To London.....

The first thing that went wrong today was just after setting off to Carlisle for the train I realised that I had left my UK phone behind so we had to go back a few miles for it.The second thing that went wrong was as we were waiting at the station for the train I discovered from the tickets that our train to London had been at 9.49 am and not at at 10.30 as I had first thought. The tickets were only valid for the 9.49 train!I went to the ticket office.......the lady smiled as I approached and I leaned on the counter, took a deep breath, winced and told her that I had just discovered that we had missed our booked train."  I shouldn't do this........but I will,"  she said and she wrote out a special travel authority form which said that we had been delayed by traffic and missed our train and that our tickets were to be accepted on the next train."You will have lost your booked seats though," she said.We managed to get the perfect seats in an unreserved carriage and had a lovely 3 hour journey to London and arrived early!Josh met us and took our bags and we wandered into the city.After he had gone I realised that I had left all the details of the tickets we needed to collect for our theatre show that evening in my bag.....but hoped that they would not need any of that and just require a name......it was the third thing to go wrong........so that was that for the day.We called first at The Wellcome Collection for a coffee and to avail ourselves of their internet. There was an exhibition on called "Memory Movement Memory Objects" by Alice Anderson which sounded really relevant to our friend Tracy's current PhD work. It was fantastic......with every day objects wrapped totally in copper wire and lit in such away that they glowed and it was like walking through a dark cave filled with treasures.We continued on through the British Museum and called at the Gielgud Theatre to collect our tickets. We had no trouble. We then hovered outside Costa stealing their free internet while we worked out our journey back to Josh and Helena's after the show. It seemed fairly easy if we caught the 73 bus from Oxford Street.We wandered down to the Mall and went in the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts).....we discovered it was free on Tuesdays as we were ferreting about for the £1 day membership..........Thank goodness we didn't pay anything because there was nothing to see.......we were out again in few minutes......they seemed to be in between exhibitions.We wandered through Trafalgar Square and popped into the National Portrait Gallery. The BP Portrait Awards Exhibition had finished two days earlier. We had some pasta and risotto in Soho and the had a wander before the theatre. London Fashion Week was just finishing and we walked passed a show being held in what looked like a multi storey car park. We found the bus stop we needed to get back to Josh and Helena's, had a drink in The Green Man pub and then went to back to the Gielgud Theatre to see 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in The Night-time.' I had wanted to go see it for ages and had heard such great things about it.We saw Josh Thomas, an Australian comedian and actor, in the foyer during the interval.We were both disappointed by the play though the set was amazing. The actor who played the boy Christopher was excellent but I hated the characters of his parents, they were too unlikable for me to care about them.......I wanted to love it, but didn't.We found our way easily up to Stoke Newington and the day was capped by us seeing a fox almost on Josh and Helena's doorstep.

Blue ar**d flies!

It is my own fault........14 days seemed like a long time but I am stunned at how quickly 14 days fills up and becomes one long hectic dash.We arrived on Wednesday evening and had a flying visit with my friend Paul in Bolton before heading to Heywood on Thursday, caught up with my sister and my Auntie Joan and then drove up to Cumbria.It is soooo green here and Will is constantly exclaiming "Wow!" around every bend.We have set up base camp in my brother Rod's flat, which is over his garage at the bottom of his garden. It is such a lovely spot here at the foot of the Pennines and green rolling hills all around.On Friday we went into Penrith where we used to live. Will needed to get our old doctors to send his medical records to Australia so that he can renew his epipen....he is allergic to bee venom and the next sting could kill him.....they were very helpful, said they would send the records and have provided him with two new epipens!We then called at our house, which is being rented, and met the new tenant, a lovely lady from Edinburgh who has moved to Penrith to be nearer her grandchildren. We grabbed some essential things from the loft that we wanted.......Will, his roller skates and I, the Playstation and then we went to Booth's for lunch.We were in Carlisle in the afternoon, hoping not to bump into my parents, to pick up the cake for Mum's birthday from our friend Margaret and we managed to surprise two past work colleagues, Kath and Sue by walking in on the end of their lunch out.We dropped the cake off at the party venue before being able to go back to Rod's and catch some breath.We have been heading to bed much earlier than normal, we just get to a certain point and start to flag. I hope it is still travel related and not old age.Saturday was the whirl of the party and catching up with all the family.Yesterday Will, my son's Lewis, Nathan and I went for a lovely walk near Buttermere with Barbara, who was my classroom assistant and her husband Neil. We took Will up to the Bothy Barbara, Neil and I had walked to when I came over last year for my brother James's wedding. We didn't have such a sunny day as we did the first time we visited but the cloud and some drizzle made the walk much more atmospheric.After dropping Lewis off at the station to go back to Edinburgh, Will and I rushed back to Rod's, got changed and were out for a meal with the lovely ladies I used to work with when I first moved to Cumbria in 1986. We had a lovely meal, a catch up and a good laugh about the 'old days'.It is Monday.........and we are meeting our friend Steven today, have another meal out tonight before heading to London tomorrow for two days to stay with Josh and Helena.We are back on Thursday but got to Glasgow on Friday to catch up with friends there, head to Edinburgh on Saturday to stay with Lewis (Nathan is also going to be there) and return to Cumbria on Sunday. Monday 28th is my Mum's real birthday so we will spend that day and the following day with them before heading back to Manchester and flying out of Wednesday 30th.Next time we will come for longer and plan in time to breathe!

All together again!

We are still rushing about like loonies.......I am posting this picture from Facebook...... I am not sure of the quality but will post better later.

55 years together....First there were these two, then we were seven and now we are twenty nine.

Surprise!

So........thankfully today went well. Mum and Dad had to be distracted whilst Will and I were driven in by Josh, hiding in the back seat of our hire car. We then hid in a back room of the hotel. Things were a bit fraught when my sister was slightly delayed and then we couldn't get any signal to Skype and no one thought to come and give us the hotel WiFi password......Mum was getting upset at the thought that she would not be able to speak to us but eventually one of the waiting staff came and gave us the WiFi code and we were able to get online and speak to them. The signal was really clear so we couldn't pretend it was bad so after a while we said our goodbyes and I said I had arranged a surprise and asked Rod to get it brought in.......of course the surprise was us.........there were a lot of tears ......but they were tears of joy.The best gift you could ever give my Mum is just to have all her family together."Do you know," she said, "I think this is the best day of my life!".......... Well, it was until they took away her dessert before she had chance to eat it!The meal was lovely, with excellent service.Mum had set up a table with lots of old family photos and everyone had brought an album of their own photos for everyone to look through and laugh and reminisce about.Afterwards we took photos in the grounds before all heading back to my brother Rod's house to carry on the 'catch up'.We cut her cake there, which was delicious, before everyone drifted off. Andy and Julia went back to Bristol, James and Jo went back to Barnsley, Zoë and Ian, back to Manchester and Will and I went back to Calthwaite with Josh, Helena, Lewis, Nathan, Jayne (my boys' Mum) Jim, Jayne's Dad and the boys other Grandpa. We had a lovely evening all playing board games...... The highlight being Jim's rendition of 'Happy Feet' in Charades.I will put up pictures as soon as I have time to do it.....and internet......but we are just dashing from one day to the next at the moment.

Letting the Cat out of the Bag.........finally!

So.........since March we have had to be very secretive......It is not my Mum's birthday until the 28th of September but today, Up Over, there is a family gathering for a birthday meal to jointly celebrate her 80th birthday and hers and Dad's 55th wedding anniversary.The secret is........she doesn't know that we are no longer Down Under but have flown Up Over for two weeks to be there too.We are going to try and Skype or ring before they have the meal on the pretence that we are still Down Under and then, when the call seems to be failing, say that we will try something else......and then walk in the room and say "Is that any better?"Hopefully she and Dad won't have heart failure and it will be the lovely surprise it is meant to be........pictures to follow.