![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/07C8D941-40F4-49AE-8C25-D1ADD4EC2B09.jpeg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/FECB5857-B080-4C82-B884-5A68C6E82DE1.jpeg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"And so it begins<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Just made the plane at LAX. Simon cross, which seems rather unfair considering I was the one agitating to board when we were leaving Auckland, whereas he was quite unreasonably attached to his comfy seat and craft beer in the Koru lounge. Anyway, I\u2019m feeling much better for a nice shower, even if we did end up cutting things fairly fine. He did say to me, jokingly he probably thought, that I shouldn\u2019t take too long freshening up as he\u2019d be lonely travelling to the UK without me. Which denotes some degree of affection, surely? I should point out at this stage that Simon has never read one of my weekly newsy work emails. He overheard me reading one out to the girls last year, in which I made possibly inflammatory comments regarding the Marsden Mothers Mafia, and he almost had a stroke. He\u2019s clearly not yet ready to accept that side of my personality (bitchy yet humorous), good to know that we have something more to aim for in our marriage even after 20 years. Anyway, i think my shower durations are perfectly acceptable, and certainly about a tenth the length of any of our daughters, but I blame Kirsten C for giving him unrealistic expectations. She was so quick when using the shoilet in our Copenhagen apartment, i don\u2019t know how she managed to get wet, let alone clean.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Our first contretemps occurred before we\u2019d even got into Wellington airport. The oldest daughter was giving us a lift, and hubby and I had a shouting match as to where the official drop off zone was. Of course actually we were both right, but what I needed was acknowledgement that I wasn\u2019t wrong. Being married to someone who is always right can be quite wearing. Anyway, i figure dealing with squabbling passengers in the car will prepare our daughter for hypothetical eventual far in the future grandchildren.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Transiting through LAX is notoriously Hell on Earth, but we managed to get through the whole immigration and security business as smoothly as you could dare to hope. The automatic kiosks recognized our faces and fingerprints with no problems. My photo, even after 12 hours on a plane, was not too bad, if I say so myself. It\u2019s a bit smudged and ghostly, but I quite like it. Simon, however, has ended up with a striking resemblance to Hitler. Ironic, really, as his actual appearance – tall, blonde, blue eyed – is exactly the way the F\u00fchrer would have wanted to look, had he been given the choice. I took a photo of the pictures actually, which probably breaks a Federal Law or two, and I hope to attach it to this blog, which is probably equally illegal if not more so.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Next stop: London. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
And so it begins<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8Ukf-k","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5137,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2020\/07\/16\/work-work-work-work-work\/","url_meta":{"origin":20,"position":0},"title":"Work work work work work","author":"Interloper11","date":"July 16, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in acutes all day today. Bizarrely every surgeon I\u2019ve worked with today has been called Simon, again. They\u2019re the same two as I worked with in the weekend, so it\u2019s not as weird as it sounds. My last patient asked \u201cdid I survive?\u201d as he woke up in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12416,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/17\/d-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":20,"position":1},"title":"D day","author":"Interloper11","date":"November 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Or S day? For surgery? Or O day (operation)? Or, indeed L day (laparoscopic cholecystectomy), or even G day (gallbladder). In fact, virtually any letter but D. But whatever it\u2019s called, today was The Big Day\u2026Simon has had his gallbladder removed. He was first on the list so I had\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_4185-768x1024.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_4185-768x1024.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_4185-768x1024.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12223,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/27\/saturday-27-september-somewhere-in-the-north-sea\/","url_meta":{"origin":20,"position":2},"title":"Saturday 27 September somewhere in the North Sea","author":"Interloper11","date":"September 27, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I went to the first night show before dinner, a very entertaining performance by a Welsh comedian\/magician\/juggler. Simon isn\u2019t a fan of live shows, so we met up afterwards for dinner. Cunard ships are known for a high standard of dress; it is nice to dress up for dinner. We\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12159,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/20\/saturday-20-september-glasgow\/","url_meta":{"origin":20,"position":3},"title":"Saturday 20 September Glasgow","author":"Interloper11","date":"September 20, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Not a good day. Simon is sick. He was up most of the night with biliary colic type tummy pain, probably gallstones which he\u2019s never had before. He felt well enough to have breakfast and set off on our scenic coastal drive to Glasgow, but felt worse and worse over\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11398,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/01\/on-your-bike\/","url_meta":{"origin":20,"position":4},"title":"On your bike","author":"Interloper11","date":"February 1, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Simon got hit by a car last week. Dont worry, he\u2019s fine. We had just been to the bicycle shop to get a new, more comfortable saddle fitted to my new bike. The lady went through the options with me first. The most popular one they sell didn\u2019t look much\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_0495-1024x683.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_0495-1024x683.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_0495-1024x683.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13240,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/30\/saturday-august-29-fontainebleau\/","url_meta":{"origin":20,"position":5},"title":"Saturday August 29 Fontainebleau","author":"Interloper11","date":"August 30, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The rain came back overnight, and it was cloudy while we had our buffet breakfast. There was a wide range of cold food, and also a stove top where you could reheat pre-prepared crepes, which was very popular. I got to practice my French again afterwards, including the subjunctive \u201cI\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_6854-225x300.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}