Back to Blighty

For the first time since we moved out to France in June, I made a return trip to the UK last week. It was an important and highly significant event that I went back for; my daughter Louise was graduating in Sheffield.

Louise with her brother Chris

She gained her degree in the summer but for some strange reason her university waits until November before conferring their degrees upon their students. For many of the graduates it means returning to Sheffield from far-flung corners of the world but not for my Louise – she secured a marketing job with a Sheffield based company and hence continues to live in the city which she has grown to love over the duration of her course. It seems to be true for so many people, myself included with respect to Newcastle upon Tyne, that we develop a real soft spot for the place where we spend our student days.

I flew back courtesy of Ryanair from Limoges to East Midlands. At one stage in my life I was flying on business to some European destination or other nearly once a week but it is a few years since I last took to the sky. Flying with a low cost carrier remains great value for money if you get the booking process right, avoid the traps of online check-in (where optional costly extras are easily mistaken as being just a normal part of the service) travel light and avoid their continual efforts to get you to buy something else whilst trapped in their aircraft.

It really did feel like travelling in a flying shop with the enthusiastic cabin crew continually marching up the aisle trying to sell hot drinks, cold drinks, cigarettes, sandwiches, pizza, hot dogs, jewellery, charity calendars, scratch cards, telephone cards, cuddly toys etc., etc…. Please, just leave me in peace to bask in the relief and satisfaction that I have managed to get on your plane with a bag that only just passed the size and weight test!

I used to enjoy the whole buzz of going to an airport and getting on a plane but I must confess that I just wanted to get this journey over and done with as quickly as possible. The experience was not one that I would call enjoyable but (and it’s a very big and important but) being able to travel all that way in 90 minutes for just €59 return is really, really cracking value! Not only that, both flights arrived bang on schedule, something I rarely experienced when flying on business with British Airways. That ultimately is why Ryanair now carries more passengers than any other airline in the world!

Having left sleepy little Busserolles, I knew that arriving back in the UK might feel rather strange but even I wasn’t prepared for the culture shock that I experienced. I was only 5 minutes out of East Midlands airport in my hire car, concentrating hard on driving on the left again, when I encountered my first traffic jam, waiting to get onto the M1 northbound. What a waste of precious life time, crawling along in a metal box with only the Archers for company (are David and Ruth back together these days?) and staring across at equally bored drivers. The excitement of finally reaching the motorway was soon diminished as I then sat in a slightly more quickly moving queue (this one with the added bonus of idiots undertaking in their executive motors and lorries pulling out without warning) for another 90 minutes until I finally arrived in Sheffield and met up with Louise.

I spent two days in Sheffield and another two days over with my Mum in a little town in East Yorkshire. After 6 months of peace and tranquillity in Busserolles, I just could not get used to the crowds of people, the constant noise and traffic, cars parked along every inch of the street – and that was just in the town where my Mum lives, never mind Sheffield!

I thoroughly enjoyed seeing family again and it was an enormously proud moment for me to watch Louise collect her degree. It was a significant event in her life but it also felt hugely significant for me with both my children having now progressed through university and, equally as important in this day and age, both having secured good graduate positions. It feels like a key milestone on the parenting project has been passed – on time but certainly not within budget, parenting rarely is!

Busserolles

As I drove back down the hill towards Busserolles, I was struck by the fact that this felt like coming home. This is not just a place in France where I live; this really is home for me now. I was greeted at the gate by the dogs and Nikki (yes, in that order) and my senses were alert to the still quietness of the countryside around us and the clean, fresh air tainted only by the wood smoke drifting from the chimney.

It made me realise once again how lucky I am to have the opportunity to live in such a wonderful region of France and it has made me reaffirm my determination to make the most of this wonderful life.