As the title implies, I'm back home, safe and sound. The trip back was uneventful, though I was a little stressed when Qantas decided, on the Auckland to Wellington leg of my trip, that my hand luggage was too heavy, and I had to check it in; and then that I had to pay $50 in overweight charges, since that pushed me well over my luggage limit. Luckily, that's exactly the amount of money that I had in my wallet at the time... which is either dead lucky or eerily coincidental, depending on how tired I am. :)
Oh, and that flight had the added bonus of sticking me next to a guy who overflowed into my seat, forcing me to lean into the aisle, and twist whenever someone went past. This wasn't his fault, exactly, though he seemed to be taking up slightly more room than he actually needed; but deciding to let his leg jiggle, jostling mine, that I do hold against him. Not that I did anything; no, instead I thought, "Just one more hour until I'm home," and ignored it.
But perhaps I should start where I last left off.
***
Flying back to London from Copenhagen was fine - I had managed to get down to 64 kroner, was looking around trying to decide what to do with it... and then right in front of me was a pack of mini toblerones, discounted to 64 DKK. It was like fate reaching out and pointing me in the direction of chocolate...
Of course, I'd already bought a fair selection of Danish chocolates, mostly from Anthon Berg. And a bottle of Gammel Dansk - on frosty mornings, my Danish relatives sometimes start the day with a couple of shots of this (one for each leg). And a bottle of Linie Aquavit, which is the version they send around the world and across the equator twice in sherry casks, which must be one of the more involved ways of flavouring a spirit. Oh, and a bottle of dodgy looking Danish sherry, which turns out to have been made in Jerez de la Fontera in Spain, and bottled in Denmark - and is actually pretty good.
Met up with David, my ex-workmate, and his partner Alexandra in London; we had lunch, and they showed me a number of excellent places to spend the last of my money on buying things like the Dreamlands book for Call of Cthulhu and a copy of Munchkin. Oh, and my very own copy of Firefly on DVD.
Went back to Oxford, and gave Ellen the present I'd carefully carried over from Denmark. She was delighted, and decided that she'd pin them up in her room as a sort of frieze. Slept in Oxford, and sorted out my luggage; I tried to take a load of books to the post-office that I had seen down the road, but my plan was frustrated by the fact that this branch office had closed on the 26th of August; so Ellen has been left in charge of the books that I could not pack, and will be sending them on after me shortly.
***
This brings up two things that I wanted to talk about. Firstly, I want to take time to acknowledge how great a help Ellen was in my holiday. Not only did she provide long-term storage of my stuff, she found me a £2 umbrella, and a plastic soap container, and helped me work out the best way to Hay-on-Wye. It was fun to meet her friends and see where she worked, and it was really cool to have someone who knew Oxford show me around. So - yay for Ellen! :)
Secondly, I sent three packages of books home from Hay-on-Wye. The first I organised through the shop I bought it from - this arrived a few days after I sent it, despite having used surface-mail. The other two were boxes bought at the post office, and sent through the standard mail; those two have not arrived yet, though it's been at least a couple of weeks. Given that there has just been a big scandle about the British postal system's inadequacies and occasional lack of service, I really hope that my mail gets through.
***
In another act of sisterly charity, Ellen pointed out that my main bag was way too heavy, so I redistributed the weight, moving all the books out of it. This helped considerably, and probably contributed to the reason I wasn't charged for excess baggage, even though it was about 24 kg. She then saw me off, and I was off to lunch with the lovely Sandra - she previously worked at Weta, and she and her husband Pete have gone back to Rngland for a change of pace. Unfotunately, there were no luggage lockers in the nearest Underground station, so I ended up lugging my luggage around and getting awfully sweaty just before my big flight.. It was really good to see her again, though, and totally worthwhile.
Then, back onto the Piccadily Line for Heathrow! I bought a bottle of Pims on the way out, but nothing much on my way in - I was kinda remembering that NZ customs is pretty restrictive, and indeed, you're only allowed one bottle of spirits or liquers, though they don't charge you if the duty is under $50.
Flying back was fine, though I only got a snatch of sleep here and there, and then I was picked up at the airport by Louise and Mum; and Giffy was there when we got home. I had a quick nap, came back to the parents for dinner, and was then the designated driver for Erik and Giffy at a party out in scenic Stokes Valley. (Congratulations to Sok, for reasons she is well aware of.) Slept until 2pm, got up and went to The Village, and had Father's Day dinner at the parents.
***
I've got work tomorrow, so I've got to get to bed and get to sleep. I'll have to tidy my room pretty thoroughly, since I need my checkbook to pay my ACC levy by the 10th, among other things. And I've got to investigate my credit cards, since they don't seem to be working at the moment. I don't know whether I'll end up keeping this blog up-to-datish; I guess this may be my last entry. If so - thank you for reading this, and goodnight.
Posted by svend at September 5, 2004 11:23 PM