Trip over, back to reality
And then as soon as it had started, the trip was at an end. The first week seemed to go so slow, in a nice way that is, but the rest of the trip disappeared before we knew it. We accomplished a lot - I had a lot of great nights out with old friends and work mates, ate lots of curry, drank lots of proper beers (I will never forget getting a pint for just over one UK pound... thats 2 US dollars... wow! The UK really is beer paradise!) and just generally caught up with everyone. It felt like we slipped back into the old UK routine extremely easily, which is reasssuring if we ever decide to return.
So the trip back was hellish... more so than the outward journey. We had a stay over in Manchester at a hotel for a night (pre planned - to "ease" the trip) but were greeted with the news that our flight may not go as the plane was broken from the previous trip and at least one flight had already been cancelled. To cut a long story short, we did eventually leave - 2 or 3 hours late. Not until after I had a stand up battle with a security person at the security gate that is - Mr Jobsworth didn't let us take baby food through so Kyle was facing a 24 hour trip with nothing to eat. Regardless to say, the complaint letter is on its way! A tip for anyone thinking of travelling - DON'T GO THROUGH MANCHESTER. They don't deserve the custom.
We looked likely to miss our Las Vegas connection and literally ran with all our luggage out of the airport, around the perimeter, back in, pushed to the front of the line, checked back in, ran to the gate, and the San Fran flight was delayed also! All that running for nothing but at least we were safe to catch the plane. When we landed the travel back was so easy - traffic was non existant, which was odd for 6-7PM on a weekday. Anyway literally straight after we returned, the region was hit with the worst storm for years... gale force winds, rain, thunder. Terrible, but at least we got back in time to miss out on that - the highways were closed, bridges were damaged, people were without power for days or even weeks... really, it was a bad situation. We lost tiles from the roof and had damage to the house exterior, fortunately all superficial and all now repaired. We were very lucky.
That night we put everyone straight to bed then the following day we had Christmas Day #2 as Santa had kindly visited our house here too! Remember I mentioned 2 spoilt kids?!!! Again, they had a blast and now we're back into the regular routine, thankfully!!!!!!
Happy 2008 everyone!!!
Oh yeah - oranges everywhere! A small selection of oranges from the trees beside our house - they were all over the front yard due to the high winds!
New Year
Then it was time for 2008. We usually find New Year a real anti climax. I guess we didnt really do anything special but we did have a pile of food and a pile of wine (and assorted beverages!) and it was, all in all, your regular "ald lang syne" kinda night, with Natalie being our "first foot" (is that a common thing or just a northern tradition? I dunno - anyway she was first in the house after the church bells rang so shes our good luck mascot for 2008). We did buy, at the last minute, some fireworks for Karina and set them off around 7 or 8Pm and she absolutely loved it! We let he hold a sparkler too (under close supervision of course) - I wish everyone could have seen the absolute joy in her eyes! We set off rockets too which went down a storm... next year we'll certainly make a bigger thing of this, assuming were not in California where for some reason its illegal. Bloody kill joys!!!!
Some miscellaneous stuff
I'm sure there was a lot of things that happened between Christmas and New Year but its all blurring into one long alcohol fuelled memory so I'll pass over that stuff and needless to say we did a lot of cool stuff, though not anywhere near as much as we'd planned. No sightseeing or trips this time just lots of pub lunches and general family stuff. I geuss tahst what you do when you have kids really.
Anwyay, a few misc snaps:
Karina with Bethany. They took a litttle while to get back into the swing of their friendship but - check this out - they even had a sleep over! Karina went away with Bethany to her Granny and Grandads house (they are great, long standing friends of our family and used to be our neighbours) for a full night - from 5PM till almost noon the next day. They played Karaoke, ate, slept (I think the actual sleeping was quite limited - at least till late at night!) and had breakfast together. They even swapped clothes the next day which was amusing to see - tiny Karina in Bethanys big trousers, and vice versa - poor Bethany trying to squeeze into clothes 2 sizes too small for her! LOL! Anyway we really were amazed - thats the first time she was ever away from us and also the first time she'd been to Bethanys family so it was a big step in her confidence. They were both really upset to separate but they met up again a coupel of times and had a haircut together too... proper girlies!
Kyle dismantling everyones presents - when I say "everyone" I really mean "Karina's"!
We bought this "rocking horse" a year ago at a car boot sale for, I think, 2 quid. Kyle really took to it this time, we could hardly get him off it - they were both fighting over it at one point!
Kyle "drinking". That was something to witness! He developed an absolute OBSESSION with drinking from a bottle (yes, they were empty!). It was funny - he was insane for pretending to drink just like, I guess, he saw Daddy doing. Funny as anything but I guess not a good thing for him to learn so we stopped it pretty quickly, but still, it was amazing to see because he did it with absolutely no encouragement at all. Daddys boy!
And then it was time for some Boxing.
I don't ever remember any actual 'boxing' on Boxing Day, not even within the family, which is surprsing after so much beer! Anyway as usual we had family friends around for Boxing Day and it proceeded in the usual way... leftovers from Christmas Day, lots of pudding for people who shouldn't be eating it (father, I'm looking at you!), rude jokes and lots of laughs. After that we visited "the fairy kingdom" which is handily situated 2 doors up the street from us for more drinks and food and, of course, fairies. (its an in joke so dont worry if it sounds as if I still have that beer in my system here!) Again, a lot of fun and the kids as always had a blast, loving every minute of the attention. Karina also saw her friend Bethany and they had a great time together which is great considering they see each other once a year.
Rudolph and friends
Yeah the reindeers visited us in fine style this year. Mammy and Daddy had dispatched a team of crack agents to have a serious chat with the big bloke in red and all his little elf minions to give them strict "not too much, not too bulky, not too heavy" instructions. The plan was hatched, the agents dispatched in rocket powered wheel chairs, and Mr Claus said "bah humbug!" and laid half of Hamleys into th
e eager arms of 2 very small, very lucky, very spoilt children. Who gracefully passed them onto their oh so happy parents to lug back to San Franciscio in 5 suitcases, via a train, hotel, 2 flights, 3 cities, and a long drive. And even then, some of the stuff still resides in the UK ready for the agents to sneak into the country at an as yet undetermined date.
So with that sarcastic dig out of the way - onto Christmas! It was great, real fun, relaxing (as much as it ever can be for us) and just very very cool to spend so much time with the family, in the pubs, in front of the telly. We didnt really do anything much... I did a bit of bathroom and kitchen DIY (yeah, I know!), we drank enough to sink a ship, played games, shopped, ate... usual stuff just multiplied. I think I still have pasties, vindaloo and fish & chips in my body... that was a serious overdose!!!!
Sleeping. That was a theme of Christmas Day... at least from the females in the family. Lightweights!!!!
We went to London to see the Queen....
... well, the Queens Head anyway. Yummy British Beeeeerrrr... I missed you so much!!! ;) Yeah we got back to the UK after a rather nightmarish flight - delays, terrible connections, problems with security, running between terminals with no shoes on, stress, hassle, tiredness, 3 hour train journeys. But boy was that first pint worth ALL that trouble! We somehow managed to persuade "immobile Granny" to t
ake the terrible two-some from us for 3 days and we took our jolly selves off to our capital city for a weekend of debauchery and drunken-ness. And that was just Natalie!!! What a great time, we really love London. We managed to catch up with so many old friends too - Natalie took a trip to our old place of residence in Surrey and saw some of her friends from back in the day while I met up with the usual suspects for some lovely drinking and catching up. All in all a great weekend, can't wait to go back again. London's not all bad y'know!
Hamleys Toy Shop window - EXTERMINAAATTTEEE!!!
Even in winter, Hyde Park looks beautiful...
and even in Hyde Park, Nat looks beaufitul! (hiya babe! - see I do compliment you!)
despite that she just CAN'T stop the tourist thing!? I was soooo ashamed...! (LOL!)
The Natural History Museum resplendant with makeshift ice skating rink and "festive village" (ie craft shops and expensive gift stores). It was really nice there though, extremely Chirstmassy... as was all of London which was a welcome change from the half-arsed attempt that they made "back home" in Californ_I_A.
A new (at least, new to me) exhibit in the Natural History Museum - How the Earth Works (or something like that). Fascinating stuff... for guys. We did a 2 hour whistlestop tour around the museum and I estimate we saw probably a tenth of it, in super-quick-mo. Always a brill place to be though, no matter how long you spend there.
Breakfast with Santa
At the start of December not too long before we returned to the UK we went into our town to the community center for a charity "Breakfast With Santa"
- it was as the name suggests, breakfast with lots of play for the kids and lots and lots of unorganised mayhem for the adults! Sheesh... extr
emely tiring. Anyway the main attraction was, of course, the appearance by the Big Man himself which Karina loved. After that we hung out in the gardens for a while before heading out and doing some last minute Christmas shiopping. It didnt feel too Christmassy though, with lovely bright sunshine ;)
We're back
Just a quick update to say we're back from our Christmas trip to the UK and we're totally shattered! The trip was grteat, but the travelling was far from it. Multiple delays on each leg of the journey and 2 insane dashes across airports in Chicago (snow storm) and Vegas (2 hour inward delay) to narrowly avoid missing our connections. In Chicago we were literally running through security and over 2 terminals with our shoes in our hands... seriously! Anyway we made it and we're almost alive so thats a good thing. We went with 2 cases and came back with 5. Santa was very kind!!!!!
Anwyay we'll update with pictures etc soon... happy new year everyone!
