Liz, me, Philip & Ivy got to bed a little after midnight and were down for breakfast in a Recife hotel at 6.45am. We got away at 8am and arrived in Patos at 1.30pm which for the Kombi, and with Ivy on-board, was pretty good. Ivy and Philip had good flights and Philip, being a regular TAP traveller, was upgraded to first class but very kindly asked if his grandma couldn't travel first class in his place. This was agreed to so a very fresh and bouncy Ivy arrived in Recife. Nice one Philip!  

When we got to Patos this afternoon we had lunch and then went to sleep ready to head for Natal to meet Marian Rashleigh. Just as we were about to leave Marian phoned to say she had unfortunately missed her very tight connection in Lisbon (45 minutes - TAP must be crazy) so she was stranded there with no TAP staff in sight to help! Oh dear! Hence we are now awaiting further instructions as we don't know if she is going to get a flight to another part of Brazil and then come to Natal, or what? Maybe she will only come tomorrow? We have 2 rooms booked in a Natal hotel for tonight so it looks as if they have had it. Please pray.

The grandchildren were all overjoyed to see great-grandma arrive back! Alice has developed in understanding over the 6 months Ivy has been away. In the early months Alice understood that "Mãe" (Mum - as Alice calls her because that's what she hears Liz and I call her) was circling somewhere in a plane all the time... but today she was saying that "Mãe" had come back from England!

This blog has passed the 55,000 visits point today. Many thanks to one and all. I have received an abundance of HP Sauce as a result of my blog appeals! Ivy's 4 cases (no that is not a typing error!) were loaded with it! I also have received a QPR Teddy from my Mum and a book of Bird Watching cartoons from Sam & Gerti in Switzerland. Just to give you a taste:

One bird watcher says to another out in the woods early one morning: "I don't know what it is, but whatever you do, don't make a noise like a worm"!