Planes, trains and automobiles (Does that include busses?)

What a long day yesterday was! We got up at 5am (in Bulgarian time) and reached home about midnight (again Bulgarian time. If I tried to include the three different time zones as we travelled you would be as confused as me!) So we had about 17 hours travelling!
We started in cars and Gordon and I drove from South Bulgaria to the capital Sofia (about 5 hours). The mood was a bit more sombre as Bobby had had a bad night with sunstroke (more like sun wallop rather than stroke, I think Bobby would agree). He was awake most of the night and, several times, other team members had to go in and tend to his every whim needs. Chuck was apparently very helpful, spraying Bobby's chest and stomach with water (whether he wanted it or not). Although, he did liken it to helping a beached whale, stipping it from dehydrating before it was returned to the sea! He also made numerous references to 'The Little Mermaid' or more accurately Sebastian the red lobster from that move! I think we were all guilty of singing "Under da sea..." under our breath at some point.

After the cars, we were on a plane from Sofia to Paris. Each step closer to home and Wullie got happier and happier. Another three hour wait in Paris Charles D Gaul airport(Whoopee!) We arrived in one terminal and after a conversation with a nice lady who was on a television screen (who we were not sure if she was real or a recording or a robot - she looked kind of plastic and glitchy but that could have been her french makeup and bored expression)we were directed to go to our terminal. This involved a trip on a train. We all piled on and as Gordon and I were at the very front we decided that Gordon should drive (there didn't seem to be any other driver) and although there is a possibility that the whole system was automatic Gordon put on a good show - the other passengers weren't looking very impressed though especially when he reached up to pull an imaginary horn!

We reached the other terminal which was a different terminal this time to the one we had been in before and when we entered it, we saw there were loads of shops and a food court and we thought "That's more like it!" (See the first blog for the trip out). We decided to go and look at the food court so we could plan our meal. The sign said there were four restaurants serving four different cuisines. Asian, Lebanese, Italian and, of course, French. We saw that the French one was actually 'Berts' that we had experienced on the way out, so we proposed to give that a miss. When we got there, however that proved hard to do. The 'Food court' was actually one small cafeteria with four windows to the kitchen. Each window declared it's nationality and branding and served a maximum of two dishes and two of windows were closed! In the end we were faced with a selection of sandwiches (£8 each) some ropey looking Chinese food (about a tenner for a bowl of rice with chicken & veg in runny gravy) or a slice of pizza that looked like it had been there when we set of at 5am!

Most of us didn't bother, but Chuck and Bobby re-mortgaged their house and bought a sandwich and bottle of juice between them. (Sorry you had to find out about it this way Terry and Celia, I figured they would take some time getting round to telling you!)

When the flight was called, we went to the gate and had to get a bus that took so long to get to the plane we thought the flight had been cancelled and the bus was going to take us home through the channel tunnel! We eventually got on a small plane and we heard that there were high winds in Edinburgh so we started to tease Stevie about the bouncy time we were going to have (he doesn't like flying). Are we bad? When we finally landed in Edinburgh, Wullie gave a cheer and if he had been allowed to, I think he would have kissed the tarmac. We sang a chorus of "We're here because we're here because we're here because we're here..." (Repeat ad nauseum) Sung to the tune of auld lang syne, followed by "Where are we?"," HERE!"I'm not sure the other passengers enjoyed it as much as we did though!

Mark had decided not to waste that water melon we had been given earlier in the week so he had packed it in his case. His almost empty case that had loads of room for stuff to move about case. As we watched all the cases coming round on the carousel, many of them broken, ripped apart and sometimes paced in plastic bags by airport staff, he got more nervous. We all started laughing and then we saw it! The case looked whole, nothing had broken on it and it wasn't even wet. So he grabbed it from the conveyor belt and opened it. By this time all the other passengers knew what he had done and we all gathered round. Inside was a pool of juice, sweet and sticky and an almost whole watermelon. It was split along one side and its insides were covering his clothes, his shoes and all the other contents so that the offer of a fruit salad, although possible, was not tempting. He lifted the watermelon out and closed the case and marched through 'Nothing to Declare' as if it was the most normal thing in the world. One Lady passenger said it was 'the funniest thing I have ever seen!"

So the trip is finally over. We did what we were sent to do and we returned almost intact. Mark got his passport back from his other Mama, Bobby got a lovely tan and Wullie got to come home. The Playground was built, the entire contents of the container(warehouse) were delivered and the recipients were very happy. We feel we have helped to look after the widows and orphans as we are commanded to do in the bible.

I leave you with two photos. The empty warehouse and the final locking of the door.

JOB DONE!