There and back

Well I did make it to London and I have made it back to Carcassonne again, but there have been many moments over the past few days when in my heart I really felt it wasn't going to happen.

My four hour door to door everything goes right perfect trip from Carcassonne to London took double that time on Sunday but I'm not complaining because the journey actually took place rather than being cancelled once more. In fact it took two days and four hours from my original departure date last Friday.

It was a gorgeous sunny Sunday morning but it had been a bitterly cold night and ice on the runway was the major concern. The first two flights of the day were diverted to Perpignan but at least the passengers were bussed down there to get their flight. The plane from Stansted was delayed which turned out to be a major blessing - the extra time allowed the sun to do it's work on the runway and in mid-afternoon the airport at Carcassonne was declared open and my flight became the first to arrive for three days. It was a relief to finally get back to London.

Debrah had a big client presentation on Monday and wanted to be in work early, so I took the opportunity to drop her into London at 8am and head off to my parents in Sussex to make up a little bit for missing them at the weekend. The roads were mostly clear and I was down there in no time - the quickest journey there for many a year.

My Mum hadn't been out since Friday because of the snow so jumped at the opportunity to come with me to the supermarket and get some more supplies, there being more bad weather forecast. I said we should stick to the main roads but not knowing the way I relied on her directions which started taking us a bit off-piste so to speak. We were very lucky to get away with one downhill icy approach to a junction - a gentle dab on the brakes and I knew immediately that we would not be able to stop and so sailed straight out and onto the main road where there was more traction. I silently thanked my lucky stars that there was no traffic at that moment whilst playing the whole thing down for my mother's benefit.

We came back on the main road all the way!

The journey home to London was a nightmare. I left straight after lunch, aware of the weather warning - initail rain turned to snow and then a blizzard but the traffic kept moving but slower and slower and slower until it finally came to a halt at the top of Brixton Hill - it then took me 2 hours to cover the five miles from Brixton to Borough (if that far) and then it took us a further three and half hours to get from Debrah's office to home - normally a 30 minute journey. All in all it took me 7 hours to cover the 50 miles from Sussex back to Hornsey.

Fastest journey time going out - slowest coming back. There was no point getting upset about it - there was nothing anyone could have done to make it any better. Despite the moaning Middle Englanders on the TV the next day complaining about the lack of warning, the lack of information and the national disgrace of our inability to cope, the reality was that a warning was issued, the roads were gritted, people were driving sensibly and I saw many instances of fantastic public spirit and stoicism as passers-by helped those skidding, falling off bikes, falling over and in general need of assistance. The snow just overwhelmed the system. We sat motionless for over an hour in traffic and saw no road rage or bad temper - just a resignation as to the situation whilst the police dealt with broken down buses and blocked roads and whatever else was thrown at them.

And whilst all this went on the Eurostar problems had created problems for Eurotunnel. we had a reservation for this morning but for a couple of days it was very unclear whether it would be honoured or not.

Despite more warnings about icy roads and freezing temperatures, in the end we had the smoothest journey one could hope for from London to Calais and then on to our Carca home - so what if we left at 2am and arrived at 5pm - we got here and now we can finally start to relax and enjoy the festive season.