Here I am in Blighty!

Greetings gentle reader, from Murray Steele's place in Renhold near Bedford, on my way to Nottingham. I rang Murray to say g'day and he kindly invited me for coffee, a shower and a chance to check emails, before we go and have lunch with Leo Murray and the Cranfield Old Fogies.

Arrived at Heathrow a little ahead of schedule this morning at about 6.40am and managed my way through immigration, baggage collection and customs before I hit my first "experience" of being back in the UK.

I was struggling manfully towards the Eurocar bus stop to get the courtesy shuttle to the depot to pick up my rental car for the next couple of weeks when, about 50 yards from the stop, I saw the Eurocar shuttle bus lights go on and knew it would be a close thing. I left the trolley to head to the sidewalk and do my best to get the attention of the driver, which I did, so he was able to look at me waving at him while he drove away!

Fortunately the wait for the next shuttle was relatively brief and I was in the Eurocar rental office after a drive round the Heathrow perimeter and a queue that was already lengthy, but moving at reasonable pace. My second "experience" was not long in coming as I was "segued" by the counter attendant from the auto VW golf that I'd prepaid 2 weeks for to a manual Vauxhall Vectra, on the basis of "Go to zone 15/16 and pick out the car that suits". I returned in state of some frustration and requested I be given the car I had reserved and for which I'd paid ("but sir, see it says 'or similar'"; "indeed, but 'manual' is not similar to 'auto' - I want the car I reserved and paid for". A few minutes out the back and your man returned to say "Please go to zone 5/6 and choose a car". I am now the happy driver of a Toyota Prius Hybrid with GPS, cruise control, etc and I've got to Bedford without making much of a dint at all in the fuel guage! My mate Mark Hindwell from Emerald is fond of "instant kharma" both as a song and observation and he would have said same in the context - I was annoyed but remained civilized, was assertive rather than aggressive, and did well :-). Now for that shower .....