Day 290 - Portsmouth, UK - 24th May, 2005

Yes you read right. Portsmouth it was. This is the story.

We were in Nairobi and I went to check the on-going flight to Jo'burg with British Airways. Sorry sir but we don't fly that route anymore, you will have to purchase another ticket to go there if you want.

Well we didn't really want to go to Jo'burg but it was on the original ticket routing and was the way we were to get to Athens (via Madrid) our next stop. After much wrangling we were told that the only thing they could do was to route us back through London. OK, I'll go with that as long as there is an overnight involved at no extra charge. So that's what we did and we rented a car and went down to see Grandma and Grandpa in Portsmouth for an unscheduled visit.

We had been out of the country for 291 days. It was not really a pleasant home coming. It was wet, dull, cold and generally miserable. We arrived at 5:00am when London is not at it's prettiest. We still had some sunburn from up country Kenya and we have no winter clothing any more. Yes folks, what ever you may say, it was still winter in London today.

We drove down to Portsmouth, stopping at the motorway services for my most expensive breakfast of the last 291 days. Bacon and eggs and the works with a cup of coffee cost me almost a month of an average Indian's wages (£14.25). Was coffee always £2.45 per cup or has it gone up by about £2? I will never be able to afford to live here.

Portsmouth was being battered by a storm. The waves were shooting over the pavements and roads and the wind was getting up to force 4 or something. It was atrocious. I have never seen the tide so high. It was within 20 feet of the road. I guess it's the spring tides.

Grandma and Grandpa were delighted to see us. We had rung them and told them we were coming. They had seen Julie a couple of months ago but were anxious to see the boys. We checked into the Queen's Hotel (Sammy's favourite, until we discovered they had filled in the pool) and hung out in the room all day. We did some shopping, had some room service and watched a little TV. I managed to get some work done as well. The boys showed Granny and Grandad their juggling and yoyo tricks.

For now we are off to Madrid tomorrow at 2:00pm where we stay overnight. Then we fly to Athens, stay one night in an hotel and then jump on our yacht. (see yacht details: yacht). We are going sailing. When we get back from that we have to find a way to get to Nice from Athens and we hang out with my mum for a month or so.