I was one lucky expat this holiday and got to go home for a whirlwind trip – six days (three of them travelling) overflowing with family, food and surprises. I could wax lyrical about that home-for-the-holidays feeling, the novelty of winter and the precious time spent with loved ones, but I don’t quite know where to start. So, instead, here’s my numerical recap (SUBTITLED: Travel with kids never did run smooth) …
Distance travelled: 8,650 miles (in 2 planes, 2 trains, 1 tube train, 2 cars and 2 taxis)
Family members visited: 24, including DH’s 95-year-old Grannie
Visas forgotten (due to being in old passport): 1, causing immigration officials to shake their heads and tell us we couldn’t travel (in the end, they took pity on me)
Visas reunited with: 1, thanks to two special people: C who searched our house to find it; and DH who discovered that overnight FedEx delivery doesn’t apply when there’s bad weather in the UK
Skipped heartbeats: 3, when the concierge at the hotel the visa had been delivered to by a fellow pilot mistakenly presented me with a box of jewellery instead of an envelope
Waterlogged UK, but wonderful nevertheless
Passports lost: 4 (Yes, seriously. I think I was cursed)
Passports found after 45-min panic: 4. They’d dropped into a black hole in my suitcase
Children lost: 1, before the pantomime at Birmingham’s Hippodrome, triggering a full-scale search for Son 2 via walkie-talkies. (I know, I know, we’d only been out of Dubai for five minutes)
Children found: 1, in a deserted area of the theatre, clutching the booster seat they give kids like it was a life raft
Christmas dinners eaten: 3
Floods (or water ponds as they’re called in Dubai): Too many to count
Fish rescued: 2, found in a puddle, as floodwater receded from my parents’ garden; they were returned to the fishpond they’d escaped from
Minutes stayed up past midnight on NYE: 7
Speed of gusting wind as plane sat motionless on taxiway: 40mph
Memories made: Priceless
HAPPY NEW YEAR! (and thank you for reading Circles in the Sand in 2013) x