It was a terrible flight back. Not because the flight left after midnight their time and landed at three a.m. our time. That I could have coped with, a cup of coffee and I would have at least got a bit of sleep.

No, it was the infants who couldn't cope. In surround-sound stereo. The 'plane was full of them. I eventually managed to get the one next to me off to sleep by giving him the chocolate from my dinner box, but the one behind me kept throwing tantrums. Of course, this woke every other kid ont he 'plane, and when kids are woken when they want to sleep, they scream.

I tried a coffee but it was too weak. I think even a double espresso would have been too weak.

The issue of how to get home from a three a.m. flight had occupied our minds a great deal. We took some internet time and worked out that trying to do it on public transport wouldn't get us home before six a.m. no matter how we did it. So we tried the pre-paid shared-taxi thing Schiphol offers. Very dubiously too, especially as the website that takes your credit card details wasn't secure. Ouch. I must write to Connexxion about that.

We expected to find some sleepy clerk yawning "oh a driver will be along in around an hour". Instead it was a hive of activity. Much bustle. Even the adjoining snack shop was open, though its stores were much depleted by this time of day.

We reported in, and waited to be routed. Within twenty minutes we were called (you can wait up to an hour), boarded onto the last vacant seats on a minibus and driven home. The routing software links into a navigation system on the taxi, and people are dropped off in the most economical manner possible.

We got home at around quarter to five, much more comfortably than on public transport and much sooner. We had tea and watched the sun rise then went to bed.

Anyway, the weather was hotter than in Turkey. I hear it started the day before we got back. And it lasted until Wednesday.

Monday we collected the cats, Wednesday I had another session in the driving simulator, Thursday they came to fit the skylight in the top bedroom, so it was a busy week.

I haven't yet got around to dowloading the footage to extract photos. I don't know whether it's my motherboard, my firewire or my camera, but it drops the connection so regularly I need an expanse of time to watch it. Which right now I don't have, as you can gather from the lateness of this blog.