Up Above The Streets And Houses

Well, farewell UK for another year. It's been a blast, and gone so fast! You can read all about my UK adventure under the UK 2015 tab. Dad dropped me off at Premier Inn, Gatwick on Monday night, ready for my 10:10 flight back to Kigali, via Istanbul.

I didn't plan this, but I appear to be completely colour coordinated with the room.

This was my fist time flying Turkish Airlines. They were incredibly cheap. I had a 30k check-in allowance and a 7k carry-on. I rocked up with nearer 40k check-in, expecting to pay a small fortune, but they deducted my lack of carry-on from my check-in and didn't charge me a penny extra! For that alone, they win my vote.

I usually take videos of the journey, but I didn't this time, despite sitting by the window on both flights. I regret that. Istanbul was utterly beautiful - and huge. Arrived in the evening, and the land was swathed in mist, with snow-capped mountains towering in the distance, circling down over a beautiful blue bay. Totally gorgeous. Possibly one of the prettiest landings I've seen. 

Scoffed baklava at the airport. I was excited to be eating it in Turkey, but unfortunately they'd displayed it above the pizza, so mostly it tasted of pepperoni. My computer seems to have eaten the picture I took of it.

Left Istanbul after dark, and that's when I realised how big it is. Beautiful lights - looked like they were floating in space, with dark patches of water between them.

My friend Senga was at the airport to collect me, and we swung home via a bar to pick up Mutzig to drink on my porch whilst catching up. Jo had stashed food inside, so I didn't die of starvation in the night.

Still adjusting to being back. It's sweltering here at the moment and people say the rains didn't come. Whilst the UK is underwater, Rwanda is drying out. Glad I brought back lots of light clothes with me.

Another sad change since I went away - they've razed Ndoli's! My local shop since my first days of volunteering back in 2007. They say it's moved to Sonatubes, but to me it's the end of an era. 

You can't see so well, but the building is ready to be demolished.

There is also a terrifying sight in my garden...

Yes, those are hundreds and hundreds of baby avocados!

This is what happened last year...

Not sure I'm quite ready for avocadogedden again just yet.

Still, lovely to be home. 30c at the moment. Bright sunshine. Took coffee out onto the porch. Managed to smuggle back a decent cafetiere, and the coffee in Rwanda is always decent.

Perhaps I've just been lucky, but I reckon my bout of malaria last year gave me super-human immunity to colds. Snuffled a bit from dust and central heating whilst back in the UK, but haven't had a cold at all, despite being around people with colds, and sat on aeroplanes for hours. Long may it continue!