Emi will soon be getting ready to begin her long trip home from Tokyo to York. We had originally thought that she would get back on Tuesday the 17th of April, but that was an error in our international time-zone calculations.
She actually arrives back in England, (Manchester Airport,) tomorrow at 7:20 pm.
She will be catching a taxi to the bus terminal in Tokyo at 6am, Japan time, (10 pm this evening UK time,) to travel the two hours to Narita airport where she will eventually board a 'plane from Japan to Dusseldorf. (This leg of the journey takes approximately 11 hours.) Then there will be a two hour wait for her connection from Germany to Manchester.
Once she arrives at Manchester she will have to go though immigration and customs, then she must board a train to York, getting back here fairly late in the evening of the 16th. I'll be picking her up from York station and will be so glad to see her. These last ten days have been a challenge of sorts without her around. Django will be pleased too, he's really missed her...
The last three days have been made slightly easier by the arrival of my eldest daughter, Julia Tuesday Nelson, and my grandson Luke. They travelled up from London to spend some time with me and it was really nice to have their company for three days. Luke, who next week will be 18 years old, is a wonderful, intelligent person who is planning a career in architecture.
On Friday we visited Castle Howard and on Saturday went to Wakefield to visit my mum. She was so pleased to meet them both again.
Julia and Luke went back to London just after lunch so this evening I've reverted to my 'ready-meal' status. When Julia and Luke were here, we ate out every night, the first night at a restaurant in town where we were joined by my youngest daughter Elle. The last two nights we ate at an excellent local village pub.
So, only one more night of sleeping alone. It will be wonderful to have Emi back again. She's been away for ten days but, to me, it felt like far, far longer.
Meanwhile, I'm still working on tracks for the 'These Stars Are Fire' album which will be released to coincide with my 70th birthday event. Really getting into these new tracks in a big way, partly because of having a handful of new guitars to inspire me. I think it will turn out to be a very strong double album...
