Departed Santa Lucia and went back to London to spend a few days with Neal, Georgia, and the Grand brats before heading off to Charleston.  We checked in to the Hilton in Kensington so we didn’t displace the au pair and disrupt life at Railway Cuttings too much.  We had brought a bunch of goodies from Spain – Iberico Jamon, 3 different types of Tuna, 2 different cheeses, and Force 12 Nespresso capsules.  Had a fun time and it was good to be with the children.

Then it was 1st Class on BA back to Charlotte and then AA into Charleston.  The BA tickets were done through our Russian friends in San Francisco who do discounted business and first class tickets, and they came up with a deal on BA.  Mind you can only get these deals as a US resident, so we had to provide BA with proof that we had US passports and were US residents before we got our tickets! The new BA First check-in and customs set-up at LHR is amazing and we breezed through in a matter of minutes and headed for the Concorde Lounge to have some booze and snackies.  Beautiful and spacious lounge where you could have a full English cooked to order – definitely the way to travel. A great flight with excellent food, wine, and service, which felt really good as we were not paying full whack by any means!  It was a daylight flight; taking off at 12noon UK time, but there were still people climbing into their BA jammies and burrowing under their duvet as soon as we reached cruising altitude. Why do they do it? Are they sleep deprived or addicted to BA jammies? Always amazes me that people go into this “must sleep” mode as soon as they get on a plane. Bet the crew love it!  I mean we were due into Charleston at 11.00pm – great timing for a night-cap, bed and straight into the local time system.  Super flights and into Charleston bang on time, only to wait over an hour for our bags to appear!  Always, the same in Charleston, you always wait an age for your bags – really annoying to say the least.  Had booked a car to meet us, but the driver was really nice and didn’t seem bothered by the wait.  Big tip time!  We had arranged to stay with Debbie at Park Circle for a week or so before we moved into our Mt Pleasant condo for 3 months.  However, Matt, Maeve, and Mira, of EVO fame, were homeless after their house burnt down one night when they were all out to dinner, and Debbie had taken them in until their rental house became free.  Debbie put us in her suite downstairs while she camped in the upstairs study.  Fabulous house and it didn’t feel like 6 people, and 2 dogs, were all living together, but still we wanted Debbie to get her bedroom back and managed to get into our rental a week earlier.

Marky drove me around to sort out the tax and new plates on the Nissan in order to get it out of storage and back on the road.  My truck was immaculate thanks to LaRonne’s tender care while we were away.  Great to be back in my SUV after all those small European things I was forced to drive in England & Spain!  We moved into our little condo in Village Creek Lane in Mt Pleasant which backed onto Shem Creek and were pleasantly surprised to find we had a large Publix, Post Office, Library and about 6 restaurants all within 5 minutes drive.  Ann joined the local water aerobics centre with BB and I joined the Pivotal gym, plus we had a good jolking/walking route around our neighbourhood, so good to go as they say.

We planned to stay in Charleston for 3 months as that was the time needed to write the basics of my book with the help of the ghost writers at LifeBook in the UK. I did recorded interviews with Helen, LifeBook’s lady in Charleston, which were sent to the UK for transcribing/editing and returned to me for editing and approval.  It was evident by session two that the transcribing was not working!  I then agreed with Tom, my project manager in the UK that he would send a word document and I would rework it and return for the book development process.  It basically meant I was writing the book, but the interview process and chats with Tom concentrated my thinking/writing and that coupled with my editor-in-chief keeping the literary workings in shape meant things progressed at a steady pace!  However, it did mean hitting our storage units in Hanahan to dig out photos and diaries – oh joy!  Everything was just as it had been dumped into storage by our manic movers when we rented the house, which meant we didn’t know where anything was!  Arranged with our storage people to hire a couple of their workers and literally take everything out, sort, and repack.  We thought we were in for a 2-3 day slog but our workers (off duty fireman from the station next door) were amazing and we had everything done in about 8 hours.  I sorted through dozens of albums to select photos for the book, plus put all the slides Lis had left me onto disc, which was fascinating, distracting, and brought back a lot of memories.

This was all going on while we visited, our doctor, dentist, optician, lawyers, accountant, and financial advisor and caught up with all our friends.  This was kicked off by Scott & BB having us round for ribs on the big green egg just after we moved in.  It was a hectic time catching up with everyone plus spending as much time as possible with Marky, but enormous fun.  Charleston had not improved in our time away and really cemented our decision to sell 108. We were not alone in this and Scott & BB were selling their house to move to Greenville – everyone was leaving!

I also had to renew both my US and UK passports before we took off to Asia, plus get 6 months visas for Aus.  That in itself is a saga!  My UK passport which had to be renewed at the passport office in UK was completed and returned in 10 days – impressive!  But, my US passport was a different matter and I couldn’t find out what was going by on-line tracking or talking to various muppets with DoS on the phone.  I then decided it was lost and reported it as such and asked for a new passport.  At that point I received a call from a super lady in the “lost” department who said that they had confirmation it was delivered to the specified address and that I should double-check and get back to her.  I then found it sitting in reception at Marky’s flat as no one had bothered to let Mark know it was there!!  Anyway, then once again in the good to go department, or rather the good to try and get my Aussie visa.  The standard visa is for 3 months and everything is done on-line, but it still took three phone calls to the North American passport centre in Ottawa to find out what type visa to apply for and what the requirements were.  Nothing in your passport these days – approval was with Border Control in Aus and all you had to do was rock up and present your passport!  The digital age still leaves me with a strong feeling that so much can go wrong it is not funny – we shall see.  Australia was our only visa hurdle – all the other spots like Singapore, Bali, NZ, and Tahiti we were all under the 3 month limit which seems to be the norm these days.

Then it was off to Texas.  Scott & BB and we were scheduled to spend 4-5 days with the Bethels in New Braunfels – talk about and eating and drinking outing!  We duly ate and drank too much, which started off with Chicken Fried Steak at the Antler Café – truly the best Chicken Fried Steak there is – and I always start the meal with the Garlic Frogs Legs; all accompanied by “dressed” Modelos.  Texas is a great country!!

Then it was back to Charleston to continue work on the book.  It was apparent that my book and photos would exceed the normal book size for a LifeBook publication, but agreed with Tom that it should be done.  Turning out to be one expensive publication!  At this time 2 gentlemen in the UK who were writing the history of 1^st Cambridgeshire Regiment for the 100^th anniversary of the battle of Passchendaele/Third Battle of Ypres contacted me to ask if Richard Wing was my grandfather.  As he had won the MM, been mentioned in despatches, and specifically named by the general commanding the 1^st Cambs in his history of the regiment, it seemed that Granddad was going to have a prominent place with the regiment’s history.  I was sent all the documentation they had on Dick Wing and I found out he had been a stretcher bearer, had won his MM in the Second Battle of Ypres, and was killed in the Third.  Even though I lived with my Grandmother for years, and knew my Grandfather had received the MM, I never knew he was a stretcher bearer for the last 3 years of the war.  I took photos for them of his MM and campaign medals that would be included in the regimental records.

Ann’s good friend Riley had arranged a big party of Ann’s workmates and friends at his DC house.  Ann had a few days playing catch-up with Riley and Abdul before I rocked up for the party.  A large gathering with amazing food prepared by Abdul – quite an event!

Then it was off to Alabama for a family gathering of the Hollands at the Guntersville Yacht Club, all arranged by Bill and Beth.  We got into Birmingham in enough time to have dinner at the Hot & Hot Fish Club – just amazing food – but this time the service was terrible!  Still a good dinner!  Guntersville was fun with 3 generations of the Holland Clan bonding over food and wine for 2 days!

Got our rental dates and flights screwed up so we ended up spending a night at the airport Hilton before flying out to San Francisco.  Shortly after we checked in Marky rocked up on his bike to take possession of the Nissan so he could sell it for us – no sense of putting it in storage for another year.  New truck when we get back in 2018!

Good flight into San Fran where we spent a couple of nights at the downtown Hilton before catching Singapore Airlines to the city where I had lived for 15 years – S’pore.  We hadn’t been to SF for about 20 years and its becoming a “refuge city” had really changed things!  We intended to walk to the museums, art galleries, and restaurants we had listed and received routes from the concierge that would avoid the large pockets of vagrants living on the streets.  We clipped the edges of some these areas in our wanderings which was apparent by the stench that pervaded the streets. Disgusting and dangerous, what a great combination. The Museum of Asia Art was just stunning and well worth the effort.  Had lunch at Fisherman’s Wharf for old time’s sake and then it was time to start the first leg of our travels through Asia and the Antipodes.