  Well, I think I have managed to get over the nightmare that is long haul flights and after 2 night's of sleep I feel surprisingly well. In full Monday/Tuesday was a very long 24 hour period. Sunday night had been a very pleasant day as a whole. Little Darwin/Marlon had popped in to see in the Afternoon , to drop off my kit bags from work and drop in the various pressies for Cx in the form of loads of music. 7 tapes of uplifting trance from Darwin and some alternative stuff from Hitman. Turbo drove up from Southampton just to drop in an ickle pressie and wished me a safe journey and headed off to Essex to attend his shot's course.
These have been received very well, more about that a little bit later. Mia & I packed and ironed everything from top to bottom and had managed to get it all in my large ' Stewardess ' case , you know the ones I mean. The one's the trolley dollies use on flights, except mine was a ' Mansize ' version. As it Christmas as you are all probably aware everyone that knows the Tanners & Cx wanted to send over something to say high and they were all included but Mia had no intention of letting anything spoil her ironing.
So I had to bring the old faithful rucksack as well. After all the ' Work ' had been done and after I had checked everything for the umpteenth time , we both decided to retire to the local. Where we chatted to our chums and raised a glass for Chrimbo & New Year. After a couple of very long days/nights out , we retired early knowing that I had to be off early with all news of Saddam's arrest , I had this sneaking suspicion that everything would be thrown into case @ Heathrow and decided to leave earlier than the suggested 3 hours before the flight took off.
I had a cappuccino @ a chum's. Thinking excitedly that this time in a couple of day's I would be in Zealand for real. I took the Heathrow express and bumped into one of Turbo's chum's I had met in the summer , he was heading out to Malta for 5 day's for work. Tough life these people have. I had meant to be starting @ my new job on Monday @ NSY , not a job I was even remotely interested at this moment in time. But hey that's another story , I had booked my annual and I was heading out. Did I care? did I hell.
A speedy journey to Terminal three , book in straight to the front of the queue and booked I was well under the 32 KG's per bag , in total I had 19 kg's. I always wonder why people take so much with them when they travel. Even in a worse case scenario , if everything get's lost ,it's not as though people on the other side of the world , don't have suitable shop's with which to replenish stuff that has either been forgotten or lost en route. I had actually forgotten some stuff that Mia is probably cussing me for , it was the girl's choccies that she had been saving especially for them , for their stocking. KW had promised he would make sure that I would not be taking the flight if he had anything to do with it.
But what happened next , even took me by surprise. 1000's of people pass though Heathrow and work there and suddenly out of the blue popped and old chum who was at training school with me , a chap called Keith Norgate whose wife Julia had served with me @ Kingston and was on ' The squad ' with me. He had popped over from Terminal 2 for a shopping trip , as the best shop's are in Terminal 3 apparently.
Hard life being a port's officer. I passed through depature's and had a mooch around then walked into the Smoker's lounge when yet another old face met me. He was working but it stopped almost straight away.and we chatted the name of the person in question , none other than Lyndsey W. Spooky or what. ' I heard you were in , and thought I would look you up ' His colleague left him and returned and LW and I chatted , about the obvious. Suddenly I became very conscious as the people surrounding LW and I looked up. ' Bloody Hell ' Armed police had walked up beside me and everyone was clocking me as if to say. ' Whose that bloke with the shaved head and body piercings , should we know him ? ' I made eye contact and yet another old face greeted me from Kingston.
Dave Ramage , for those of you that can remember him. The surrounding audience were even more perplexed when rather than being dragged away screaming and cuffed , we all started laughing and shaking hand's. Dve went about his normal duties and chatted som more with Lw , he ahd to return to work but we agrred to meet for lunch before I boarded and he would see me to the plane. Nice. Phoned Hadders , Hx & Ange for the last time for a while and partook in the obligatory G & T. Had lunch courtesy of Lyndsey and spotted a bottle of whisky valued at 22000 squid ,watched people making hand made cigars. Bing Bong ! Bing Bong ! I had been summoned for the flight on time and LW walked me to the gate.
Piccies taken , messages received and they have been subsequently passed on. Took my seat , with some trepidation , I was worried about what would happen next , who else would pop up. ' Would KW pop up and have me removed ? ' ' Would someone on the plane suddenly burst into song ? ' ' Now the world don't move to the sound of just one drum ....... ' It's and in joke but those of you that know would get the funny side of it. Door's closed , a quick rev of the engine and I was off to Zealand, Hoozah. Unlike the last time when, I did not have a clue what to expect , this time I knew what to expect.
Last time I had left Cx behind , this time I was going to reunited with her. Not forgetting the wonderful resident' of ' Cedar Lodge ' who have so looked after her since she ' popped in ' to chill out after ' The Marfell Down's ' experience.
Not just for myself , but for all her chum's. Ange , Trude , Di , The Hersham Mafia , Stuart D , Weenie , Hadders , JFP , Golden Ball's , Hitman , Jeffwee Herrett , ah oooolaa , barley Marley , Taff , The VK Blog team , The Quest 4 Aragorn Massive worldwide , The DYRMS Forum member's, STRE , Rowena , so many people who had gotten to know her over the last 9 month's but @ this time and most importantly for ' Mummy '. Am I rambling tough , I will get the biggy entry in now 'cos I don't know how much I will be writing in future , it certainly will not be a on a par with Q4A. I won't bore you with the tedious factor's of the flight , safe to say , I became fly paper for freak's I will fill you in later. LAX airport was as horrible experience as ever , I could not even pop out to meet Bloo & Mx , who had hoped to meet up with me briefly.
Sorry Guy's. The Septic's were as usless as ever , rude obnoxious unhelpful as ever , just reaffirming to me why , I have no desire to ever venture into their world. I got pulled by customs and they asked when I had last been in their country and told that it was earlier in the year at that it had not been by choice , I just happoend to have been forced to experience LAX and that If I'd had a choice I would avoid their country like the plague .
Septic's don't get irony do they. I was met with stoney silence and my passport chucked back at me. I got away lightly the guy behind , was absolutely sozzled and had been a pain in the rear all the way thoughout the flight.
Loud , Leary , Lewd , Rude & Crude , but oh dear he was in Septic Land where the the right to bear arm's is a constitutional right , and it's amazing that once he had the gun shoved in his face and he had been cuffed and chucked to the ground , you could almost smell his fear. He sobered up quick his trouser's changed colour , he never continued the journey. Allelujah , if they had not done it I am sure he would have lynched by the rest of the passengers.
Great movie selection on the way over. '' Matchstick Men ' ' Nemo ' The best one by far , must get it on DVD ' ' The league of Extraordinary gentleman .. average ' ' SeaBiscuit ...... Yawwwwwwwnnn ' ' The legend of Jonny Lingo .... obligatory Kiwi Movie .... Good ' ' The Hulk .... hmmmmmm - the jury is out ' Ariving inzealand I was greeted by Eric , Harri & Alice , big beaming smiles and the sun was shining , sorry guy's , not rubbing it in much .
KW had not succeeded and I had gotten there The kid's bounding around lasted approximately 20 ins , then they flatlined in the car, they were knackered and had gotten up at 0300 hrs to meet ' Uncle Stan ' I felts surprisingly well considering I had been awake from 0800 hrs Monday UK time and it was now Wednesday 0530 hrs Kiwi Time ( Tuesday 1630 hrs UK Time ).
Driving along the road , it all came back to me , It was though I had never been away , the green rolling hill's , the mighty Waikato River to my offside , IT was as beautiful as ever. A couple of hour's drive later , it flew past and seemed a lot shorted than that , but I was jetlagged after all , the journey had flown as I filled in Eric with all the gossip and news from Home , and we laughed as heartily as ever. Dukie humour , nay Eric's humour is as unique as ever. Pulling into the drive I was greeted with two big waggie tails and squeals and whines from the Dog's Inca & Ben ( pronounced in Kiwi as BIN ) Michelle had just enough time for a kiss and Big squeeze and then she was out of the door to work as was Eric and I was left to baby-sit.
Shorts on T Shirt off , I took my place at the poll and just chilled as I bay sat the Girl's. Sheer Bliss. Was I worried that you guy's would be working in the rain was I hell. The Afternoon passed very quickly the burn time is 15 minutes at the moment and although I was wearing Factor 60 ( yep it does exist , but you would never get Brit's to wear it ) I was losing my anaemic look and taking on a pleasant glow of health.
M & E had returned from work and we retired for afternoon tea and muffins on the pool side. Eric then remarked ' Kroll will be home soon , I suppose we will have to expect and emotional reunion ' Gulp !!!!! After my wibbling on Friday , which she managed to avoid , I was conscious of the fact that I would be seeing my chum for the first time in ages. I paced up and down the drive ( it's not short by any means ) , brushed my teeth , I had a shave and spruced up myself ( A little at least ).
I even considered sitting on the gate to greet her. Nope I decided I would sit by the pool and await her arrival. ' Stin , Stin , Kroll's home ' I had sooo many things to tell her , would I 'member them , all. Then suddenly like it was just yesterday , I treated to a big smiley happy face , in shorts , covered in horse poo and the biggest hug ever , I only became conscious of the fact I had lifted her off her feet , when she politely enquired. ' Could you put me down now ' I think you get the picture , Yoda will know what it's like. Pressies , hug's squeezes and massages card's etc were given and received from all parties concerned and she smiled from ear to ear when , I gave her the largest T Shirt I had ordered from the USA earlier in the year to cheer her up from all her chums. It was signed by em all and she was made up as you can see. We then spent the rest of the afternoon chatting sprawled across the poolside , and for the first time ever , Kroll did not ask me to stop speaking for a moment , soooo many things had happened since she had left the UK , she is almost up to speed now , but now she is telling me to stop speaking and breathe some times at least. It's a mega opening blog ! and it''s now Friday and she is off tomorrow and we is going shopping. I have already uploaded photos that you will get later on today when I finish the rest of this entry. Hitman , When you see Agnes M8 , how far could you be from your impression ,all I will say is Hubba Hubba. I did as a way of saying fank you for doing the Blog! For me.
Stan 
