A sad goodbye to Sooty... but a warm welcome to Cousin Scampi

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Today we had to bid a sad farewell to our dear friend Sooty (aka the pea). After a rather hectic jorney from Hollywood to the bus stations, Sweep and I dropped our baggage off at our hostel in Venice Beach (suffering a VERY traumatic journey involving many sweaty large people) and raced to meet Fee at LAX Airport. We spent ages looking for her and figured she must have already checked in. We were both ready to cry our eyes out as we hadn't even had the chance to say goodbye, but then we saw her small head and her little hand waving and we both scampered over feeling very relieved.

After an elated chat and a drink at Starbucks we escorted her to the check in line and it was time to say our goodbyes. It was very very sad, not only because we'd be doing the remainder of the trip without her but because we had been through such a lot together over the last few months and suddenly here we were - almost at the end.

After lots of tears and hugs we watched Sooty as she waited in line, waving every couple of seconds and doing small dances and secret signs - and then all of a sudden she'd checked in. One last wave and she disappeared into the departure lounge.

Sweep and I waited feeling very sad and lost and when we were certain she'd definately gone, we went back downstairs to freshen up in the rest rooms.

About 5 minutes later we were rather surprised to hear the tannoy asking "Could Miss Sophia Kelly please go directly to gate 5 as the plane is waiting for you to board..."

Bean and I immediately guessed she would have been side tracked by the shops. Oh dear.

The good news was that today was also the day that Sue's dear Cousin Scampi (aka Jenny) was meeting them, so we set about busying ourselves with a rather makeshift "Welcome" sign.

A few hours passed and it was time to wait at the gates. We pushed to the front and waited eagerly for her arrival. Eventually after a few joyous tears from myself in watching other family members reuniting, we saw Jen skipping towards us (with her baggage thank God!) and after excited hello's and hugs we jumped into a taxi - oops a cab- and were driven to Venice Beach where we had a rather nice hostel with a triple room.

We quickly freshened up and then went out for dinner at a Sushi restaurant, where Jen had some Saki and Anna had some raw fish in sea weed and rice that had pretended to be a smoked slamon and cream cheese roll on the menu...

It was a lovely meal and we all shared excited stories, even though Jen should have been exhausted!!

We then returned to our hostel after a small egg throwing incident (which we luckily escaped from) and went to bed, hoping that Fee was having a safe journey home (and eating lots of free plane food) and looking forward to a big day ahead.

Love Sue xxx

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