I was due to get up at 6.30am anyway but I woke at 5.00am and couldn’t get back to sleep. I had a shower and Ann drove me to the airport. Orlando Airport is really nice with lots of room and loads of places to eat, even at that time in the morning.
We had a coffee (well I had tea!) and a final chat! Ann was wearing a Meat Loaf T-shirt and two FEMA guys came up and asked us how the concert was last night! They hadn’t attended but they knew about it at least!
I was sitting next to a really nice American couple on my Continental 9.30am flight to Newark. They’d lived in England for 3 years and even knew my little town! We got talking about the hurricanes (another is due in a couple of days) and the lady was obviously very pro-Bush (far more than anyone else I’ve met on this trip) and told me that the problems in New Orleans were all due to the local mayor and that Bush wanted to help out but the mayor wouldn’t let him. Later I’d finished reading my UK newspaper and put it in the seat pocket so she asked if she could read it….I didn’t warn her about how anti Bush it was!
We landed on time at Newark, New Jersey at noon and a friend met me at the gate and drove me into NYC. We had a really lovely afternoon as I haven’t seen her since February and although we speak often on the phone, it was great to catch up in person! It was funny as she’d read this diary so knew all about my trip anyway! We had a gorgeous Chinese meal at Ruby Foos and then wandered through Central Park. It was about 80 degrees and sunny so it was perfect for me. We’d arranged to meet up with another friend and as it was such a lovely day we walked the 35 blocks or so uptown.
We left at about 4.30pm and I was dropped back at Newark by 5.45pm in time for my 6.50pm Continental flight to Gatwick (I’d already checked in and had my seat assignment in Orlando). The flight was quite empty so I had the three seats to myself. Unfortunately there was a problem with the entertainment as it KEPT resetting to the audio in my row so I had to keep switching it back to video and turning up the sound – by “keep” I mean about 80 times! I saw 3 episodes of The Practice (which I’ve never seen before) and then did some work on my Psion. They actually only turned the cabin lights off for about 90 minutes as dinner was served late.
We landed on time at 6.40am but it took an hour for my suitcases to arrive so I caught a train up to London and only just got to work by 9.00am. I felt exhausted! I’ve flown all night and gone straight into work lots of times but I’ve never felt so tired as I did today. I don’t know if it was lack of sleep in general on this holiday (especially in the last few days) or age or what! I left work an hour early as I really wasn’t being too productive so I came home and slept for a couple of hours as I was meeting up for dinner tonight with a friend.
And that’s it! The end of The Hair Of The Dog Tour for me! I have a few more photos to add which I’ll do later this week though.
Roll on the next time I see Kasim!!!
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