1 April

Surprisingly, only a short time later (but in reality four hours) we were woken for breakfast – for my special diabetic meal, having done nothing for so many hours, I got fruit, the highest sugar I could have been given, so I only had part of it. That was brief, as we were approaching Heathrow early, and we had to prepare for landing. Just after we did, we were put into a holding pattern and waited another half hour before we could finally land. It was like something from a movie at first, all these planes visible out the window circling above the clouds and weaving in and out. However finally we entered the clouds and bumpy conditions, and then landed at Heathrow. Then there was another ten minutes taxiing to Terminal 4, British Airways terminal.
Unloading from the plane was quicker than usual, or seemed that way. I said goodbye and good luck to the Lauras as they headed off for their connecting flights and I headed off to Immigration. Out with my new EU passport and I was straight through, with NO STAMP – all electronic these days, so no real souvenir of all my travelling.
Then it was waiting for the luggage. I really hoped it didn’t get lost, because I had forgotten and left all the lease documents for the car in Europe in it. It finally did turn up (memo to self: remember first on usually means last luggage off). Some of the luggage at least had been searched as a number of items carried prominent “SEE CUSTOMS” labels (and no doubt had electronic coding as well, in case you were tempted to carry it through the “Nothing to Declare” door). Off through the “Nothing to Declare” door and I was out. As at LA, Alamo had a bus delivery service and off I went, to find nearly all the car rental firms shared the same premises, same desk and same workers (but logged onto the computer differently for the different companies). I ended up with a little Peugeot which is very similar to my Barina but has two convex (read totally useless) external mirrors. I eventually found my way out of the parking area and headed off to Redhill, where cousins were … out. Then headed off down to Lancing where cousin Peggy was … in! Had a chat and a cup of tea, then headed off to Worthing. Visited the Information Centre and found a place to stay for a few days (car parking is the only problems) and then headed off to book in.
I found the place (it took longer to drive than if I had walked) and booked in. Took my suitcase up and then went off for a walk around the town and the seafront. Got some tea while out and was back not long before 6.
I set the laptop up and checked emails (none) and then started doing my computer work. Changed into PJs and then found I was asleep.