I realised when I returned from holiday that I had blogged on Day 1 of my vacation (Saturday) and then went silent for two weeks. The main reason is that my father-in-law, whose house we were staying in, doesn’t have wifi and I generally had to keep my wifi time to essentials only when I managed to connect somewhere.

After I published that last blog post, things went pear-shaped. Westjet decided to delay our flight by 2.5 hours which meant that we missed our connection with BA for our transatlantic crossing. What followed was a major hassle as our travel agent tried to rebook us on the next BA flight to Heathrow the following evening but Westjet tried to get us booked via Toronto and Gatwick.

We ended up staying in the super-expensive Fairmont hotel, right in Vancouver airport, which we weren’t really able to appreciate fully as we spent two hours on the phone to Westjet to attempt to get back on the Heathrow route. I’m glad our insurance will cover at least part of the cost of the $500 room. Breakfast was $70 which thankfully was also ameliorated by the meal vouchers that Westjet gave us.

We hung around Vancouver airport all Sunday afternoon and went to the check-in desk an hour and a half early to be at the front of the queue, as we weren’t convinced that things were ok. The BA check-in person referred us to their ticketing person as she didn’t think it looked right either and he sorted it out quickly and we finally felt happy that we were actually getting on the plane.

Because of all the schedule changes and hassles, we ended up having no special meals reserved for us and were really glad we’d stuffed our faces with large Subway sandwiches before getting on the plane. My plan to wear an eye mask and earplugs worked well and I did manage to sleep a lot of the 9 hour flight, which is a first for me. My Fixit did get some sleep too, just not as much.

So, we arrived in Jersey on Monday, after three flights and an extra 24 hour delay, comparatively well-rested.

As I mentioned, we stayed at my FIL’s and we were able to borrow his car or be driven around by him. I spent some quality time with my mum and sister, and on the middle Saturday they threw a family birthday party for me as I turned 60 while I was there.

I ate some nice meals out and caught up with some old friends.

I swam in the sea most days – we had lots of sunshine – and I really enjoyed it. When I lived there I didn’t appreciate it as much. My sister has become one of those people who love to swim nearly every day and in most weathers.

The flights home ran mostly to schedule and the connections were pretty tight. It was a bit of a rush in Vancouver, as we had to clear Customs before getting to the Westjet gate, and we hadn’t been able to check in ahead of time, so again we were concerned we wouldn’t make the flight.

I will have to forgive BA the lack of a vegan meal as we were allocated seats in business class for the long-haul flight. Holy travel pods, Batman! How many times have we walked enviously through business class with their cool little pods with all the amenities and seats that recline flat for a proper sleep, and a quilt and a pillow and real cutlery and ceramic mugs for their fancy coffee, proper headphones, a little zippered pouch of eye mask, socks and spa products?! I followed my husband towards the economy seats and then he turned around and said the row numbers were going the wrong way and where was row 56? When we realised we were in Club World we couldn’t believe our luck. It felt like we had won the lottery!

And now we’re back, and back to work, and pretty much over the jetlag. A couple of mornings of getting up at 4am, and then I was back to my 6am starts. Still going to bed early though, as I find myself dozing off on the couch well before 9pm.

This is getting pretty long, so I’ll publish this and then add a second post with photos.