Wednesday 8th April 2026
It rained heavily in the night and it was still raining when they took Elton to school this morning. Today Elton went to school dressed as James Bond, suit, collar and bow tie, very smart.
Had we have known about our flight change, we would have kept the hire car, so we actually wasted a day yesterday and packed too early!!!! So like yesterday we hung around the house until the rain stopped and the sun came out, then headed straight to the pool.
Again sun and clouds but when the sun came throughs, it was hot, we felt it burn us. Andrew joined us later but by then we had decided to leave so borrowed his car to get back🤠🤠, his new 4-litre BMW X 6; some oomph under the right foot; shame there is a 30-MPH speed limit around here👹👹. It was now we got another message from Virgin informing us our new flight was being pushed back “another” hour to 11.30pm, what’s going on???
Soon after lunch we got a call from Andrew asking us to collect him and said we are all heading off to view a second house as he had discounted yesterday’s.
Andrew collected, we headed off to The Hamptons, another area within Woodfield. Here the houses were much grander, the tree-lined avenues were wider, this’s area is more impressive than the last house we saw. We met the agent and when he opened the front door, well, a very big “Wow”, very impressive. Four bedrooms 5 bathroom, a home movie room, a much nicer garden with a bigger pool and the bonus, no traffic noise. Obviously this house is in a different league to yesterdays and it was very impressive; we think he was impressed, we certainly were!!!
Today Elton is being collected for the first time by his new part-time nanny and coincidentally we all pulled up at the house together. Christine got another email from Virgin, OMG what else, but to our surprise we had our seats allocated, and we are very pleased; the first bit of good news we’ve had from Virgin today.
After showering and final packing we left, Andrew very kindly drove us to Miami Airport through dreadful weather, very heavy rain. Dropped off we walked Straight up to the desk and checked in, straight through passport control and very quickly through security. Now for our next disappointment: in this particular terminal there is no airport lounge to enjoy so had a four hour wait in those not-so-comfortable chairs!!! A route march away was a bar so thought a couple of drinks would ease the pain. I ordered a white wine and a Bloody Mary and nearly fainted when presented with the bill, $58, (ÂŁ44) so only had one round!!!
The four hours dragged by but there was some entertainment. Somehow Virgin had really “cocked up”, most probably because they cancelled the 1830hrs flight. It turned out all upper class was completely full so no upgrades available, but there was one seat in economy available, but here is the issue. Virgin had managed to book in one person too manny in Premium and was looking for one volunteer to “downgrade”!!!!! The entertaining part was how their “offer” to downgrade kept going “up-and-up and-up” as the boarding time got nearer. The final offer we heard was a free return flight to “any” destination Virgin fly to!!! Someone obviously capitulated; just as well for us as it would have caused extra delay!!
Eventually we all boarded, every seat occupied, but then we couldn’t get off the stand due to some issue with another plane blocking a stand and causing a “plane jam”.
Eventually we got away at midnight, five and a half later than our original booking, but the pilot was confident he would make up some of the time as there was a strong following wind.
Apart from a small child kicking up because he/she didn’t want to wear a seat belt, the flight went well and we did catch up some time, and the bonus was: our bags were on the carousel as we walked in to reclaim.
We got to the Elizabeth line and a train arrived very soon after, and got to Paddington in-time to catch the 1430hrs instead of the 1530hrs train that we had anticipated to use.
We eventually got home via “Hope Farm” to collect our car a little after 1800hrs and in-spite the issues with Virgin at Miami AirPort, the journey back was flawless, and we got to catch Mark (builder) for an update as to where we are.
Thank you Andrew for putting us up, sharing your Country Club facilities and making our visit memorable, the downside to that is of course, we will be back!!