In the week before Christmas we continued our short holiday and catch up with family in the South West. We visited the Eden Project in Cornwall to find out more about the plants we see everyday in Uganda. We enjoyed the tropical biome with lots of information about coffee and cocoa. It was a little cooler than Uganda so these plants looked very healthy. However, the cassava, millet and maize looked a lot less comfortable in their biome home.
We spent the whole day there and also explored the Mediterranean biome and the outdoor areas before finishing up with a magical look at the tropical biome under lights. It was lovely to take an warm evening walk again and almost felt as if we were back in Uganda without the mosquitos!
On our final day in Devon we visited Hope Cove on a cold, grey, windy December day and watched the waves crashing into the sea wall before finding some warm soup in a café overlooking over the beach.
On Thursday we drove from Devon to Somerset to visit Glen's brother and family and spent 3 happy days with our nieces. We went to their Christmas carol concert, watched them have their riding lesson and clambered around Ham Hill.
We arranged to hire a converted barn in Nun Monkton for Christmas week with Ali and his fiancée. We were able to host an Engagement party with Ali's friends who were back in York for Christmas and had a beautiful setting for a traditional family Christmas.
We went to the church in Poppleton for the Christmas morning service and were overwhelmed with the welcome we received from so many village friends. The church was full with wonderful singing of the traditional Christmas carols including the descant for 'Oh Come All Ye Faithful'.
On Boxing Day we went for our traditional Boxing Day walk using the countryside around Nun Monkton instead of having to drive anywhere.
It was really sad to say goodbye to Ali and Rhian in the evening as they were going away for the New Year. We won't see them again until the week before their wedding in June!
Our final week was spent in York sorting out all of the things we needed to do before we returned to Uganda, such as shopping and paperwork including tax returns! We continued to spend time with lots of friends, including a lovely New Year party. On New Year's Day we went out to the North Yorkshire Moors and had a lovely lunch in Lastingham.
Once January arrived it was nearly time to return to Uganda and work. But we had one last treat and ticked off another of our 'Must Do' list going to the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds to see White Christmas. The view of the Leeds lights from the theatre bar was lovely.
It was time to head to Heathrow and fly back to Entebbe. We had forgotten just how big Heathrow is!
And that is only one of the 5 terminals! Quite a contrast with the comparatively tiny airport at Entebbe!
There was just one final piece of England waiting for us in the skies above Africa. A clotted cream tea at 39,000 feet courtesy of BA!
Overall a truly wonderful holiday. We realised we don't mind the cold weather when there are roaring fires and warm coats. It was wonderful to see family and friends again and we remembered how much we miss you. We loved all of the familiar things about the UK that make life so much easier, supermarkets, motorways, clean tap water, street lights, reliable power supplies and courteous drivers. We'll be back in June for the wedding!
But our first week back in Uganda has also been good. It's been nice to see the sun again and I've enjoyed my return to work. It was good to see colleagues again and to continue with all of the work I want to complete before I finish in October. Then on Friday evening we met up with other VSO volunteers and friends for an Indian meal and compared our very different Christmas memories.
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