Finally going home

After a gruelling night spent sleeping in the car in freezing conditions, we had to endure another whole day in the cold without food before being able to get booked on the shuttle to cross the channel!

I could go without just about but Lula couldn't and so I am ashamed to say that I stole food for her from the supermarket as I had no other choice!

I checked us in around 3pm and we were booked on the shuttle at 4pm and finally going home!

I took our place in the queue to clear customs and I gathered our documents together ready for inspection only to realise that I could not find my emergency passport! Presuming that I must have it and that it had to be in the car, I pulled into the emergency lane and searched the car for it... but I couldn't find it!

Somewhere between the pet check in and the boarding terminal I had managed to lose my emergency travel documents! I was calling myself everything under the sun! How the hell was this possible and what the fuck was I going to do now!

I called over the guard and explained to him that I had lost my emergency passport and that the only place I had been was the pet check in!

He radioed through to the check in desk and told me to sit tight until he returned with news of whether it was there or not!

After the way things had gone so wrong of late, I prepared myself for the worst but all the time I was praying for it to be found!

About 15 mins later, the guard returned but he didn't look as if it had been found on approaching and I expected the worst... however when he got to my car he smiled and pulled the passport out of his pocket! I had left it on the counter at checkin!

I don't think that I have ever felt so relieved in my life!

I got to the customs check point and was asked for my documents which I handed over. I was asked why I was travelling with emergency documents and I said that my passport had expired. After a whole host of questions about my time in Bulgaria and my reasons for returning he asked to see my documents for the car and my driving licence and my heart sunk! I gave him the legal documents for the car but I quickly found an excuse on the spot and said that my car was broken into and my driving licence as well as my bank card was taken which seeing as the small window in the back was smashed due to the car previously being broken into was a plausible enough reason! I handed them my paper copy of my driving licence and once I confirmed that I had reported it to the Embassy when they asked, much to my relief they let me go on and board!

I think that they were more interested in making sure that the car that had Bulgarian plates was legally owned by me and with regard to that then I was totally legal!

I was finally on the shuttle and 35 minutes away from England!