20100411-21 ENGLAND

 

SUNDAY 11 APRIL – Richard
has invited us round for a BBQ but he can’t get it to light so he cooks
inside.  It is another nice day (by
English standards) so we even manage a spell sat out in the sun.

KEIGHLEY 10, CLAIRES

 

MONDAY 12 APRIL – Daniel
is back at school and Natasha is having her treat today.  First we pick up her friends Georgia and
Emilia and head to Bradford.  Hollywood
Bowl have a great deal of 1 game of bowling per person at 1p between 9 and 9
.30am.  Amazingly there is no catch so we
partake before heading to the Ice Skating Rink. 
The boots provided are solid plastic and incredibly uncomfortable for
wide feet with bunions.  I just about end
my first circuit, mainly clinging to the wall, when I take a tumble and really
knock my knee up.  I take this as my cue
to quit the ice in favour of being a spectator. 
Natasha is soon off skating around and Georgia, who has never been on
ice before, soon gets the knack as she is used to roller blading.  Meanwhile it takes a little longer for Emilia
to finally leave the wall and to scuttle round with the help of the other
two.  Sitting watching them it is
absolutely freezing so I am glad when they have had enough after 2 hours.  Steve goes to the Doctors with his 2^nd
2 complaints, his little finger and spot on his face and the doctor says he
will need to see specialists for both.

KEIGHLEY 11, CLAIRES

 

TUESDAY 13 APRIL –
We help out a bit with Mom & Dad and take Natasha to the wart
clinic to have a verucca frozen off her foot. 
In the evening the kids are at Daz’s and Claire & Steve go to
Bradford to join Richard at the football game.

KEIGHLEY 12, CLAIRES

 

WEDNESDAY 14 APRIL
– Steve sits with Dad whilst Mom has her hair done and I look after
Natasha.  Dad looks better each day and when
Steve is there gets up and potters in the kitchen but won’t when Mum is
around!  It is still incredibly cold, not
even making double figures so we will try to plan it so we don’t arrive back in
England again in April.

KEIGHLEY 13, CLAIRES

 

THURSDAY 15 APRIL
– Steve calls me to see news on the Internet about a volcanic eruption
in Iceland.  The volcanic dust has
drifted over England and every airport is now closed and will be for the
foreseeable future.  It sounds almost
like an April fool but the TV news backs it up and goes on to say airports in
Scandinavia and Europe are also affected.  Steve has an afternoon appointment at St Luke’s
hospital to check out a spot on his face that keeps bleeding profusely.  The specialist says he doubts it is serious
but will have it removed to be sure so Steve asks him to try to schedule an
appointment for one of the 5 days when we are free before going to Aus.  Have to say that the British national health
system really is good especially having seen the way things work in other
countries.  The kids are at Daz’s so we
visit Keith and Sandra in the evening for a relaxing time eating, drinking and
chatting.

KEIGHLEY 14, CLAIRES

 

FRIDAY 16 APRIL – The
airports are still closed due to the volcanic cloud and this could continue
until Sunday.  Claire’s boss Alan was due
to fly to Florida yesterday and was sent home and has now been told his flight
is rescheduled for Monday but that he can still take the 2 weeks in Florida and
come back later.  Luckily as a boss he
can do this but so many other people must be losing or having their holidays
cut short.  In the evening we take
Natasha over to Shipley for a sleepover at her friends Azura’s. 

KEIGHLEY 15, CLAIRES

 

SATURDAY 17 APRIL
– Richard arrives to drop off Azura and pick up Claire for their
overnight visit to Manchester.  The girls
play together really well.  It is a
pleasant day so we invite Mom & Dad for lunch and sit out most of the
time.  Dad is pretty tired as this is his
first big trip out but he seems to have enjoyed the fresh air.  Late afternoon we take Azura home via MacDonald’s
– good job I have all this info down or kids could easily end up in the wrong
place.

KEIGHLEY 16, CLAIRES

 

SUNDAY 18 APRIL – We’ve
got Claire’s car so drive with the kids to Manchester and meet David at MacDonald’s.  The only problem is that he tells us there
are roadwork’s going into Manchester so we can’t stay as long as we had
hoped.  Rendezvous with Claire and walk
into the bus station just as our bus to Stoke on Trent is boarding.  Perfect timing, or it would be had the bus
managed to leave.  They keep starting the
engine and messing around then eventually announce the door won’t close so they
can’t leave but will try to find another bus. 
We have a tight connection in Stoke and if we miss it we cannot get to
Market Drayton today by bus.  In the end
the new bus does not arrive so we get a refund then trouble Claire to come back
and pick us up to drive us to a meet up with Bobby who takes us the rest of the
way to Drayton.  We met Mum and the rest
of the family for a meal at Wetherspoons and are pleasantly surprised by their
prices.  Mum has been doing a concert and
still has her glad rags on and looks really well.  Netty & Ian are supposed to fly to Crete
on Tuesday but have had to put in a contingency plan of driving up to
Scotland.  Worse still they should have
been moving into their new house this weekend but it was all called off mid
week so things are not going well for them. 

MARKET DRAYTON 1

 

MONDAY 19 APRIL – It’s
the usual busy morning at the office catching up with 7 months paperwork.  Fit in time to sit and chat with Mum between
pupils and to cook us some meals.  By
evening there is talk of planes starting to fly tomorrow so with luck Netty
will get her holiday but unfortunately they call us at 10pm to say their flight
is cancelled.

MARKET DRAYTON 2

 

TUESDAY 20 APRIL –
Although it is cold out at least it is dry and a bit sunny.   Mum takes the bus up town for a morning
stroll whilst I catch up on paperwork.  Each
year we pay money into ISA’s the government savings bond with no tax on the
interest, of course each year we look for the one offering the best
interest.  The downside of this is that
every year it is a different company each with its own paperwork.  Netty & Ian have to make another change
of plan as all the hotels they wanted in Scotland are fully booked so they end
up on a 3 nighter to Liverpool.  It seems
now that someone stuffed up big time and although the volcanic ash did cause a
plane crash years ago the new planes can cope with it.  Just hope our flight company Wizz Air don’t
go bust because of it.

MARKET DRAYTON 3