I had already booked Sunday off work and my shifts had been given to someone else so it was too late to swap my day off on Sunday for Monday. Genghis was set to arrive Monday afternoon but we would have to set off after my shift finished at 5:00 p.m. so might be caught up in rush hour traffic on the M25. We were mindful that if we arrived after 8:00 p.m. we would have to pay additional charges and naturally wanted to avoid this at all costs.
Monday arrived and although I was busy with work I managed to track Genghis’s flights on the internet to see when he had landed in Istanbul and then that he had taken off again on schedule so we could plan our trip to Heathrow later that day. His flights were all on time and it was not long after his arrival at Heathrow before we got the email to say we could come and collect him. I called the cargo company and told them that we would have to collect him a bit later that evening due to work commitments. They were fine about it so that was reassuring.
We set off for Heathrow armed with directions. It was dark, cold and raining and I kept thinking how cold Genghis would be coming from a much warmer climate and was glad I had already bought him a warm waterproof high visibility coat to get him through the dark winter months. Thankfully our drive was pretty uneventful and the traffic wasn't too bad either so we were soon making our way along the network of dual carriageways around Heathrow searching for the bright yellow letter Q located on top of the Animal Reception Centre building where Genghis was waiting for us.