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11/04/2007
Back to Blighty
The passport eventually arrived after 5 working days at the embassy and it had been flagged as urgent, they only have to check that I exist and don't have a criminal record . So I took an overnight boat to England it takes 12 hours as it out of season and the idea is you spend more money as the crossing should be 5-6 hours normally. My brother picked me up and was taxied to my sister at South Zeal ( it used to be a lead mining village outside Okehampton but nowadays its a very middle class place full of 4 wheel drive cars and hardly a Devon accent in fact being born and raised around Okehampton only for 6 years I felt more of a local ). My mother is in Exeter hospital on a ward for acute strokes and isn't in too good a condition with some paralysis on the right and can't talk as yet, when she starts complaining it will be a good sign.It was interesting to compare the hospital to French ones as my father had a couple strokes in France the rooms are much smaller either one or two beds where as Exeter had 6 beds to a ward open plan and much more traffic so its easy to see that diseases like MSR can spread, but to give them credit the hospital staff had been very good, x-rays and scans straight away. I only stayed a couple days as I have 3 sisters and a brother who visit regular so it was a dash to the airport using public transport ( a double decker bus to Exeter then a change to the airport which called in at the Met office which is based outside Exeter )The flight is only 50 minutes to Brest where my taxi was waiting ( 2 hours as I gave the wrong time ) but she had amused herself well by looking at the shops and spotted a smart coat which could be a useful bargaining chip in my quest to upgrade my baritone sax.
08:55 Posted in Travel | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: brittany, holiday, coat aillis, comments