Sunday 28th September 2008

Wow, that was much harder than anticipated......after a fairly laid back start to the morning, we caught the overland train up to Clapham Junction where we were met by Andrew and went back to his flat for lunch (7 of us in a 5 seater was something to behold lol, but we survived). Lunch was followed by a leisurely stroll up the river and the children played in Wandsworth Park while the grownups continued the walk to work off the gorgeous meal (even more gorgeous considering it was put on by a confirmed bachelor).

So lovely to be able to leave the children playing for an hour and know that they would be okay.....I know, I know, you are probably sick of hearing how safe it is here, but it is still a pleasant surprise to us, so please bare with me for a little longer!

The afternoon soon ran away with us and it was time to start the trek to Heathrow, and I am not to proud to admit that this is where the problems started and it was directly my fault....a bit of history.....we have spent many an hour in London traffic (as you will remember from past posts) and I thought that it would be so much easier and less stressful for all concerned to simply catch the train up to the airport and then make our way back again by the same method - I thought it would be much easier all round and a bit of a final adventure for mom, sadly I hadn't taken into account the underground!

While overland trains are very civilised and a lovely, comfortable way to travel, the tubes are another thing all together - there are no lifts on most of the stations and Simon and I were lugging prams and suitcases up and down flights of stairs, the carriages are all extremely full and tragedy was only just averted when the door closed on Nicholas's pram because another passenger just stepped onto the train and stopped.....no consideration at all, well I am sure that he will be feeling the bruise on his foot that I gave him when Si finally managed to pry the doors off us and I shoved the pram onto the train (lesson learned, Nicholas only boards trains on my person from now on and never ever again in a pram....absolutely terrifying and enough to reduce my poor mother to tears). After two tube changes we finally arrived at Heathrow and a rather more stressed and rather less composed mother went through check in and then after a very rushed goodbye (planned with no tears to help all concerned) she was through security and on her way home.

Having seen her off, we then had to make our way back to Victoria Station to catch the overland train back to Haywards Heath - what a nightmare, we proceeded to catch the first tube back to Green Park where the plan was to then connect onto the Victoria Line to tube into Victoria, only to discover on arrival that the Victoria Line was closed for maintenance, so we then worked out if we caught the Bakerloo line to Embankment and then connected to the Circle Line we would finally arrive at Victoria - my children were absolutely wonderful and managed along even though they were by this time so tired they could barely stay awake, Nicholas was breastfed on trains and walking through the station and he also managed unbelievably well.

Amongst all this however, I have to mention a moment of kindness which gave us all the strength to keep going and stay cheerful.....on the trip from Bakerloo to Embankment there were two young Spanish men sitting opposite Phillip, Nicholas and I, and I can only imagine that from the strained exhausted looks on our faces they felt sorry for us, because before I knew it, they were handing us all packets of crisps with smiling faces and although not a word passed between us it was a very uplifting moment of incredible kindness, and restored my faith in humanity!

Well we finally made Victoria Station and found our rather more comfortable train home, and it was only at this point that my world fell apart and it fully hit home that my mom has gone and that she will only get to see and hold Nicholas again when he is a little toddler of approximately 13 - 15 months old...it was totally devastating and I spent the trip home and most of the remainder of the evening in tears......it is not that I want to go back to South Africa, I realised again last night when we finally arrived back in Lindfield that it is home and I LOVE it here, I just wish my folks were up the road like they used to be, and while I understand that is a totally illogical choice, it doesn't make me want it any less. The hole in the house where mom used to be is huge at the moment, but I guess we were really lucky to have her for as long as we did and I am eternally grateful for that.

All in all a very hard day!