Pavlova and Yorkshire Pudding

Oh, my lovelies! Such a long time since an update.

Well, I made it to the UK!

There was a minor mishap, in that I thought I was taking a direct RwandAir flight to London, but turned out it switched to a Brussels flight at Brussels, and I ended up doing the two-minute-mile dash from one end of the airport to the other. Skidded through duty free (which goes on forever there!), teddy bears, chocolate and perfume bottles flying. Made it by the skin of my teeth and, hilariously, looked over from my passenger-side window to see a Rwandair flight stationed right next to mine. A weird, surreal vortex in time and space. Had I stepped off my RwandAir flight into a parallel universe with twisting, turning corridors where every second travelator was broken, and wandered, sweating and panting, through the wilderness to arrive at my flight which was, in true reality, less than a minute away? 

Not dwelling on that too closely.

My fabulous friend, Emmy, dropped me off at the airport after a warm goodbye to my catsitter... more on that later. 

I undertook a little experiment. Last time I took a flight, I bought a bar of chocolate at duty free, and the overzealous RwandAir security guard tried to take the chocolate off me before I boarded, claiming it was food and therefore banned. I had literally just bought it at the shop in the airport. He eventually let me through, but when I mentioned this to a group of British expats, they said that they had always been able to take snacks on RwandAir flights, no problem. So...

Kigali Airport

Success!

 

The flight from Rwanda to Belgium was absolutely lovely. RwandAir has lovely planes for that route and it was practically empty. I got to see Birds of Prey, which I'd wanted to, and started watching Cruella, but unfortunately fell asleep. The sun came up just as we were approaching Brussels.

The hop over to London was cramped and without any comforts, but I did get one last glimpse of the sun. Both Brussels and London were grey and drizzling, but above the clouds it was still beautiful, bright-blue sky. It's always a sunny day if you can just get above the clouds.

I was utterly knackered by the time I arrived and slept for hours. 

On a weird and spooky note, when I was putting my bag in the overhead holder on the Brussels Airline flight to London (not the RwandAir flight from Kigali), I discovered that someone had left a painting behind - and look what it was! Very definitely Rwandan. That's an agaseki basket in imigongo colours. A little bit of Kigali came with me.

I have been very invested in eating since I've been back. Loving new flavours and old favourites. Merrick has been treating me with his masterful sandwich arrangements. 

And mum's cooking is simply delightful! So many amazing meals.

Welcome Home!

Yorkshire Puddings

English Breakfast

Homemade Pavlova

When I return, I usually go straight for blue cheese on hot, buttered crumpets and a dose of oily fish. Big fan of smoked mackerel with black pepper, and smoked salmon, of course. Forgot the cream cheese this time, but you get the picture. 

So, as mentioned in my previous post, I had to jump through a few hoops to get back. At the time, the UK were being arses and refusing to recognise Rwandan vaccination cards, which meant that the day after I arrived, I got a threatening call from the government's Track and Trace programme, warning me that if I set one foot outside the house, I was liable for a £10,000 fine, and that they might send someone round at any time to check on me. I am ashamed to say, I was a bit arsey with the woman on the phone. I know she was doing a job no one wants to do, but I was knackered. I'd just got off a very long flight, was adjusting to the biting cold, and I'd already been through so, so much red tape to get back. I had followed every instruction to the letter, so to be called up and spoken to as though I was public enemy number one was a little bit much. 

I had to spend ten days at home and pay about £90 to take two lateral flow tests. This was a bit crazy as home test kits - which do the same thing and give results in minutes - were being given away for free at my mum's swimming pool. She thought you only got one in a box, but you get seven, so we have half the world's stock of lateral flow tests in our house. I also tried to take an antigen test, but I didn't have enough blood.

Anyway, about two days after my ten-day quarantine ended, the UK decided they did recognise the Rwandan vaccine certificate after all, and Brits coming from Rwanda no longer needed to quarantine for that long. 

How very predictable. 

I arrived just in time for memorial day, which was the 100th year of the British Legion this year. Merrick is head of the British Legion in our area and he and mum were busy organising the parade and decorating the church.

Merrick is also Tower Captain of the belfry, so I accompanied him and mum to Monday night bell-ringing where locals were practising the Christmas handbells as well as the main bells.

Since I've been back, I've been on a technological spending spree. My hard drive crashed just before I left Rwanda and it took a whole load of documents with it. I had to ship that off to a data recovery centre, courtesy of Big ICT. It wasn't cheap, but they were much cheaper than anywhere else I'd tried, and they managed to get everything I needed back. Also highly recommend Rowland at RS Computers, who was a huge help and can deal with anything short of a mechanical hard drive failure. 

But I've gone wild since then. I now have an Acer Nitro 5, which I purchased so that I could use Insta360 and DaVinci Resolve with my new Insta360 One x2 camera. I've been having an absolute blast learning to use it. Even tried putting it in mum's fish pond. It's so much fun and I'm going to make some much better videos of Rwanda when I get back. Perhaps try to tap into the stock footage market. It films in 360-degrees, meaning that it's filming all around you, in every direction, at the same time. Then you choose what you want to focus on in the edit. So, you never miss anything. It even comes with a special selfie stick that the software automatically removes, so the camera appears to be floating in the air. It can look similar to drone footage when done well. 

Speaking of which, my brother is completely into drones at the moment. Check out his channel for some stunning images.

I've also been checking my physical health. I've done the dentist, optician and a private blood screening so far. First two were excellent, waiting on the third to come through. Just an MOT to make sure everything is in good working order. Wanted to get my split Achilles seen to, but waiting times are pretty dire at the moment so probably won't manage it this time around. When I went to the optician in Market Harborough, I stopped to peer through the window of the local Theatre, to see what was on - and who should stare back from the other side, but my Aunty Muriel! I do have a huge extended family in the area, but that was hilarious. I blinked at her a few times as it's been years since I'd seen her and she was so completely out of context. But she volunteers in the café once a week and invited me in for a coffee and a look around. It was a really lovely surprise.

Harborough Theatre

On the drive back - the UK has some funny place names.

Spent an afternoon working in my local, The Witch and Sow, staying warm beside the fire. It used to be called The Ward Arms, after one of the local families, but was renamed a few years back to try and tie in with local folklore. Transitioned from a really traditional country pub to something a bit gimmicky. Could definitely do with some more comfortable seating and a bit of carpet or curtains as, if there's more than five people in there, you can't really hear what anyone's saying. Feels more like a school hall than a cosy pub. I've been going there almost my entire life and seen it through all of its incarnations. Sadly, there's a new landlord every time I go back.

One cute addition to the village is that someone's turned our old phone box into a book swap.

Had some nice surprises since I've been back. I've got a short story in an anthology.

My friend Audrey sent me a copy of her poetry collection, and my friend Vikki hand-knitted me a hat to keep my head warm whilst I'm here (later followed by a pair of socks).

I've also been soaking in mum's jacuzzi bath, which is bubbleicious. My first bath in three years!

So, it's been a good break so far. Only problem is, my incredibly reliable and down-to-earth catsitter has turned out to be a bit dramatic. She's decided she doesn't like Rwanda and, having assured me I had nothing to worry about and that she wouldn't just leave over Christmas, then announced she's leaving over Christmas. Monday, in fact. I had my suspicions when she turned up having not watched the cat care video I sent, and asked me a load of questions about things I'd covered, in detail, in the house guide I'd already e-mailed. She seemed a bit too good to be true. I've managed to arrange cat cover for the rest of my leave, but now she's not responding to confirm what time she's leaving. Definitely didn't need this headache on my time off, but sod's law. Just hope the house is still standing. Sure there will be more about it in the next update.