Saturday I worked in the morning so left tidy piles of clean clothes for Scarlett and I ready to be packed in two different bags, a list for Davies to work through to pack and another list for Ady to gather and pack. They dropped me off at work at 9am and had four hours to get everything done which I felt was at least 3 hours more than I would have needed to achieve the same.
Work is a dim memory now so not at all sure what I did but suspect it was displays and the desk as those tend to be what fills my Saturday mornings at work.
Ady and the kids were nearly 20 minutes late collecting me and arrived with tales of wild goose chases to get chicken food and cat food (yes, you would have thought we’d have had that sorted out before the morning we were leaving :rolls:), minus Davies’ bike which we’ve been saying for weeks we’d bring as it fits both children, neither of whom can ride yet, both of whom have expressed a keeness to crack it and at such a perfect flat, car-free, lots of ably cycling friends…
Anyway.
We had an excellent journey up to Lynda’s and were at the Tescos near her house within four hours of leaving Lancing which is very good going (it’s almost exactly 250 miles door to door). We picked up spare swimming costumes for the kids who only had one each and a bottle of wine, then went to Lynda and Stuart’s.
A very pleasant first evening with them and a very happy reunion for Davies and Scarlett with Lynda and Stuart who are like a second set of grandparents to them (yes, I know most children do have two sets of grandparents but D&S only have one set that they see). We had a lovely dinner of casserole, mash, yorkshires and veg followed by apple crumble and custard. Lynda is very aware of and tolerant of my pickiness and always manages to make food I will happily eat and enjoy :).
Previously when we’ve stayed there D&S have slept on air beds / camping mats / readybeds when they were small enough to still use them on the floor in the room Ady and I sleep in but they have now redecorated the little bedroom in their house for their granddaughter Hannah with a single bed and enough room on the floor for an airbed so the kids had their own room. So they went off to bed very happily, played DS in bed for a while and were both asleep by 11pm which is impressive for Davies at home, let alone when having a sleepover away from home. I went to bed fairly early, partially in readiness for late nights for the rest of the week, partially because I know Lynda is a fairly early-to-bed person and sure enough she retired too as soon as I went up, leaving Ady and Stuart to sit up and chat and partially because I was enjoying a book I’d started – a Jonathan Tropper book – so I had a lovely hour or so all snuggled up in the posh bedlinen reading my book feeling all virtuous while the men’s voices drifted up the stairs :).
Sunday We were fed a huge breakfast and had a lazy morning sitting catching up on each others news – Lynda and Stuart know my parents fairly well from their trips up north when we lived up there and L&S’s trips down to us since we’ve moved home so were keen to hear their news and we caught up on how retirement is treating Stuart – he loves it! – and how their two sons are doing- both well :). Then we gave them a couple of hours peace and went out for a memory lane trip past our old house where Tarly was born and on to the Trafford Centre where we worked. We walked all of the shopping malls, looked at the unit we worked in which is now an indoor golf course and had some lunch in the food court.
We also had a look in the Chill Factore which was built long after we left. What an amazing place – and what amazing prices! We’d thought we might have a go at something but when we realised just having half an hour on the rubber ring sledges for the four of us would be over £50 we decided to content ourselves with just watching from the balconies. It did look like excellent fun though and if we’d had the budget, and perhaps not spent the previous 10 days in snowy conditions anyway, we might have been tempted.
On the way back we stopped at Sale water park which is the site of many happy memories as we’d often walk there to feed the ducks and geese and Ady and I had many happy times eating in the two restaurants there, either just the two of us while Lynda babysat the children, or with the fairly steady stream of visitors we had come to stay while we lived in Manchester.
Davies and I there in January 2002.
The lake had been completely frozen on the surface although it was starting to thaw round the edges some boys had gotten some of the ice out and it was so thick I reckon it would easily have been safe for skating on when it was really cold the week before – I can see how lows of minus 18 were reported from that area.
Back at Lynda and Stuart’s we continued in much the same vein as the night before, plenty of chatting, eating and drinking. Ady and I went out for an Indian takeaway for the adults and Lynda cooked some pasta for Davies and Scarlett. The kids went to bed but were not so good at actually going to sleep this time – quiet and not disturbing anyone, but certainly not asleep. We watched The Damned United which Stuart had been given on dvd for Christmas and thought Ady might like. Not a film we’d ever have picked up or selected to watch but was actually quite good.
Monday morning we were up and out earlyish as Lynda and Stuart had Hannah for the day so needed to leave to collect her from nursery and we had arranged to meet our old boss and friend, Miranda, for coffee. We went to Costco for pizzas as we’d belatedly realised the pheasant we’d been planning to take and cook at Centerparcs would be fully defrosted and spoiling by the time we actually arrived at CP if we were leaving home on Saturday, and if you’re going to buy readymade pizza Costco do the best ones.
We then managed to completely miss where we were supposed to be meeting Miranda thanks to me mishearing her on the phone the night before, which meant we were nearly half an hour late and had had several confusing phone calls with her to try and work out what was happening. We finally arrived and had a very nice hour or so catching up with her. I adore Miranda, she is a rich, old money, princess from Rodean who still calls her father ‘Daddy’ and gets regularly hysterical at having to deal with anything in the real world, yet she is warm, generous, caring and very funny. Her and I found an unlikely connection and have remained close friends over the years despite having very little in common on the surface, or indeed that much actual contact in the last few years. She’s not seen Davies and Scarlett for at least 3 years and declared herself enchanted with them and even sent me a text later in the week to tell me they are ‘delightful!’. 🙂 Technically she is still Ady’s employer as her father owns the business Ady works for and she is now the MD as he has officially retired so there was a bit of talking shop along with general exchanging of news including tales of how they’d been snowed in with 7foot snow drifts and 48 hours worth of digging out of their (admittedly over a mile long) drive.
We parted company with Miranda and took the satnav suggested route over the peaks, which was incredibly pretty and picturesque, still a real winter wonderland of sparkly snow with very deep drifts. We drove through the clouds at several points, the temperature outside the car dipped by 3 degrees and there was fog whirling around us. We finally stopped at a Morrisons as I needed the toilet so I did the little bit of food shopping we’d needed to get in advance too and then finally arrived at Centerparcs. Which is where this post shall end to allow the whole CP experience a post all of it’s own.