Back to London

It seemed I could take a train from Redondela to Santiago but I would need a taxi at both ends and still have to pay for the van at the camp site, so I took the van intending to leave it in the long term carpark.

The journey was uneventful A-9 all the way but there were no signs for long term parking so I ended up in the short term carpark. I took the opportunity to tidy up the van including emptying the perishables from the wonky fridge. I say wonky, but there was no real sun for a week and I resorted to using the hook-up to get some life in the battery. Even with my intelligent charger, the AGM battery wouldn't take a proper charge and remained stuck at 3 of 6 charging points. It is only 16 months old, but seems completely lifeless. I also unsuccessfully tried to book onto the flight, everything froze when I tried to log onto the Ryan Air.

I'd checked out long-term parking before I left and $24 for the week seemed reasonable. Leaving the short-term parking I was already 2km with another to go so I consulted Google again and found a nearer park, one I had seen on the way in. On arrival the many attendants insisted I took the gear off the roof in order to get through their security. This was a pain but after some debate I got the land buggy down and into the van. I got in to park the van but no, they wanted the keys. They motioned that I should get in their shuttle bus, gave me a receipt and off I went, leaving the perishables I'd meant to bin in the cab!

Good old Ryan Scare. Having been unable to log onto Ryan Air I went to check-

in who promptly charged me $30. I complained, the site wouldn't let me log-in; did I have proof, a screen shot maybe? I paid up nearly doubling the cost of the ticket.

Sitting in the boarding lounge I took a look at my parking receipt. It was just pre-printed instructions on how to call for the shuttle bus on arrival back to collect my van, no receipt. What had I done? handed over my keys with no receipt, would I see the van again?

Arriving at Stanstead I went to find the police, could they ask Santiago police to drift past the parking lot to check that my van was still there. It doesn't work like that sir, we couldn't ask that sort of request of the Met let alone a foreign police force.

So I ring the number on the sheet and lo, non Spanish speaker meets non English speaker, 'where is my receipt', no comprehendo. Now I'm worried. I buy a train ticket for London. On the train and considering my options the phone rings. A nice woman from the parking company, speaks perfect English. Apparently the guy I had spoken to had rung her. My receipt had been emailed to me but the guys messed up the email so she now emails it to my phone, and it arrives, I can relax.

So, back in London, on Thursday I had appointments, on Friday meet up with daughter from New Zealand before she flew back that evening and help get ready for Kev's memorial day on Saturday. All I had to do was get some booze in and water everything, the place was parched. The automatic system wasn't working so I fixed that and went shopping. The day was lovely. Relatives and friends arrived, tennis was played and Matt ran Cardio, just as Kev would have liked. The BBQ was lit and much drink drunk. A short ceremony to dedicate Kev a fruit tree and sprinkle ashes.

I left London on Monday for a late flight from London Stanstead. My pass gets me to the boundary and I approach the ticket man at Stanstead to pay the balance. No ticket sir, that's a £66 penalty fare then. What! The machines at Liverpool Street won't give you a ticket from boundary, where is it anyway? Boundary is London sir, you are in Stanstead and don't have a valid ticket, £66 please. Hang on a minute this is 'London' Stanstead, see the difficulty? No, £66 if you want to catch your flight. Caught by Ryan Scare on the way in and the rail operator on the way out. so much for cheap air travel.