My flight to London City was uneventful and ran to time. I spent two days working from the London office because I had an important US meeting and this way I could at least attend by video conference. When I checked in to the hotel they asked as usual if I was familiar with the facilities - "I was here two weeks ago so yes" was my reply.
J, Mikey and Hatty had driven down on Tuesday. The UK had been battered by some severe storms - this time Scotland had missed the worst of it but England was another matter. There was heavy flooding and major road closures. He could not even get to the hotel we had booked at Fradley so he stayed the night with Sarah and Rob.
The next day he managed to get to the hotel to check in, taking more than an hour for what is normally a fifteen minute drive. Again they stayed the night with Sarah and Rob and in fact Hatty did not stay even one night in the hotel (although that was always likely given she would want to maximize her time with her cousins).
We all got back together on Thursday. I took a train from London Euston - luckily this service was still running but the West Coast mainline to Glasgow was flooded so there were major cancellations and bus replacement services. I had the misfortune to choose what I thought looked like a quiet carriage but in fact one person talked loudly most of the way. She had been in Thailand and had returned out of concern for the coronavirus situation and spent a lot of time sharing her thoughts on the phone.
But I arrived eventually at Lichfield Trent Valley.
Our first trip out all together was to the swimming pool in Tamworth. The infant pool was a perfect depth for Mikey. After a great dinner at the Love-Wilsons and not a few episodes of BBC3's comedy This Country we returned to the hotel.
The next day was a major day out at Adventure Farm. It was yet another bleak, cold day but it was the school holidays so the place was absolutely packed. The others loved the lamb feeding butMikey was completely unimpressed with the animals
On the other hand the jumping pillows and the indoor playground were a huge hit with everyone. There was some minor drama with Hatty burning her ankle on one of the plastic slides and Mikey deciding to stay in the ball pond at the bottom of one slide thus stopping everyone else from using it. But Granny got everyone lunch and spirits were restored.
The real drama came when I went to collect the stroller and Mikey decided to follow me (unnoticed by the five other people from our group there...) only he took the shortest route through the mud (no shoes because he had just been on the jumping pillow). Everyone had a fantastic time.
In the evening we went to Kev and Amy's, J's brother and sister-in-law, in Lichfield for a catch-up and pizza. The drama this time was I left a bad outside the car when I got in (I was distracted getting Mikey's seatbelt on). When we realized Kev drove me back post-haste and thankfully someone had handed it in (it contained passports and iPads so would have been a disaster to lose).
The next morning we picked up Hatty and then stopped off at J's sister Cathy's before we began the long journey home, with a long drive to Heathrow.
J, Mikey and Hatty had driven down on Tuesday. The UK had been battered by some severe storms - this time Scotland had missed the worst of it but England was another matter. There was heavy flooding and major road closures. He could not even get to the hotel we had booked at Fradley so he stayed the night with Sarah and Rob.
The next day he managed to get to the hotel to check in, taking more than an hour for what is normally a fifteen minute drive. Again they stayed the night with Sarah and Rob and in fact Hatty did not stay even one night in the hotel (although that was always likely given she would want to maximize her time with her cousins).
We all got back together on Thursday. I took a train from London Euston - luckily this service was still running but the West Coast mainline to Glasgow was flooded so there were major cancellations and bus replacement services. I had the misfortune to choose what I thought looked like a quiet carriage but in fact one person talked loudly most of the way. She had been in Thailand and had returned out of concern for the coronavirus situation and spent a lot of time sharing her thoughts on the phone.
But I arrived eventually at Lichfield Trent Valley.
Our first trip out all together was to the swimming pool in Tamworth. The infant pool was a perfect depth for Mikey. After a great dinner at the Love-Wilsons and not a few episodes of BBC3's comedy This Country we returned to the hotel.
The next day was a major day out at Adventure Farm. It was yet another bleak, cold day but it was the school holidays so the place was absolutely packed. The others loved the lamb feeding butMikey was completely unimpressed with the animals
On the other hand the jumping pillows and the indoor playground were a huge hit with everyone. There was some minor drama with Hatty burning her ankle on one of the plastic slides and Mikey deciding to stay in the ball pond at the bottom of one slide thus stopping everyone else from using it. But Granny got everyone lunch and spirits were restored.
The real drama came when I went to collect the stroller and Mikey decided to follow me (unnoticed by the five other people from our group there...) only he took the shortest route through the mud (no shoes because he had just been on the jumping pillow). Everyone had a fantastic time.
In the evening we went to Kev and Amy's, J's brother and sister-in-law, in Lichfield for a catch-up and pizza. The drama this time was I left a bad outside the car when I got in (I was distracted getting Mikey's seatbelt on). When we realized Kev drove me back post-haste and thankfully someone had handed it in (it contained passports and iPads so would have been a disaster to lose).
The next morning we picked up Hatty and then stopped off at J's sister Cathy's before we began the long journey home, with a long drive to Heathrow.
