Quite a Haul

Norma made an excuse to take friends, Ina and Kay to Chicago IKEA so they very kindly took me to the airport afterwards. A cheeky person in airport security did not believe that I was cool enough to be the owner of the gold Doc Marten boots on the conveyor belt. I wondered about how nice it would be to fly first class as my TV monitor didn't work; the woman in front of me vomited throughout the entire journey and a child kicked the back of my seat. The security staff at Heathrow made me unpack my carry-on bag as it was so tightly crammed that the spools of thread looked suspicious. They even thought my boots were cool and asked me why I had been on my travels. They were very impressed by my quilting adventures, having read about "textile bombers" in the weekend newspaper and were even happy to help me shove my belongings into the rather overstuffed holdall since I was already struggling to carry a laptop bag that had a raccoon puppet sticking out of the top, a tweed jacket and the orange wool blanket from the Des Moines goodwill store. Aberdeen was cool and grey; I was surprised to notice that the leaves on the trees were only just beginning to change colour. The cats were thrilled to see me and immediately demanded the highly addictive meat pouches that had been rationed while I was away.

Waking up refreshed the next morning, I caught up with Mo and Tania over coffee then tidied up my luggage before repacking a smaller bag for a train trip down to Norfolk to collect the children from their grandparents' house.

The train journey to England was quite tedious and took longer than my transatlantic flight. I seemed to be plagued by grumpy old women – one claimed that I had taken her seat and the next one wondered nervously if my bag would fall from the luggage rack onto her head. At least I had the luxury of being able to read a book for the entire trip. It was great to be met at the station by my three kids who had apparently missed me and begged me to take them to America the next time.

The weather was beautiful on Sunday so we ate all of our meals outside. We caught up with my sister and my small nephew then went to visit the Other Granny in the afternoon. On the trip home I need to plan a Halloween birthday party for Fenella then start to make serious new TO DO lists leading up to Christmas!