Wednesday 23 April 2014

There and back again . . . and there too and back again, again!

Aaaah holidays!  Y'know, you get time off and relax with friends and family . . . or at least you do once you've gotten yourself there . . .

I've been away twice over the Easter break, first to Northern Ireland to visit my family, and then to Cornwall to catch up with some good friends.  It's been lovely, but GOSH, why is everything so far away and different-directiony?

Ahead of the Easter break, Hubby's employer changed (different company took over the contract, same work ends up being done by the same people), so to be sure of getting the holiday days we wanted he booked off the whole 2 week period when Madam would be off school.  We had planned that once we'd managed to get the travel details together, he'd trim his days off accordingly, but we booked the Wednesday overnight crossing on the Birkenhead - Belfast ferry, returning on the daytime Wednesday crossing the next week . . . and then we arranged to visit Cornwall from the Thursday after that till Easter Monday, so it ended up that actually the whole two weeks was a reasonable amount of time to take.

The first day of travelling was a nightmare.  I'm guessing that whoever is in charge of motorway maintenance has been given a time limit to use up their budget or something, but we were totally unprepared for the number of different sets of roadworks between Gloucestershire and Liverpool.  The journey ought to have taken us 3 hours - check-in for the boat closed at 9.30pm so we left the house at 4pm.  We did have a brief stop for dinner, but we just barely made it.  The ferry company phoned us at 9 o'clock to check we were still coming!  Luckily we were on the last (and mercifully clear and roadwork-free) section of motorway, so we could reassure them that we'd be there soon.  We got there at 9.35, and once we got our tickets we were waved straight to the end of the queue of cars which was already moving towards to boat.

I do love that you get your room keys at the docks now - we walked straight from car deck 6 into the deck 6 family cabin, and straight into bed.  If Madam hadn't continued to bounce off the walls for the next couple of hours it'd have been ideal!  But we managed, finally, to sleep.

From Belfast docks to my Parents' house is no distance, and the week there was lovely.  Madam played well and often with her cousins, Little B was tolerant of being passed around various relatives and friends, Hubby and I managed a rare night out (Granny was very brave, babysitting all four of her grandkids at once), and photos were taken of the whole family by the guy who did our wedding photos.  I'm looking forwards to getting copies of those!

The daytime journey back to Birkenhead was pretty calm weather-wise.  Hubby is not a good sailor, so he had a brief wander around the boat to begin with, then he claimed one of the beds and did his best to not feel ill.  His strategy was not a brilliant success, poor thing, and we were glad once again to have a cabin with it's own bathroom.  In the meantime, Madam, Little B and I went a-wandering and managed to get ourselves a meal.  Did you know that, if you offer a 6-month-old a cooked baby carrot, she won't chew gently on the end?  Nuh-huh.  She'll suck that whole doozer in, in one go.  Don't worry though - after a LONG 3 seconds of choking-face, she'll probably cough the whole thing out again, leaving you feeling like a bad parent on the verge of a heart attack whilst she gurgles away as if nothing went wrong.

Driving home through the roadworks, in the opposite direction in the dark, was no problem at all.  We slept, we laundered, we re-packed, and by 5pm on Thursday we were on our way again, this time to visit some good friends who (very conveniently for us) live near Fowey.

Our second holiday was much more laid-back than the Northern Ireland trip.  We had a couple of lie-ins, bought Little B a second sleeping bag (guess what we forgot to re-pack), and were treated to some marvellous home cooking.  Unfortunately, during a trip to Cornish Market World (seriously, it has to be seen to be believed) on Saturday, Madam started to feel ill.  She had a headache and a temperature, and what turned out to be some sort of upset-tummy bug . . . which, we're now suspecting might have also been the cause of Hubby's being ill on the boat (he usually feels seasick, but isn't often actually throw-uppy) . . . so after a less restful night, on Sunday morning we decided to cut our trip short and head home that evening.  This turned out to be a Very Good Plan, as the roads were extremely quiet, and our journey home was quick and uneventful.

Of course once we were home, the central heating refused to switch on.  !sigh!  Our regular repair guy was due to service the boiler next week anyway, but he managed to get to us early on Tuesday morning.  Apparently it's not going to be an easy fix, and he's got to order some parts, but hey!  At least the drone of the fan heater sends Little B to sleep!

We were supposed to be watching our friends' copy of The Desolation of Smaug after dinner on Sunday . . . looks like I might just have to buy the blu-ray for myself now.  Shame, that.  (snigger)

No comments:

Post a Comment