England Trip – Feb 2017

It was time to see the kids – been looking forward to this for ages!

I was flying Etihad Airways via Abu Dhabi in the UAE this time.  I’d flown them once before and it was a pretty good experience, although the airport is pretty busy and claustrophobic if you’re not inside the gate.  Waiting areas and toilets are not so good.

But my transit was 90 minutes, so I figured it really didn’t matter.  It was the cheapest route this time and dollars is dollars!

I landed at Heathrow at 6am and it was still dark – ugh, hate those Northern Hemisphere winters.  It was freezing too – literally – it was 1 degree and there was snow on the ground.  I’m better with cold than heat (so moving to Australia was a good idea, why, exactly?), so it wasn’t really a big deal.

I groaned inwardly at the hire car – a Nissan Juke – I’d had one before and I dont like them – they’re ok in the city, but a small tank and relatively gutless engine means frustration.  This one was an auto, which was ok, but it was very reluctant to kickdown without a massive prod on the throttle but that mostly just caused the engine to rev unhappily high.

Ah well, slow and steady it was then..

I swung past Royston, where I used to live and stopped off to stretch my legs.  I decided to take a few photos of the bleak day and light snow on Therfield Heath.  I remembered that 1 degree was actually ok – a few years ago it was -14C when I arrived and I also stopped off in Royston for photos (see here if you really care..) ..)

I arrived to get the kids – well, just Henry – Ella was dancing not too far from her house in a few days, so I we had a few days just doing boy stuff before we went back to get her!

Henry thought the car was ok – probably because he got to sit in the front and he could play pokemon go as much as he wanted – the advantages of holidays with my spare phone.

It was snowing when we got to Kent, so a few more photos were needed!

The next day we went to see Lego Batman Movie – was totally awesome!  Henry ate his weight in pick and mix and we bought Lego Mini Figures afterwards. We pokemoned and generally had a laugh!

Went back to see Ella dancing – she’s so good and I was very proud Dad for sure!  Its such a shame that I only get to see these things when they coincide with a trip.  Hey ho.

Henry and I did some epic pokemoning and Ingressing too whilst we were there waiting for things to start.  I wish I could do that every weekend with him 😦

My trip took a bit of a downwards turn – hence a serious lack of photos – I got flu.  Really bad proper 41C fever and felt so rotten that we couldnt go anywhere.  I had to summon up the energy just to go the shops so get food it was that bad.

After 3 days in bed, we had a few days left before I had to drop them off and and fly back.

I dosed up with as much lemsip and ibuprofen and sudafed as is it legal to buy and we went out to lunch, then to take and print photos for Ella’s art assignment and generally try to salvage something of the trip!

I took the kids to an indoor trampoline place with the cousins so they could have some fun while I quietly died in the corner.

By now the weather had changed and taste of Spring had appeared – 10 degrees and clear skies – so we went to Tonbridge castle and I tried to blow this fever out with some fresh air.

Beautiful – I felt ok too – so we went back and spent a few hours with my sister and the cousins afterwards and I hopefully didn’t infect anyone!

Last day blues – after packing up, we went for a walk to the village shop for sweeties and to the park for some air and fun.

The kids always love this – Ella is getting a bit old for it though – will have to find more adult stuff for her to do soon!

Took a few photos, had some fun, took some jumping shots with Ella’s polaroid (which was hard!) and then had to pack up and take them back to their house..

And that was it – a lovely trip, marred by feeling utterly wretched.

It took a few weeks for the cough to go and for the last of the fever to subside – was worst bug I’ve had in a while..