WARSAW

WEDNESDAY 14th SEPTEMBER

  I woke up at 3.30am this morning half an hour prior to the alarm and radio alarm going off and lay there with one eye on the clock until 03.55am and then turned off all the alarms and got up.  I went downstairs and took the five packets of onion barjees out of the freezer, and wrapped them in Sainsbury's bags and placed them in my suitcase along with my toiletries and locked the case.  A coffee and my last piece of bread with crab paste did for breakfast.  I loaded by luggage in the car and moved the car out on the road.  Mark said he would be up at 04.30am, but cometh the hour there was no sign of him, so I went in and woke him up.  We left at 04.35am and were at the airport by 04.55am.  Mark managed to drop me off at Terminal 1 arrivals instead of departures but no problem a lift soon got me up to departures. Check in was quick and I was soon through security.  Most of the shops were closed although Smith's was open so I purchased the Times.  The walk to Gate 33 was something of a marathon, but I eventually got there!  I had my spray for my angina in my pocket, but didn't have to use it.  At the entrance to the plane there were copies of the Daily Mail, so I picked one up.

  Boarding was about 15 minutes later than designated and I waas fortunate enough to have got an aisle seat  in row 4.  Coffee and a roll were served for breakfast, and I spend some time dozing. We arrived at Chopin airport on schedule and I was one of the first off the plane.  Again there was an enormously long walk to the Baggage Arrivals, where my case was one of the first to arrive.  I caught a cab which cost me £12.00 to Peter's house. His neice Juliet had gone out with her boyfriend Hugo shopping.  They returned about 5.00pm and along with Truffles we all walked down to Blikle's at Wilson Square for dinner.  Wild mushrooms on a potato pancake washed down by Tyskie beer followed by a nut torte was my choice from the menu. Juliet has just got a place at Oxford to read law but was turned town by Warwick University!  She is the third of Vicky's daughters to get into Oxford.  A cab took us back to the house where the youngsters picked up their luggage and were driven on to the station to catch the overnight train to Prague.  Peter and I had a whisky nightcap and a relatively early night.  Juliet sent Peter a text to say that they were safely aboard the Prague bound train.