One word? When seven would do…

Friday Feels a long time ago now, despite only barely being the day before yesterday. I worked all day, Davies & Scarlett went off with Ady for the day. Work was fine, I did Baby Rhyme Time which I’ve not done for ages and if we find a tenant and leave as planned I will only have 3 of them left before I go. I have been pretty much stripped of all my jobs and wasn’t even down to do the banking, which I understand as contingency plans need to be put in place to keep the library staffed and running but feels rather odd when I’ve still not formally handed my notice in. So wish we had a tenant sorted…

I’d had to walk into work as Ady and the kids left before 8am and my car was still not running, besides they were picking me up to leave straight from work anyway. Ady had left an umbrella out for me which I dithered over taking and double-backed for when I opened the front door and realised how very hard it was raining. It was an error though as I walked through the alleyways which is much quicker than the roads but too narrow to carry an umbrella through and actually the odd bits of road I walked along were so blustery that the brolly blew inside out several times anyway, so I ended up carrying it most of the way and resenting it for that as I *hate* carrying things. It rained non stop all day so I didn’t even bother going out at lunchtime.

Ady and the kids had nipped home to put chickens away and made me a toasted sandwich and thermal mug of tea, collected Mum & Dad and they were all outside the library waiting for me when I came out at 6pm. We’d had a long standing weekend planned to stay with Lynda and Stuart who we really wanted to see properly before we go off WWOOFing and had also planned to visit Miranda while we were there. Whilst out for my birthday Mum & Dad had been talking nostalgically about when we lived in Manchester and a spur of the moment plan was hatched for them to come up with us, stay in a nearby Premier Inn and join us on a Memory Lane trip as they’d not been up there since we moved home nearly 7 years ago.

So family, tea and possibly best of all my birthday amber was waiting for me in the car as that had also arrived in the post. I totally ♥ it 🙂

We had a really, really good run up there and dropped Mum & Dad at their hotel by 10pm and were with Lynda and Stuart drinking wine / Guinness / making an early start on breakfast crossiants / admiring their fantastic new extension by 1030pm. Davies & Scarlett went to bed about 11pm, we sat and had a brief catch up and went to bed just after midnight.

Saturday We woke and had breakfast then Ady went and collected Mum & Dad from their hotel. A quick cup of tea with Lynda & Stuart and then we left them at home while Ady, the kids, Mum, Dad & I nipped along to the Trafford Centre past our old house. We pulled up to look at it (very special place in our hearts, quite aside from a very happy 2.5 years there because it was the home in Scarlett’s home birth :)), waved at our old neighbour, drove past several landmarks, had a wander round the Trafford Centre (and I bought a length of leather in John Lewis to string my amber onto so could start wearing it) and then to the indoor ski slope nearby to show Mum & Dad having told them about it after our last visit.

For us, it was mostly about spending time with Lynda & Stuart though so after a couple of hours we drove back to their for a late lunch and a lovely afternoon spent chatting and catching up on each others’ news. They get on well with Mum & Dad having seen a lot of them over the years and whilst the closest relationship is probably between Lynda & I it is as close to having in laws as I think we’ll ever get, both in terms of the children having a second set of honorary grandparents and us having a second set of older people who love us, support us and are generally important in our lives :). Their support and enthusiasm for the whole WWOOFing idea has meant a huge amount to us as I think we are close enough to them for them to give us honest feedback if they felt horrified at the idea. I can’t believe I once used to pay Lynda to look after Davies & Scarlett and I don’t think she can either.

We had fish & chips for tea (Dad, the kids and I walked to the chippie at the end of their road), Lynda, Mum, the kids and I gathered round Lynda’s laptop and looked at a load of our flickr pictures of Scotland and various things we’ve done this year with the kids giving a running commentary. Then Ady ran Mum & Dad back to their hotel, the kids went to bed and we had another couple of hours chatting.

Sunday After breakfast Ady went to collect Mum & Dad and we had a leisurely morning before saying goodbye to Lynda & Stuart and dropping Mum, Dad, Davies & Scarlett off at a big interior design, furniture & gift shop place with a cafe for a couple of hours while Ady and I went to see Miranda & Harmen.

She had already guessed we had come ‘with news’ so we asked her to guess what it might be. ‘You have come to hand your notice in because you are moving to North Wales?’ was her first guess. Which was not far wrong ;). Both of them were really enthusiastic and positive. The farm next door to them has WWOOFers so they knew about the organisation, Miranda declared it ‘ a gap year for grown ups’, which is the closest we could possibly expect to the promise of a job for Ady if he wants to come back, realistically I knew she would be of that opinion and while we were honest about hoping we don’t come back she made it clear if we did then there would be something for Ady within the business. Which hopefully goes some way towards appeasing my Dad.

Lovely to see them if all too brief – I can’t wait for our lives to slow down as they are inevitably about to do so we can decide to stay longer in places it feels a wrench to leave…

Miranda asked Ady’s permission to share the news with the MD of Ady’s work which he agreed to and she said they had only been discussing Ady last week with a view to a new venture so although like me he still has the formal handing in of his notice to do once we have a tenant the actual telling his boss part is now over and done with. We both felt pretty relieved, Ady even more so than me. All that now remains hurdle -wise is the finding a tenant and then we really are on our way 🙂

We collected Mum, Dad, Davies and Scarlett and drove home. A straight run with just a small hold up on the M40, but a slow and tedious journey nonetheless. We got home just before 9pm and I suspect for the kids and I at least it won’t be a speedy start to tomorrow.