Madeira Airport is relatively small but still pretty confusing. We were there in bags of time and after a cup of coffee decided to go through security.
That wasn't too bad as airport security goes but then we were in shop land. Decided to go to our gate but got totally confused because suddenly we were faced with another passport control and that took some time to get through. Nobody seemed to be in any great rush to do anything. Got to the gate to find a very long queue but on checking our boarding passes we were informed we had speedy boarding. We had no idea why but on inspection our boarding passes did include the letter S which must have stood for speedy. I guess if we had SS it would have been Speedy Stewards.
We have no idea why we had the letter S and hadn't been informed of what it meant. We got segregated and allowed on the plane first. All very confusing and poor communication all round but hey ho.
Then onto the plane and that bit where the aisle is full and you need to grab that final place in the overhead locker before the 6ft 4 in guy who is coming in the other direction grabs it from you and you end up trying to find a place further back whilst other very large people are doing the same.
Have I said that I hate airports? Just in case I haven't... Here goes. I hate airports.
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But let's move on. The holiday is over and it's back to normality, whatever that means.
But before reality kicks in, I spent a couple of hours on the flight with a wonderful piece of little known Norfolk history.
I think I have mentioned before that I have been reading a book on the history of Newhaven Court in Cromer. Newhaven Court was a country pile and then a country hotel and before the Second World War paid host to what has been described as the second most important tennis tournament in England after Wimbledon.
The tournaments were played on indoor courts at Newhaven. I am still struggling to locate exactly where Newhaven Court was situated but the courts are described as being just across the Norwich Road from what became Cromer Lawn Tennis Club.
The name of the Newhaven Courts must have left a lasting impression on the tennis world as I remembered when I lived there helping out at a major tournament at the Lawn Tennis Club of which I was a member and where I played regularly. Those tournaments seemed somehow to be a legacy from Newhaven Court despite the fact I was unaware of that history.
Many of the tennis greats of the time played on the tournaments at Newhaven Court including Britain's Fred Perry and the French world number one women's player Suzanne Lenglen.
Incidentally the Newhaven courts burnt down a few years before the hotel. There seemed to be a lot of burning down around those buildings.
At the end of each chapter of the book is a list of sources which include Pathe News coverage which is now available on You Tube. I feel an evening of You Tube viewing coming on. Once I've caught up on everything of course.
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On the aircraft coming back from Madeira I had a Coca Cola. That reminded me that I have made a promise to myself to improve my eating habits once I'm home and the first two steps will be to eat more fruit, more regularly and going back to increasing my water consumption considerably as I do feel I suffer from dehydration at times.
The latter is a pretty easy thing to do but not so simple when you have to factor in going out somewhere that's away from a toilet. As they say when you've gotta go you've gotta go. And off I go from today's blog.