In the end the delay to our last flight of the day allowed us quite a long chat with Karfa about ba97, patent law and the town of Enkhuizen in North Holland. When our flight was called we followed Karfa down to the gate area. Newcastle has a holding area after scanning your boarding pass. There are some chairs to sit while you wait for the tensa barrier to be lifted. When the chairs are filled, the remaining club/status passengers line up at the tensa. So my expectation of seeing Karfa invited to be boarded first was unfortunately unrealistic.

There was some further waiting on the jetbridge and then we were finally allowed on. We chatted until doors closed and then the captain announced another short delay due to "change of runway"... Which meant taking off westwards and I suppose the waiting was for an incoming flight needing the same taxi way.

Cabin crew were very attentive with a speedy service and extra drinks offered. There were some comedy misunderstandings about who wanted gins and who wanted wines and how many we needed. We ended up with quite a selection!


Farewell sunny Newcastle!






We had a lovely Tyne!


Goats cheese salad, with very generous quantities of the main ingredient.


Rainy London.

I had wanted to take the coach to Gatwick but my brother insisted on paying for an Uber. It was a fairly uneventful journey around the M25.

No pictures of the Hilton at Gatwick south because it was raining. We went straight to the room and fell asleep.

Next stop, Funchal!