed 30 mins early. Now those of you who have taken plane rides know, just about everyone stands up the moment the plane lands and starts getting their hand luggage down from the rack. Me, I never bother because you can't go anywhere till they have got your bag out of the hold so I firmly believe it is better to remain seated in a nice warm plane than standing at the luggage carousel slowly freezing. Anyway there was a technical problem with the door and it took 20 minutes before anyone left the plane and we still got through passport control and beat our luggage to the carousel. 6;15 before I went through customs and I could have been smuggling anything because there was only one person on duty and he was already searching some one else's bag. Long slow cup of coffee in the airport before walking out into the cold London morning just to see how cold it was. And it was cold. Then down to catch the express train to Paddington. A bit of luck here, I had just missed one and had a 15 min wait for the next one, in the nice warm station. Got to Paddington and found a café with free

wi-fi. Full English breakfast, two cups of coffee, several emails and an hour and a half later I re emerged into the cold. Back to the station and a look round for the warmest place to sit.

Now at Paddington they don't tell you which platform your train is going from until ten minutes before it goes. I was in coach A which means it is either the first coach you come to or the last. Finally it was announced, Platform 3, miles away. Guess which coach appeared first. That's right H. Even more miles to walk. I had just sat down at the very front of the train when it set of dead on 10 am. 3hours 33 later it arrived in beautiful Torquay. Too cold to wait for a number 12 and there were 4 taxis waiting so a taxi home. A bit of luxury now and then is OK.

In 35 hours I had travelled half way round the world and gone from just a bit too hot to much too bloody cold but I was home. It's always nice to get home.