Jersey: Aeroplanes and ice cream

7 August 2010

The same day that I headed to Jersey for Helen’s wedding, Mum and Dad left for La Rochelle, only they had the bad luck of having to leave at unreasonable o’clock to catch the Eurostar train. Meanwhile my alarm was set for 8am, giving me a leisurely three quarters of an hour to roll out of bed, get my stuff into the case that Suzy would be bringing and then head to the airport driven by Damian.

The only trouble being that my alarm was set to be off on Saturdays and thus didn’t wake me at 8am. Fortunately my eyes popped open at half past, I eyed the clock, swore and hurried to the bathroom. I got dressed, shoved my dirty stuff into the washing machine, dropped its heavy metal door cover on my toe for good luck and was soon opening the front door to Suzy, who packed the case while I ran around getting my final things together. Just ten minutes after I’d got out of bed we were in the car and leaving for Gatwick.

Once checked in – Suzy smugly travelling with just her driving licence as ID – we had a text from Lauren and Dave, who were having breakfast in a cafe overlooking the apron. We joined them and finished their leftovers before heading to our gate. A text from the bride-to-be Helen who was already in Jersey alerted us to the fact that there was bad weather in Jersey. BA had cancelled flights, was ours ok? Fortunately it was; it was about an hour delayed, as we had to wait for our aeroplane to return to Gatwick from Jersey, but after that we were fine. Fog in Jersey is a bit like in San Francisco – it rolls in off the water, makes a nuisance of itself and then disappears again.

Lauren had been somewhat nervous that we would be travelling in a little diddy propellor plane and unfortunately for her, yes we were. It was a Q400-8 with seats in two rows of two – and our row was without a window. So I entertained myself by sticking the camera through the two seats and pointing it at Lauren and Dave behind us. As we neared Jersey Lauren and I tried to get a photo of her pretending to stick her finger up sleeping Dave’s nose. But she accidentally touched him and woke him up. Such a rookie mistake.

In about 40 minutes we were flying over Jersey and descending to the airport. There were some big houses below us; we were clearly flying into a tax haven!

Walking through arrivals I saw a blonde girl with the same condition as me, but as there was the pane of a restaurant window between us we couldn’t do anything more than exchange a smile. We walked out to the taxi rank and were whisked away to Les Charrieres Country Hotel in St. Peter. We checked in and settled into our nice neighbouring rooms before heading to Grève de Lecq on the north coast of the island for lunch.

We had toasted paninis from a kiosk and sat outside on the patio watching the sea and people enjoying the beach. A proper holiday lunch. Especially as it was 3pm by then.

For dessert we treated ourselves to real Jersey ice cream with a Flake. There were all kinds of flavours such as toffee crunch, but we all went for plain old – but delicious – vanilla, before heading down the steep stone steps and onto the sandy beach.

Posted in: friends, jersey, photos, travels

Comments

7 Responses to “Jersey: Aeroplanes and ice cream”

Emily
7th August 2010 @ 9:20 pm

That beach looks gorgeous. I’d have simple vanilla too without the flake though. Happy to eat separately but not together.

[Reply]
bethany actually
7th August 2010 @ 10:04 pm

Does “with a flake” mean you ate the ice cream in a cone? I’m not familiar with that term at all.

[Reply]
Sarah
7th August 2010 @ 10:09 pm

You’re right that the ice cream was in a cone, but a Flake is a chocolate bar – “the crumbliest chocolate in the world” the adverts used to say, as it’s “folded” chocolate, rather than a solid bar. It’s what’s sticking out of my ice cream in my Back from Jersey post.

[Reply]
Thursday
7th August 2010 @ 11:19 pm

I hope you had an overall better time in Jersey than I did when I lived there for a short time back in the late ’80′s. I suspect you did.

[Reply]
Kassie
7th August 2010 @ 11:46 pm

I learned something new! I was with Bethany thinking flake was an English expression for “in a cone.”

[Reply]
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