One Week Ago Today...

We were trying to get home from Europe. We left Sardinia on Saturday, the plane was delayed leaving, I believe it was about an hour of delay. I'm sure my parents got back home and imagined us flying off to London. Nope... we were on the tarmac for a good while. I'm so happy that my kids are old enough to entertain themselves, and /or have a nice conversation with us. There were many English families returning from holiday. It reminded me of our plane trip from New Jersey to Orlando, Florida. Tons of toddlers and kids. It was sweet. And most of the kids were very well behaved and not troubled by the delay. I'm sure the parents were happy about that.

I had just had my KnitPicks Nickle DPNs confiscated at the security check. My WIP was a pair of straight stockinette socks in Lornas Laces Grumperina colorway. On one I was up to the Eye of Partridge heel flap, and was just about to start the heel flap on the mate. The security check people were all women, they were focusing on my backpack, I knew right away that I was snagged. I had various types of knitting needled in my bag, they told me that they had to take the metal ones but I could keep my Harmonys and Chia Goo, and my plastic ones... hmmmmm All three of the security guards kept telling me that they were sorry to have to take them, and then let out loud gasps when I quickly took the needles out, "Oh we are so sorry!!" I knew that I was taking a chance...Oh, well, all was not lost. My parents stayed near the gate, to make sure that we got through security okay, and they took the needles with them.

We finally left for London. We made the trek from Gatwick to Heathrow, then to our hotel to stay the night. My husband, Mr.Z wanted to walk around and find a nice place for dinner, he forgot that he was with Gimpy... the day before we took one last trip to the beach, we went to a favorite, the Villasimius beach. We had a fabulous time. We rented a paddleboat for two hours and saw all sorts of sights, clear blue water, yachts and sailboats, jellyfish (that looked like hamburgers - honest) and a flounder that we thought was dead, but he was just enjoying being up near the surface. E-Brake tried to touch him, and we saw him skitter to the bottom of the sea. We all took turns on the boat, my parents, my aunt, the kids... on my second turn I tried to go from the right paddle side to the center. I ended up slipping (ya think it was because there was absolutely NO anti-slip surface in foot area??) my foot went forward, very quickly,there was a little drainage hole... and I felt PAIN... but not wanting to spoil any one's fun I sucked it up and didn't say anything. When I got out of the boat to walk to the umbrella I couldn't put any pressure on my foot. No swelling , just a little black and blue... that got bigger and bigger as we sat through lunch... I couldn't play one last game of paddle ball with Miss J... no last walk on the beach... in fact the walk on the sand back to the car took for-ever... my foot was killing me... I was dreading the trip back to the States... I knew how much walking lay ahead...so back to London and the hotel... I asked my dear Mr. Z if he could just eat at one of the five restaurants in the hotel... he agreed and I had some awesome fish and chips... Yum-O!! My foot was grateful.

Then it was off to bed for a 4am wake up call. I was able to shower, with my foot up on the corner of the tub, and we were out the door on time. Homebound, this is so easy, why haven't we traveled home this way before??? Ha! famous last words... we got to the airport, checked in and then went through security. This time my rolly luggage that has been my carry-on for miles and miles and miles of air travel, all of a sudden had to be checked in due to Mr. Picky Security Guy... even the other security worker thought that he was being...ummm difficult... Ok, so one less luggage for us to haul all over the airport. Gotta think positive... Once through security we went to have an full English Breakfast, Yummy!! at Huxley's then off to wander for a while. I tried to find any and all British knitting magazines - nothing... darn... Time to board. Everything was going so well... until the pilot tested the engine, failed. They called for a spare part. That took awhile. Again I was grateful that my kids were older... they watched the movies, and plying on their electronic gadgets. Miss M and I stood at the rear of the plane getting some fresh air... 3 some hours later... yes, 3 hours... we were de-boarded and told to go to luggage claim and gather all our luggage, then customs, and then to Area E to RE-BOOK a flight out. I was a bit panicked. We stood in line for another 2, 2.5 hours and were filled with worry... would we be able to travel together? Once we got to the desk we were told that since the kids and I had made our tickets together, we were automatically booked on the next flight out... whooosh... they just had to try to get Mr. Z on the flight with us... no problem, just a few keystrokes later and we were set!! Or so we thought...

The weather was now not so good at Heathrow... a good hour and some later we departed. Now mind you, we were originally supposed to arrive at JFK at 11am... we ended up arriving after 10 pm, and getting home and into bed *after* midnight! I do want to thank my dear son E-Brake, for letting his gimpy mom put her stinky, black and blue, grubby-from-walking-all-over-creation-foot on his leg for a while during the trip. My goodness what a nice thing to do. Yes, I have a fracture just below the toe joint to the next to baby toe toe... 6-8 weeks in a post-op shoe... The doctor said that it looks like it broke by twisting and going forward at the same time... yep that drainage hole got me good...

So we have an interesting story to tell, to those who are interested... LOL