It was a late rise the morning after the rush trip back from Africa but the sleep was really needed. Back at the flat at Hammersmith again, we had a really civilised breakfast of porridge, followed by bacon and eggs. I rang Ruth and made arrangements for Joan and I to drop up to Hatfield in the afternoon to catch up with them again before I flew home. We reached Hatfield by and just relaxed and chatted with Peter and Ruth for most of the afternoon as it was getting pretty cold by then. We went up to check out their new house, which was set in a fabulous rural setting (even with cows outside the kitchen window!) but it looked very expensive. We returned to London by 8pm and picked up a frozen pizza and lasagne to eat back at the flat. It was a relaxing evening back at 5A Batoum Gardens with a couple of visitors.
The following day was another late rise and general bumming around the flat most of the day. I spent most of the day sorting out my clothing and the various souvenirs of my long travels. I decided to toss out my
sleeping bag, air bed and shoes in order to get my bag weight down. Joan and I then spent a couple of hours at the laundromat washing almost every item of clothing from our travels. After a later afternoon nap, we went out to dinner at the local Italian restaurant (it was too cold to go further afield!) of lasagne, steak and escalope of veal with white wine. We returned to the flat just in time for the four boys to show us slides of their travels and their ‘zol (a South African word for a marijuana cigarette), the latter of which seemed to dominate their photos, their conversation and their every thought. Oh well, each to his own!
I awoke next morning to a call from Janie to advise that she had our plane tickets and that the flight had been changed and was now with Air India, with travel from London to Beirut to Bombay to Madras to Singapore to Perth to Sydney, on more or less the same time schedule. We had another big breakfast after which I packed all my bags and took them down to the local Post Office for a trial After
that, I shot into Earls Court with Joan to confirm all my flight details with Sundowners. I got caught up there with the annual rugby match on TV (I was easily distracted!), which was a fabulous running game, won by the latter We returned to the flat to listen to music then chat to the other girls as they returned from work. We had a great omelette for dinner before I phoned first Jenny, then Mum at home to advise each of my forward travel plans.
We were up early next morning and on our way to Hammersmith Hospital by 9am for Joans medical appointment. It was absolutely freezing cold – the sort of wind that blew straight through you and no amount of clothing seemed to protect you. We got away about an hour later and made it into the city to finish my banking business and transfer my account back home. Lunch killed an hour before we took in a 2pm session of ‘The Night Porter, which was a great movie. It was too cold to do anything else after we came out, so we made it straight back to the flat, where I finished
my packing. Dinner that evening was steak and eggs, with apple pie and cream for dessert – a fitting farewell dinner. Joan and I had a long talk after dinner about our relationship and where it was going, and mutually decided it wouldnt finish there but we would let time sort out things.
(Editors Note: Unfortunately, since I had forecast to run out of money, I had booked my flight back home before I met Joan. Had I known that would happen, I would likely have stayed on in the UK instead and looked for work there. As it turns out, Joan soon after changed her future travel plans and flew back to Australia early in 1975 and we were married 6 months later.
Travelmates near
