Green Tomato.

We had an excellent cab driver to take us to Changi Airport for our flight home, he pointed out all points of interest with some history and facts and figures on the way.... on this trip we have used taxi's in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Cairns and Christchurch and all have been cheerful and helpful.

The flight to London was uneventful and we even managed a few hours kip en route. The 13.5 hour flight arrived ahead of schedule at 04:30 which was a bit early to wake our friends to come pick us up, so we had a coffee in Nero's then went for a cab. Black cab drivers are a breed apart, they don't like taking a fare out of Heathrow unless it is to London centre. I told the dispatcher at the taxi rank that we wanted a ride to Shepperton which is a 25 minute journey from T5, agreed an extortionate price of £55, then the dispatcher said to walk along the rank of 20 black cabs (a shabbier lot of vehicles in one place I have never seen, what has happened to the days when they were pulled out of service because of a small dent or because the driver hadn't polished the body work) pleading until one excepted our fare. We tried 3, after Sue had torn a strip off the third then preceded to redden the face of the dispatcher we went to find an alternative mode of transport.

Only use one of these out of Heathrow as a last resort.

In the last six weeks we have travelled just over 26893 miles on 10 flights, it's a shame that the only bad service we received was when we got back to England at the taxi rank.

I went to the information desk who gave me a number of a local minicab firm called Green Tomato. I called the number a very helpful lady told me to go back to Costas and a cab would be with us in 20 minutes. I then get a text saying the cab has been dispatched with a link to a website to track the cab, which I did and watched it come around the perimeter road and into T5 short stay carpark. I then get another text saying the cab has arrived with the reg number and the name of the driver who appeared two minutes later with my name on a card, pushed our trolley of bags and loaded them into the boot for the ride to Shepperton £27, what a great service and very safe for lone female travellers.

Use these hybrid cars

Enough of the rant about Cockney Cowboys, we are now back on board FL, we came back to a warm cosy boat thanks to our friend Gordon who lit the Epping the previous evening and filled the water tank for us.

When the sun rises tomorrow it won't have the heat in it that it had yesterday.