Farewells, adventures in Wiltshire and more waiting around

2 weeks ago on Monday I was buzzing after a great weekend. I had a very successful leaving party and received some lovely leaving-gifts which touched me a little. I was to leave on Thursday the 17th of January but my backpack was all ready and I only had to say a few more goodbyes to some close friends. The only nagging doubt was that I still hadn't received my flight itinerary, so I called Project Trust. Just when I wanted to pick up the phone, it started ringing and it was Jonny, my desk officer, from PT! He asked me how I was and I told him how excited I was about leaving on Friday and that I was all ready to go, that my backpack was full to the brim and that I had said all my goodbyes, to which he timidly replied 'Yeaah, about that...'
To cut a long story short, whoever it was at the Department of Education in the Western Province of Sri Lanka who was meant to put a stamp on our visa/work permit, was off huntin', shootin'  and fishin' (or whatever) instead of sitting behind his desk helping the poor in his country to get 3 brilliant English girls(and one Dutch/English/Belgian girl) to help out in schools. So we received the unwelcome news that our departure date was delayed and it was uncertain when the visas would be ready which would mean we could leave. I was more disappointed than angry really, and probably remained a little too laid back about it all, but my mum knew much better how to handle all of it and called the project every day to get an update on how the visa's were getting on.
As we had planned, in the expectation that I would be flying to Colombo on the 18th of January, we left for England on the 17th. Because of heavy snowfall the Eurostar was delayed by two hours (grrr), but my mum and I had a nice chat with a lady who was working for a Belgian Count and Countess who lived in a castle near Brussels and paid her absolute peanuts for washing, cooking, cleaning and driving the children for tennis, golf  and swimming. When it was our turn we raged to her about how annoyed we were with the project. Good fun that.

 When we arrived in London, my mum had another stiff talk with Jonny and it became painfully obvious that I wouldn't be leaving the following day. My parents had planned on meeting friends in Wiltshire for that weekend (having said goodbye to me at Heathrow) so I accompanied them there too. I had a great time actually. We had lovely long walks in the thick snow, we went to a curry restaurant (to make up for the fact that I wasn't in Sri Lanka yet), played with Bonny the Spanish waterdog (best dogs ever) and just relaxed (but my mum was relentless: Jonny couldn't escape her daily call). On the Sunday we heard that our flight had been delayed till the 9th of February, and that it still  wasn't certain yet whether we would actually be leaving. I wasn't sure whether I wouldn't actually prefer staying in England rather than going back with my parents to Belgium. After all I had said goodbye to all of my friends and it would be a little awkward to see them again. But we decided that if I was going to hang around somewhere for 3 weeks, I best to do it at home.
Again because of all the heavy snowfall on Monday 21st of January, I couldn't travel back to Belgium together with my parents. I didn't have a return ticket (thanks to PT!) and the Eurostar wouldn't sell any tickets for travelling on that day. So I had to stay in London for another day. To cheer up a little I decided I would go to Covent Garden for a couple of hours. Such a lovely place, but I didn't hang around for too long because dragging around my heavy luggage caused some awkward encounters. I bought myself a book on Buddhism and went back to my aunts house and had a wonderfully long bath (we don't have a bath at home, only a shower) had a great chocolate cake (it was my cousin Tatum's birthday), watched the cousins and their friends having loads of fun ,I was too tired to participate. And finished off the day by watching an exciting episode of Coronation Street and Miranda.
I've been home now for a bit more than a week and Jonny still isn't very confident about our visa's coming through. The absolute latest we would leave is February 9th, but it might be (very likely actually) that we, Rosie, Gemma, Josie and I, will be going to Malaysia instead. I was really looking forward to Sri Lanka and I am a little sad that we won't be wearing sari's for class or have an elephant in our garden, but I'm tired of waiting around and just want to leave. A 3-week goodbye is pushing it a little. I've only heard positive things about Malaysia, and there are 5 more volunteers that I know over there so I'm definitely not dreading going there.
To be continued with either a confirmation of me going to Malaysia or even that my Sri Lankan visa has come through!