Hello and goodbye

I had the best holiday I’ve ever had in Boulder with Isaac, Wendy and the girls. How special it was after the awfulness of not seeing them for 20 months. I hope I never have to go through that again.

You might be amused to know that when Isaac and the girls were waiting at the barrier for me to arrive, two other families were also waiting for English grannies  who were visiting, like me, as soon as the USA opened its doors to Brits. Isaac imagined the three of us coming out together through the arrivals door in a conga line.

Not so. After whizzing through immigration in 5 minutes when previously I've had to queue for more than an hour, my suitcase was one of the last to appear on the carousel, by which time the other two grannies had gone and one of them had left their balloon for me.  After all the other waiting I'd done, the wait for the suitcase felt like another 20 months.

But now I'm back in Blighty.

Being home feels different this time. Dave always asks 'Are you pleased to be home?' and I always say 'Yes,' and mean it. This time there is a small hard niggle in the back of my head, and it's saying '...pleased to be home as long as I only have to wait till March to go back.' The pandemic might take a turn for the worse. There might be a new pandemic. America might shut itself off again. I might be dead. 

I am going to go over to see them as much as the budget allows. The girls are fast growing up, and I'm 72 and in three years time I'm expecting the medical insurance to cost as much as the plane fare.

You saw our hello here.

Here's the goodbye.

Photo by Isaac