Short trip back to UK

Over the past 6 weeks we have thrown ourselves 100% into our new life here. We have made friends with a number of local french families and our younger daughter, although finding the language barrier difficult, at 8 years old, is integrating well and has had her first party invitation and has been to play at a new friends house after school. When I collected her from school on Wednesday I had a huge feeling of pride in what she had managed to achieve in such a short space of time.

I am so happy here and although I am sure that there are going to be hard times ahead, I hope that we can cope and that in the long term we make a success of our life here.

Saying that, there are some luxuries that I miss and I am missing my older daughter who is back in the UK desperately. We talk regularly on skype using a webcam, but it is not the same. I am missing out on her learning to drive and being there to support her in the run up to her AS Level exams.

Therefore, I booked a flight back to the UK last Sunday to see her. I set of in our little van to the airport, leaving my husband behind to look after our youngest and do the school run for a couple of days.

The long term carpark at Toulouse airport is easy to find and I took the free courtesy bus to the new Hall D that opened in April. Toulouse Blagnac is now a large modern airport with a reasonable duty free area and nice seating in the departure lounge.

I arrived in good time and went without a problem straight to the Gate to await boarding. All went well until the flight was delayed and I ended up waiting until midnight on false hope to be told that the flight had been cancelled. The excuse by the airline was the volacnic ash cloud was causing problems, however every other airline left the airport that evening! So I made the 50 minute journey back to our house in the Tarn et Garonne to break the news to my older daughter by text and unpack my bag and go to bed. Very frustrating.

I have now rebooked the trip for mid June, so hope things go better next time!