I’m back in the UK for an entire weekend, which seems like quite a luxury. After whinging (maybe a little too much) that I was only going to have 20 hours in the UK after being gone for nearly a month, my client (in an usual moment of displaying that he actually has some understanding of human compassion) suggested that I might spend the entire weekend in the UK and fly back out on Sunday night. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I promptly cancelled my Saturday flight and booked a Sunday flight instead.

I had an 8am flight out of Istanbul yesterday, which meant a 5am car – which meant a 4am start. And being a worrier, it actually meant that I was up at 2:30am, sleepless because I was afraid about oversleeping and missing my flight. In the end, there was no traffic – the airport was empty except for the families looking for information on their loved ones who were lost in the Atlasair crash. Quite a few police and ambulances were there as well to help with the grieving families. Not a great day to be flying out of Istanbul, all things considered.

My flight, thankfully, went without incident and I slept most of the way back to London. Heathrow threw up all its normal problems – no gates, problems with the jetway, and long waits for luggage – all of which meant that despite landing at 10:30am, I didn’t get to my car until nearly 1pm. I won’t miss flying out of Heathrow, that’s for sure.

I came home, cleared a huge pile of mail and filed my expenses – my normal routine after a long trip.

Aude tucks into her dumplings

Annmarie shows us the best way to wash down Czech dumplings — with Czech beer!

Matt’s struggling after a lot of travel and nearly 24 hours awake after three hours of sleep…

Our evening was lovely, with an invitation for dinner with Annmarie and Jiri to celebrate Annmarie’s birthday. Luckily Jiri had read my blog and knew that kebabs were probably off-limits – so instead he proposed a lovely dinner of Czech dumplings with beef. It was just what the doctor ordered.

PS – my new lens arrived while I was away, an early Christmas present to myself. I’m loving it!