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Homeward bound

As I sit on the ferry watching the south coast of England gradually disappear through a rather grimy window, I can’t quite believe that my trip is over already. While I was there, someone asked me if I still felt at home in the UK and I have to say home for me now is France.

What a week it has been, seemingly non-stop with a trip to see my son in Manchester, time with my mother and a very brief hour with a couple of friends. I spent a lot of my time working, as the charity I work with had two grant applications to submit during my stay. I have repotted plants for my Mother, sealed up the cat flap at her house as a local fox had started popping into the house at night. Not quite what you want in the house at any time but particularly not when you are sleeping. I have administered flea treatment to the cat, much to the cat’s horror as she hates this, and enjoyed copious quantities of food!

My trip to Manchester came and went too fast, so little time with my younger son. I set off the day after I arrived in the UK, a lot of driving again but at the time it was good to go straight away, laden down as I was with lots of his belongings. I had to repack the car and off I went for another long drive, made even longer thanks to roadworks and traffic jams. I passed many a queue for fuel. Quite surreal really, but thankfully I had filled the car up before leaving France.

It was wonderful seeing Alex again. It has been such a long time. It is odd now that we ‘see’ each other via the internet, it almost feels as if we haven’t been apart at all. With a little help from his flatmates we unloaded the car and I got to see where he has been living for the past year. We ate at a vegan restaurant called The Allotment Vegan Eatery. What an amazing meal, finishing with a vegan blueberry cheesecake – a feast for both the eyes and the taste buds. Fabulous.

I have to confess I was quite nervous about my trip to the UK and Manchester in particular, given the mask free approach in England and the almost post-pandemic attitude. Still I stuck to my approach – masked up, hand sanitiser and disinfectant wipes at the ready! I was definitely in the minority but that’s OK with me.

Alex was working during the day so I did the same, with a quick trip to TK Maxx for a couple of sweaters as I had arrived in much lighter clothes than I needed. It poured and poured with rain, and felt quite chilly. Any excuse to go shopping (which incidentally I haven’t done for such a long time). The second evening we ate at another vegan place, What the Pitta, this time enjoying vegan gyros – Greek fast food – and an enormous and delicious vegan ice cream.

My son and I had did breakfast on my last day in Manchester before he went to work. We put the world to rights over coffee, had a lovely walk around admiring the architecture and the juxta position in places of the old and new, as well as a stunning square and pretty park off Deansgate, near where he works. Having said our au revoirs, I waved him off to work, dropped my day 2 Covid test off, headed back to the hotel, packed up and drove south.

It was also lovely having a few days with my Mother, doing a few jobs for her, chatting, catching up and also doing a mound of work. We had a very brief walk down at the beach, windy and chilly but great for blowing the cobwebs away. I love sea glass so took the opportunity to search for a little more and found four pretty pieces. It’s the little things as I have often said! A hearty fish and chip supper followed that – no complaints there.

My brief stay came to an end all too quickly and off I set again for my long drive back home. An early start, packing the car at 5.30am with things we hadn’t managed to take to France, and then off to Newhaven. Busy roads again, petrol queues as fuel had yet to reach the south east, but I got there in time. On board, sadly the outside decks were closed for this crossing as there was quite a high wind, a shame but sensible, although it was not that much fun being stuck inside. When we neared Dieppe we were allowed outside – bliss. It was very windy but the air was so fresh, the sea lively with plenty of waves and what we used to call white horses, all against a backdrop of blue skies and sunshine. Back in France. Only 830km until I am home!

Next week I am celebrating October – quite a month of milestones for us.

A bientôt

Ali xx

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