I spent the morning packing, trying to get some work done, and packing some more, although luckily some long-forgotten part of my brain kicked in and remembered that I needed to bring the goose fat I had bought the other day. Yet, when looking at those measley jars of goose fat, I wondered, "Do I have time to buy more?" and I ran up the street to the grocery store and came back with four more jars. Apparently I can get to my grocery store and back again in 25 minutes if I push it!
I then took the Tube to the airport, and got to the check-in, where I was surprised not to see my usual "Priority Access" line, only to realise that they had changed everything around, so that you were supposed to check-in at a touch-screen kiosk, and then just drop off your bags as needed. Given that I had no bags to check, I just went to the kiosk, where it couldn't do the automated reading of my passport, and so I had to punch in all of the info by hand.
Still, I got my boarding card and made it through security, where surprisingly nobody gave me any issues about having six jars of goose fat in my luggage.
I then took a quick wander around duty free, and was surprised to see a deal they had going where you could buy two litres of Bombay Sapphire for £19. Although I had originally been thinking about getting another bottle of Hendricks, the deal on the Sapphire was too amazing to pass up (as you needed to be flying outside of the EU to get it), so I decided to go for it. What was I going to do with two litres of Bombay Sapphire? Who knows? Who cares? It was just such an amazing deal!
The flight was smooth enough, although somewhat dull given that it was a 767, which means that everyone had to watch the same movie, in this case, "Ice Age 2". (They always show some children's movie, to make sure it's appropriate for all ages). I didn't bother watching, and then there was no second movie for the flight (yes, for an eight-hour flight), so I really had nothing to do besides write Christmas cards. At least I got a number of those done!
We had a slightly bumpy landing due to intense cloud cover over Boston, but it was nothing too bad. I then flew through immigration and customs (where I'd feared they would give me problems about the goose fat or two litres of Bombay Sapphire, but the guy just waved me on through), and when I got out I realised I was actually there in time to take the 9:10 PM bus up to Portsmouth!
Except I'd read that the bus didn't stop at Terminal E, so I followed signs and raced my way through to Terminal C. Long tunnels and lots of running, with me trying not to think about how much I needed to pee!
When I arrived at the bus stop outside of Terminal C, I was looking around frantically to see if there were any signs letting me know I was in the right place. Yet, I couldn't see any.
Then this absolutely classic Boston boy asked me, "Ah, can ah halp yah?" It was literally like I was talking to Ben Affleck in Good Will Hunting, he was such a perfect stereotype of what Boston boys are like. So I asked him about the bus to Portsmouth, and he told me that I was in the right spot. Gave me a nice warm fuzzy feeling about being back in Boston, where the boys really are sweet like that!
The bus took ages to arrive, during which time I bonded with one of the flight attendants who had been on my flight. I told her about the story of surprising my parents, and she was touched too. It seems like everybody likes this story!
When the bus arrived however, the bus driver had only four seats left, and four other people got them. I even got on the bus to see if I could squeeze in at the back, but no dice. I was really annoyed, that here I'd gotten there in time to catch the bus, and yet it was full.
So I called my brother to let him know the situation, as I made my way towards Terminal A (the first stop on the bus route, so I would be more likely to get a stop on the next one), and left him a message.
Then, as I was on the moving walkway headed towards Terminal A, my phone rang. It was my brother. "Where are you?" When I told him, he said, "Stop right now. Turn around. Come back to Terminal E. We're here to pick you up!"
Can you imagine if I had gotten on that bus then? After my brother had driven all of the way down to the airport to pick me up? What had seemed like bad luck at the time was incredibly good fortune indeed!
So I raced through the parking garage, headed towards Terminal E, when as I was walking, I spotted a couple inside on one of the moving walkway glass hampster tunnels that connect the various parts of Logan to one another. The woman in the couple was very short, just like my sister-in-law. So I ran up the glass and started banging frantically on it to get their attention, and luckily when then turned around, it was indeed my brother and sister-in-law!
We then had a dramatic family reunion in the middle of the parking garage (why aren't more emotional family reunion scenes in the movies staged in dark parking garages in the middle of the night?) and then drove back up to Portsmouth, NH. I handed over the two litres of Bombay Sapphire and put the goose fat in the refrigerator, and then we pretty much flopped into bed. I'd finally made it!
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