Patience — An Elegant Sufficiency

Getting around has needed a modicum of patience in the last couple of weeks, because almost every route we travel has had some kind of road closure. At times, it’s seemed like every move we took was thwarted by road works and though all of this work needs to be done, does it really all have to be done at the same time?

Last weekend, we discovered it wasn’t just on our own patch when we went to lunch in Islington with Edward and Amy. The M4 was closed in both directions (they were demolishing a bridge) and what was going to be a quick and easy visit turned out to be nothing of the sort.

We allowed plenty of time for our drive to Heathrow on Friday morning then, bearing in mind the twenty miles of roadworks and anything else that might get in the way. Thankfully, everything was moving smoothly on this occasion and we got there with time to spare.

A good job I brought my knitting!

We were heading for our pre-Thanksgiving jolly and trying out a new route British Airways has begun recently. Though my Hero has visited the city before, on both occasions he had work to do so hadn’t really explored what it has to offer. Jordi raised an eyebrow at our choice of destination and we, ourselves had wondered if it was going to be like taking a winter break in the equivalent of Sheffield.

But hey, we like Sheffield!

Our new passports got another airing and there was the additional challenge of discovering if our Global Entry had transferred too (it had).

All was tickety-boo then, as for seven and three quarter hours, we sat and knit, watched movies (Yesterday for me - now isn’t that a strange one?) listened to multiple Desert Island Discs (both Margaret Macmillan and Nitin Sawhney proving to be interesting guests with great music choices…I really liked Seu Jorge’s interpretation of Life on Mars ! Of course, in between, we were fed and watered and I might have managed a few zzzzzzs.

Upon arrival at what seemed like an otherwise empty airport, we made our way to pick up our rental car. The thing was, though, the keys we were given didn’t work.

Hmm.

My hero tried the trick of clicking the keyfob around the adjacent vehicles too, but none of them responded. We wanted to get on our way - it was now gone 7pm - gone midnight in “real money” - and we were tired and yes, a bit cranky.

My Hero went to retrieve the guy in the office, who scouted around the car park doing exactly the same random clicking in the hope of identifying the right vehicle, tracking it down eventually to one a few rows away.

At last, we were making our way to the city, down a busy freeway. We were rewarded by the most amazing spectacle as we turned the corner and got our first glimpse of the city, however…I apologise for the blurry photo!

Thing is, we’d arrived on the night the Christmas lights are switched on and it seemed like the whole population of the state, never mind the city, was out on the streets. There were road closures, people milling about, policemen on horseback, Sheriffs on motorcycles with sidecars…and needless to say, the most enormous traffic jam.

All we wanted to do was to get to our hotel.

An hour later, we were still struggling as our satnav suggested turning into yet another road with a temporary barrier across it. I was about to suggest we just park the car somewhere - anywhere - and make our way on foot to the hotel (which wasnt that far away) when a policeman saw us pull up to the road block and asked where we wanted to be. On hearing the answer “Just there!” he let us through.

Phew.