The dog is visiting a family with two young boys for the week. Of course, it took me two trips to manage to get her and her things dropped off this morning as we both had a rather tough night. She from whimpering and being disrupted from licking her foot – me from waking and interfering with her instincts.

Poor baby.

Me, I headed for the train station. Unbeknowst to me, there was a Rugby match this afternoon at Twickingham. Making the change from the Guildford line at Ascot, I wondered why the platform seemed so crowded. Why the train which pulled in from Reading was so throughly packed with happy people that it was almost impossible to jam in encumbered by a suitcase.

Twickingham is located between Feltham and Richmond on the Reading-Waterloo line.

Getting through the fifty people jammed into the entry way to exit the train was even more of an adventure. Rugby fans are good – one of the guys picked up my suitcase and passed it out – then straight armed a fool trying to get on the train so that I could escape. The idiot on the platform should have been thrilled – me and the suitcase meant there was room for two more n that full train car.

Southwest Trains do not add either extra trains or cars for one time events. Go figure.

Standing at the Heathrow Bus stop – I boarded the first bus that rolled in and was off to the airport. Then noticed I was on the 490 en route to Terminal 5.  As I found out, this is a longer route compounded by the opportunity to take the Underground from Terminal 5 back one stop to Heathrow Central.

Dragging my weary self up to the baggage drop off, there was yet another unpleasant surprise. My flight was canceled. I started unbelieving as the very polite, very British ticket agent informed me that the gate was now closing on a flight to Frankfurt. Had I been a few minutes earlier, he could have rescheduled me. As it was, he was booking me into a later flight that evening.

I just won an additional hour hanging out in the Terminal 2 Heathrow lounge.

Hours later and swollen toes, I was greated by a delighted Ms Cooper at the Frankfurt Airport.  My lovely family was there to provide a comfortable ride home.