Friday 19th July, 2013             1620

Yes, despite my brother’s fiance threatening to cook steaks ultimately it was Dominos pizzas at nearly midnight outside in the cooler night air on Wednesday.

I had managed to procure a fan from the hotel which, whilst it merely moved warm air around, did help a little.

Yesterday I went shopping for more clothes and had my dirty laundry cleaned courtesy of the pub, which was where I spent most of the day until I hit “the wall”. Mid-evening a customer very kindly offered me a lift to my hotel to save me getting a bus and despite my original intention of going out to get some food down myself I plumped for using the hotel café and ordered a burger and a cider. It filled a hole but halfway through the drink I nodded off briefly and so retired to bed.

I still managed to sleep until merely 0545 today and waited until the shops would be open before going out. I took my Nokia to a shop and left it there to have it unlocked and thus render it usable on China Mobile and will collect it tomorrow. Next it was Tesco to buy most of my shopping list of stupid things I can’t get in China. The original plan had been to go to Flitwick today to see an old friend but that was postponed due to her infant being ill. Instead I decided to dump the shopping in my room, go to a cheap pub nearby for a couple and then head to my brother’s pub.

Upon opening the room door my initial thought was that I had been burgled. I knew the cleaners hadn’t been yet because some rubbish I had left outside was still there and the room looked different. It took me a second to realise the red thing in the middle of the floor was my missing suitcase! Not a phone call received from start to finish and if that is what normally happens when peoples’ luggage is delayed then the airlines/baggage handling companies really ought to take a long hard look at their methods. It IS an upsetting thing when it happens, it’s damned inconvenient and causes a lot of worry so the least they should do is keep people informed.

After checking everything was still there (briefly, and it appears to be) I went to reception to ask what had happened. Apparently it had been delivered late yesterday afternoon but when the hotel staff looked at the origin (Hefei) they not unnaturally assumed it belonged to one of the Chinese guests staying there. It took the manageress this morning to marry the name on the paperwork with the hotel guest list to have it sent to my room. Needless to say it is a huge relief nonetheless, not least because I now have my mother’s gifts to give her.

She is currently in the holding tank of Wexham Park hospital awaiting release on parole, which should be within the next hour. The trouble is, nobody is available to collect her for another two hours and my suggestion that we paid for a taxi to get her was dismissed because she wouldn’t like it. Ergo it has fallen yet again to one of my sisters to whom it apparently always falls.

Such is life.