Torrey Pines, San Diego

Exactly a month ago Gavin had his surgery. In hindsight I had an angel looking over my shoulder when I chose the hospital and that particular surgeon to operate on him, as I did not know at the time that he is the leading surgeon for abdominal sarcomas in the U.K. and he made a very risky and complicated surgery go as smoothly as it did. I am so grateful that a month later Gavin is well enough for us to go visit our son in California. 

In the busy week we have had, I forgot to mention that on Tuesday we had a new member in our family. My much loved niece (who is also my goddaughter) safely delivered her third baby on Tuesday morning, a healthy baby boy. Welcome to the world dear little Hunter! I am not sure when we can go meet him in South Africa but I have seen the photos and videos of him and he is gorgeous. My niece always admired our family of three boys and decided long ago to have three babies herself. 

It was an early start this morning. I checked my packing one last time, and as I use packing cubes it is a convenient way to pack, so when I decided to change something I could easily identify the cube to make the change.   

We met Luke at the airport and had breakfast in the lounge. Tommy flies from Munich tomorrow, a day later than us. It’s a great time to visit the USA as the dollar against sterling has weakened by 10% since January (20% since our last trip in August ‘22) making it slightly cheaper for us. 

Gavin and I were flying Business Class as we were using BA companion vouchers and when we checked in they upgraded us to 1st class. This flight was not actually offering 1st class so that area of the plane was empty, therefore they decided to fill those seats with business class bookings. It was therefore a very comfortable flight - although long at 11 hours 20 minutes and with a 8 hour time difference. Luke was sitting in the back of the plane but he came up front to chat with us and as there were some empty seats in the 1st class cabin they allowed him to move to a seat there. He was delighted! 

I had downloaded some Netflix series to watch, so I watched Four Seasons and Sirens, both very enjoyable. We should have slept but it’s difficult to sleep on a daytime flight. 

We arrived in the early afternoon, it took ages to go get our rental car - a shuttle bus to the car hire place. We drove straight to where we are staying which is The Lodge at Torrey Pines Golf Resort. It is a large complex, we are staying in one building and Luke is in another. The rooms are all very old fashioned and could do with an update, and pricey for what you get. We were so spoilt with our accommodation in SE Asia last year that this is a bit of a disappointment. We decided to stay here as it is near Adam's lab and his home. Adam left work early and arrived just after we had settled in. It was lovely to see him again, and we enjoyed an early supper together at one of the restaurants here.

We have now been awake for 23 hours and I am feeling quite shattered. I hope that I can sleep well tonight as the jet lag will be significant with this time difference.