Back to London town and then north

May I suggest if you are ever going to fly to Kenya, pick a direct flight. Our flight was on Monarch Airlines, an airline one small step above a charter airline, the food was dreadful and you had to pay for anything other than coffee or tea and god forbid you wanted water - haul your ass to the very back of the plane and get it yourself.

Our flight stopped in Switzerland, adding more than two hours to our already delayed flight, so more than 15 hours after we left for the airport, we arrived back in London.  Nothing says good times like renting a car to get around, so bad map in hand we headed for our friends place in South London.

After a good nights sleep, me and the TC headed north to Blackpool, the UK version of Las Vegas, or something like that.  If nothing else it's where everybody heads for their bachelor and bachelorette parties.  As the designated driver (TC is too terrified to drive in the UK) I had decided that the English countryside was too beautiful to miss so I mandated that we would that the "A" roads rather than the main motorway.  What I forgot was that they are full of crazy, poorly signposted roundabouts.

We successfully made it up to Blackpool, to visit with family (of sorts) of TC. We even managed to get a rare day of sunshine - apparently the sun hadn't made an appearance in weeks! Blackpool is an interesting place and TC's family is a police officer who had nothing but interesting stories from football games and stag and hen parties. On one hand, Blackpool is supposed to be a family-friendly seaside destination (British people need to expect more of beach weather but that is another story) and the other main reason to come to Blackpool is to get sloshed and for guys to dress in drag to express their masculinity (no idea how that one works) while out on their one last hurrah before tying the knot.

Since we were there in winter, Blackpool was a virtual ghost town, half of the hotels were closed for the season and the days when the sun wasn't shining it looked almost sinister. Add ridiculous roadworks to the mix and it was quite a picnic! Thankfully knowing people makes all the difference.

After Blackpool it was straight back to London to spend one last day before heading home. I bought myself  a ridiculously fun suitcase...

I always bring home strange things from my trips, this one being no different. In Kenya, all I bought were two very nice pairs of sandals and then food coloring. Yup. Food colouring. But the powdered kind that is way better but usually expensive. It was only 25 cents there, so I stocked up. I also brought home instant coffee to use in recipes. The only instant coffee I've ever seen here is chunky and this was fine, so it will be way better for baking.

The flight home was mostly uneventful, although I did have very nice staff on the flight, to the point that I asked for a comment card. If any of you have ever flown Air Canada you will know that their air hosts are some of the most surly unionized staff delivering "customer service" anywhere. Well, the cranky folks stayed off that flight so it was fairly enjoyable.  I even managed to catch a slightly earlier connecting flight home, although my luggage didn't. It was delivered to my work the next day though, have no fear that my food colouring didn't make it home!

All in all, Kenya is most certainly a place I would visit again and I hope I am lucky enough to get to do so. I will of course visit London again as it feels like home. The trick now is to find a UK husband so I don't have to keep leaving!