Wednesday 31st May
Our 9 hour flight was pretty smooth and, if you'll excuse the pun, flew by. As we descended in to Gatwick Airport, the skies were clear and we could start to make out the lush green countryside of the South Downs. It was a nice feeling to be home but at the same time, there was a feeling of trepidation about settling back in to a place we hadn't been to for almost 2 years. We arrived bang on time, which was nice, seeing as all the flights over the previous week had been heavily delayed. Passport control was busy, which meant we had to queue for around 20 minutes to finally be able to set foot back on to British soil. Our luggage was pretty prompt but we had to wait slightly longer, whilst we consumed the remainder of our subway sandwiches we'd purchased before we left Calgary. We were distinctly unimpressed that my bag had been raided by border control once more. This time, the Canadians had chopped all 3 of my padlocks off, rummaged around, then left a note saying nothing had been removed and they weren't liable for any damage. We decided to wait until home to have a proper look and make sure everything was still in place. Once we moved through in to arrivals, everything ticked over like a well oiled machine. We hopped on the shuttle to the south terminal, made our way through the confused crowds at the ticket machines at the train station and then headed down to our platform ready to catch our trip. It was slightly late but it didn't matter, we were riding high. Unsurprisingly, the train ride down to Goring dragged but once past Worthing, we didn't have to wait long. We hopped of at Goring station and walked back to my house, fully expecting to be greeted by my Dad and a waggling Barney. We got the waggling Barney but Dad was out at work. We took the free time to unpack my bag and check if the Canadian border force had actually been true to their word. They weren't lying but we were thoroughly annoyed they broken and disposed of all our padlocks. Once we had everything away and all of Charlotte's families gifts together, we sat in the lounge and awaited the return of my Dad. Somehow, he got passed the lounge and into the kitchen without noticing that we were there. We crept out and gave him a great fright in the kitchen. It was funny and we laughed it off over a catch up. Eventually, Dad had to take barney out for a walk and we had to go and catch our next victim. We'd put great planning in to how we were going to surprise people when we arrived home but now we were actually there, that had all gone out the window and we were just playing it by ear. We walked via a shiny new Sainsbury’s, to meet my Mum as she cycled out of work. We were slightly early and had to wait for about 50 minutes before she finally emerged. Again, as with dad, we gave her the fright of her life, which almost led to her falling off of her bike. We walked back home, with mum struggling to contain her laughter the whole way. We had a further, group catch up for an hour or so before deciding it was time to surprise Charlotte's family. My mum dropped us of a road away from Charlotte's house, gifts and all, where we could sneak round a corner and knock on her door without being spotted out a window. Fortunately, we'd timed our trip to perfection, as someone was out. Donna opened the door, which meant Paul was out, and the tears started. As with my mum and dad, nobody had a clue that we would be turning up at the door, so it was a pleasant surprise and a shock for Donna to open the door and see us standing there. With Paul out, we all hustled in quickly and hid in the lounge ready for his return from the shop. When he did, he looked so surprised, that we were impressed he didn't drop the milk that he was carrying in his hand. We tried a few times to surprise Charlotte's brother and his fiancé at their front door but, despite 3 separate attempts, they were out. Just as we were giving up, we spotted them walking down the road, so we stalked them back to their place. Only, we didn't quite get to their place and neither did they. When we pulled in to a car park across from their house, they emerged from behind some cars, as if they knew we were there, and blew our cover. Still, it was a surprise and we got to meet their rabbits while we were there. We spent the evening struggling to keep our eyes open and having a catch up with Charlotte's family over a few beers.
That was the end of the big surprises. Although we did visit Charlotte's Nan and Grandad the following day and surprise them. We also surprised my Nan, as well as my Auntie Helen and Uncle Glenton, whilst they were visiting my Nan.
All I can say is thank you to Charlotte for coming with me, tolerating me for 2 years and being their to enjoy what will be the absolute highlight of our lives. Nothing will ever come close to the experiences we've had and I couldn't have spent my time with a better person. We would like to thank anybody who has ever read a post of this blog. We appreciate I'm not the most interesting of writers but we hope that our posts and photos are informative, honest and have painted the places we've visited in a relics tic light. We didn't want every post to say how “amazing”, “beautiful” and “stunning”, the place we were visiting was, as that just would not be the case but at the same time, we didn't want to come across like Carl Pilkington and knock everything down just for the sake of being miserable. Charlotte and I will continue to travel, as it something we are both very passionate about and we will definitely keep a record of them in this blog for future reading and reference. We have ambitions to cycle Lands End to John o’Groats, visit Central Asia, visit Southern Africa, go cycling in the Benelux countries and go for a drive round the Emerald Isle. The former and the latter are probably the most realistic at this time, so we'll have to see what we can do. Also, we might add the occasional post about the allotment, just to keep it ticking over and stop the dust from settling.
Until then, thank you.
Lots of Love
James and Charlotte
