Sunday, 14th June, 2026
I’m leaving on a jet plane …. tomorrow although it’s beautiful outside this morning. It isn’t hot and I want hot. I also like planning and leaving as little to chance as possible. So that is my job. In the sunshine this morning, I am programming and positioning accurately the automatic watering systems. My Housekeeper is completing the washing and ironing and packing. Soon we will be ready for the journey. All the neighbours are instructed with their responsibilities. That’s my job – to keep them in line.
In 2009, I was just completing the planning of a drive across Europe to our Greek home. These were times before Sat.Navs. which have transformed life for people like me with no sense of direction. I used online routemasters to produce an itinerary with distances and timings. I did all the driving and my Navigator kept me on the right road. If you click to open the route plan, you will see that I drove non-stop from 8.30 am as we rolled off the Hull-Zeebrugge ferry and drove through Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, France, Switzerland and Italy arriving at the port of Ancona just over 24hrs later. By that time, I was having to hold my eyes open with pegs but it was one of my favourite parts of the time away.
I’ve checked in online at our Hotel at Gatwick Airport and downloaded Boarding Passes and Executive Lounge Passes on to our phones. I’ve made Whatsapp contact with the girl who manages the property we are renting so she knows our flights and arrival times although they may be tricky depending on the Passport/Entry System. Whatsapp is brilliant though for easy and immediate communication.
Another improvement recently has been for a change to restrictions throught Gatwick Airport. For quite a while, we have not been able to carry liquids of more than 100 ml bottles. Now we can have 2 ltr containers and they don’t have to be put in plastic bags. I can take my aftershave and we can carry suncream, etc which is much more expensive in Europe.
Even more importantly for me, I don’t have to unpack all my electrical gadgets and place them in separate trays> I used to have to unpack bags of Laptop, iPads, Kindles, Smartphones, PowerBank, Firestick plus all the cables. Now, everything can be left in place and the scanner can detect and pass it. That feels wonderful and speeds up the process.
The Smiths Detection System is a digital screening platform which detect explosives, weapons, contraband, toxic chemicals, narcotics, and biological threats. I was amazed to read that the old rules had been in place for 18 years – the year before I retired and seriously started trotting the globe.