Reece and Marcus were both hugged large and we got underway at 7am. It would be a little while before we got to see the boys again but in manly fashion we kept control of our emotions. It had been a fantastic week with two great lads. We had laughed till we cried, we cooked together, we gambled together, we golfed and skittled together and just had a riot. I will miss their company and their humour; much quite obviously inherited from their hilarious father.
We thanked Cherie and Di before putting the pedal to the metal and heading to the M5.
We had the option of cutting south on the M4 at Newbury but stayed the course to the M25. A decent choice in the end as this normally challenging ring road can be distressing when gridlocked.
We arrived in Hassocks at 1130 and met Paul with our luggage in hand. We had a brief dicussion over our travel plans and fortunatley Paul agreed to run us to the airport on our last day in the UK six days hence. The lift necessary because I was about to drive to Gatwick and lose the Ford Fiesta Diesel which had served us so well for the previous three weeks.
30 minutes later I was delivering the car; 35 minutes later I was on my way to the train station to head back to Hassocks. I moved swiftly and grabbed a ticket before jumping on a train which arrived at the platform at the same time as me.
I was back nattering to Paul and waiting on Christine by 1245. Hassocks, for those following the tales of Father Moriarty, was the last known sighting of the poor old soak.
Once Christine landed home we plumped for a trip to the National Trust Gardens at Sheffield Park. It was a beautiful walk round a fantastic place.
The afternoon capped off with a pot of tea before heading back to Hassocks and another evening with family. A visit from Maggie at 7pm and a lovely reconnect preceded dinner. Lovely cold cuts of roast beef, salad and mashed potato; a glass of red wine and a reasonably early night.
The last phase of our trip was underway.
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