My Trip To The UK

 

My Trip To The UK

My trip started auspiciously. Friends Claudine and Jacques had arranged to take me to Avignon TGV to get me on my way but Claudine knocked on my door early. Normally when they come to Mollans from St Malo in the autumn Claudine makes a moules-frîtes meal and that hadn’t happened because she couldn’t find the mussels she wanted, small and tender. However she had found some in the Buis arket the previous day and so suggested I go to them at lunch time to have the usual meal before we took off for Avignon. As usual her moules were delicious. After lunch they took me to Avignon and I was on my way.

The train journey to London was smooth but not the end of it. I found myself near the end of a train a half mile long with two cases and not a luggage trolley in sight. They seem to have been banned from British stations. Making my way along the platform I found what appeared to be a cleaner’s trolley and used that to get to the end of the platform, where I found the escalator downwards had been switched off, presumably because it was assumed all passengers had departed. So I walked down the escalator and went into a maze of rooms indicated as UK BorderFforce. I found my way through the deserted maze to an exit sign and then found Mr Border Force looking miserable and doing something on his laptop. Then I took a taxi and I booked myself into a cheap hotel for the night.

The following day I had arranged to meet a long-time friend from working days, who had been instrumental in my writing one of my books, for lunch at Zedel, a favourite restaurant, and that evening I caught a train to Glasgow where my daughter met me.As in previous years I found lugging asmall and large suitcases around rather difficult but with taxis and an occasional hand from kind strangers I managed it. The luggage was necessary for presents for family.

On my first day in Scotland I unloaded rosette, a saucisson sec, a bottle of lavender essence, two boxes of langue de chat biscuits, a book I had written decades earlier in which I had written a dedication to my granddaughter Eilidh, who is seven, and a small marble box with semi-precious stones which I had bought in India decades earlier too, again for Eilidh to keep her treasured conkers or whatever. My family had arranged nothing, thinking I might like to just relax. However my daughter and I went to the bank to sort out some matters with my account in the UK. With impaired hearing and vision I can’t get through the bank’s security system and the bank seems to have no answer to this, making my account so secure that even I can’t access it. I also took the opportunity to buy some gifts for friends back in France.

The following day Eilidh was taking part in a 2km run. Her school has ditched the formerly mandatory corporate act of worship to begin the school day with a daily one mile run, a great idea I think.So off we went to see around 100 kids doing the run and then went for lunch at a nearby garden centre with a friend Eilidh had met on the run and her parents. After lunch I nought bulbs and a couple of clematis for us to plant later on.

The next day, Monday, was my birthday and we had arranged to go and see friends Steve and Jo in Ecclestone, about a 90-minute drive away. So, after I had opened cards and presents, off we went.I was at school with Steve so the friendship goes back a long way. Steve and Jo greeted us with bubbly and then we went for a pub lunch followed by a long chat at their home.

The last two daysof my stay were taken up with gardening, a bit more shopping and a visit to the Glasgow Science Centre, which Eilidh absolutely loved. It is full of hands-on exhibits illustrating numerous aspects of science and includes an IMAX cinema in which we saw fa ilm on ocean currents and a planetarium. Eilidh flew from exhibit to exhibt including the one on optical illusisions below. I was exhausted when we got back but Eilidh was still doing her impersonation of a perpetual motion machine. So ended my trip to Scotland.

Having understood the British non luggage trolley system I arranged for assistance on all the following train journeys. Assistance consists of an electric cart that transports you and luggage. So the trip to London went wmoothly and I duly ended up at the huse of my friend Margaret, a cello player who also works for a local charity. I unloaded cheeses and a bottle of lavender essence and we went for an evening meal in a pub where I had the mandatory glasses of bitter and fish and chips.

The next day we met my son, Carl, once more at Zedel, and we had a long chat which we continued in an adjacent pub afterwards. I handed over a considerable quantity of duck, confit drumsticks, breasts and slices of smoked duck, and a dry sausage, all of which Carl loves. Duck is not always easy to find in England and is normally sold whole. My cases were at last lghter. Margaret and I shared a bottle of wine that evening and then all that remained was the journey back to France. It went smoothly and I was met at Avignon by friends Daniel and Gerard who took me back to Mollans.and southern sunshine. The weather during my trip had been mixed, cold sunny days interspersed with dull wet ones, and there was evidence of flooding all in the fields and countryside all through England and France. But finally there was warmth and sun, which continued for days after my arrival.