On graduation, American Airlines and websites!

Well I am back and am pleased to say that all went well with the graduation. I found my suit! Hurrah! I had, in my infinite wisdom, stored it in our lockup so I would have it safe for when I needed it! Great, except I have the world's worst memory so could not remember this little snippet of information!

Susan is well but a bit cheesed off. She needs occupation and is endeavouring to find some.

Our son will finally pick up his boat, which has been languishing in Shepperton Marina since he bought it in January, and sail it to his mooring this coming week. It needed some work done on it to make it Thames Water compatible and this has now been completed. He can soon start moving all his boxes out of the various hideholes he has them in and get his life together. He says he is not going to keep the psychedelic curtains. Shame.

We came home courtesy of American Airlines. It took thirty nine and a half hours to reach Anguilla from Heathrow. Technical problems with the plane in New York were followed by a medical emergency on the same flight. This led to our touching down in Bermuda to let the patient be taken to hospital. By the time we arrived in Puerto Rico to pick up our connection to Anguilla, it had long gone. We stayed overnight in the Intercontinental in Carolina, very nice. When we arrived for the flight home we had a further delay due to technical problems on board. The captain of the New York - San Juan flight had mentioned that the delays were longer because American Airlines have cut back on maintenance staff. Being on two flights by the same airline which both developed technical problems, and remembering back to November when Joe and I travelled (or tried to travel) to Miami with this airline and were left stranded for hours in Puerto Rico as there was not a serviceable plane for us, makes me think that there is something seriously wrong with this airline. If a spokeman for the company is reading this blog, it would be interesting to hear what the official line is.

This morning I have updated my website. This is a long overdue task which I had put off because there was a fault in my index page I did not know how to overcome. This morning I have spent hours sorting it out and the result is the new, more up to date website. I hope my tinkering with it will result in more hits. The address is: http://www.pennylegg.com/ if you would like to read the latest version. Let me know what you think.

Ok I think that is all for now. I have a million things to do, so had better go and do them!

Life Moves On...

Life on Anguilla moves on apace. The sea, which settled down a little last week has decided to play up again and we have large waves and a fair bit of breeze. It is nowhere near as bad as two weeks ago, when the ferry ports had to shut down and all fishing boats stayed at home, but it is building gradually, so watch this space.

In the meantime we are looking forward to popping home to see the folks in England. It was November when I was last in the UK and July when Joe was last there. We have things to do and people to see.

On April 12th I am graduating from the Open University, having finally finished my Humanities degree. I cannot find my best suit, which is a bit of a pain to say the least. There is not much call for suits here on Anguilla and I can honestly say that in the last three years I have used it a handful of times. Now I need it, I have no idea where I have put it. This means that I will have to go out and seek a new suit as a matter of urgency when I arrive in Blighty. I had not intended shopping so soon in the trip! Oh well, I have to look on the bright side, I will take my mother with me and that will be some quality time with her!

We are going to visit our friend Susan after this. She lives in the North of England and recently retired. She is coming to terms with life in a much slower lane than she has been used to. Personally I am dreading this, from full ahead to almost stop because of a birthday. Some people long to retire and others look forward to it as a necessary evil. It will be interesting to see how she is coping.

To get ready for this trip we have both had to adjust our schedules. It is the end of the UK financial year and the beginning of a new one which means that end of year accounts need to be balanced and reports sent to London. My poor husband has had to work like a Trojan to get things up to date at his office before we leave. He could have done without the OU graduation date so close to the end of the financial year.

I am just coming to the end of a very busy period of magazine commissions and the ACOCI Connection newsletter. Work is starting to tail off now as the trip is coming closer but will start again immediately afterwards, with interviews of several local persons of interest on Anguilla for two different publications. Life as a freelance writer is never static and new opportunities always need to be grabbed with both hands when they are presented. I will be using aspects of the UK trip as the basis for several articles for British magazines.

I just hope we do not freeze while we are there as the weather has been awful. At least here, when the weather is bad, it is still warm!