Back in Blighty.

I arrived today, courtesy of Pegasus airlines, but only just. I had to split the flight, Dalaman to Istanbul then Istanbul to Stansted. I had an hour and 10 minutes transfer time. In the summer, this is fraught. Years ago you could get off at Istanbul and go straight to the domestic terminal getting your passport stamped at the end destination airport, now you can’t do this. You now have to get off the flight and get the passport stamped in and out at Istanbul, and it is there that you can run into problems. Today I breezed through passport control, where I got held up was in the duty free shop. After a 5 minute delay arriving, followed by a 5 minute walk to the international departures then a 10 minute queue to get stamped out I thought I would get some duty free shopping. It is a very long hall, the duty free at the airport but I picked up my tobacco (yes, I know it’s bad for me) made my way to the cashier and then waited 20 minutes to pay! He was so slow! He scrutinised EVERYTHING. The goods, the boarding passes the passports, the till, the cards that were handed to him. I’ll give him his due, he was thorough, but by the time I got served I had 30 minutes to get to my gate and get through another bag search at the gate! In all I have had my bag searched 5 times today, but at least I know we are safe!!

So I  am here, I will go to Devon on Monday with my daughter, her husband and 2 children, where we will say our goodbyes to Dad. The train fares were horrendous, but I really don’t care about the money. I will resume my expat life on the 20th of December.

Totally unrelated, I bought a new table yesterday. It is a nifty thing. It’s a coffee come dining room table. Take a look, I think it is very clever.

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