Trolley 12

Home yesterday through Ottawa International Airport which, like the railway station, was new, handsome and restful. Nothing like the crowds or bustle of Heathrow - to the point where there were no flights to be seen after about 2000, apart from ours, until the following morning. By the time we left, the place was down to one bar and no shops.

While waiting, once could stroll gently along more or less the length of Level 2, a clean, straight walk, taking maybe 15 minutes to do it in both directions, starting from a seat somewhere near the middle. A much better way to pass the time than sitting with the newspaper or the telephone. I was tempted to try the Airport wifi, but didn't, in the event, quite muster the energy, despite the thoughtful provision of power plugs all over the place.

Back to Heathrow, to discover that Terminal 2 was equally new and handsome, if rather larger and including at least one level below ground, visibly below ground in the sense that one could see up through the large windows onto the tarmac. It was even reasonably quiet this mid Saturday morning.

And there was a fine supply of very smart new trolleys, not from Wanzl of Warwick as far as I could tell.

And so home to celebrate being back in a kitchen with a proper supply of knives and saucepans, something which holiday houses rarely manage, with a split pea soup, having finally tracked some split green peas down in Sainsbury's just before we went off.