The lil man was a nightmare on the way over - he'd gotten all wound up from chasing around with some other kiddies in the airport and he was well overtired so, consequently, he had a good ole screaming fit for about the first hour or so but, thankfully, fell asleep before dinner so we could enjoy that in peace.
He fell asleep before we could get him in his jammies and ended up soaked through, (which probably woke him up) so when we landed and went through the airport he was wearing his jammies as I'd not had enough room to pack another outfit in our hand baggage.
On the way back, however, he was good as gold and spent his time flirting with a couple of lil girlies in the centre aisle.
The first weekend was good - our car was excellent, (got an upgrade to a Vauxhall Zafira at no cost - my kinda car as it detested speeds under 30mph)! The cottage was fairly nice, nothing special but not shabby.
The Hubster, as predicted, got on brilliantly with my dad, (they were gassing away, a mile a minute, from the moment Hubs got his stash of cameras out)!!
He got to meet my oldest bro the first evening we were down in Cornwall as he and his daughter came over to mum's for dinner with us, (one of my faves, as requested by me - steak 'n' kidney pudding)!
On Sunday we were back over to my parents' to go down to Gunni for lunch - a full family turn-out with the exception of bro #2 and his family, (no surprise there though) - and he got to meet my youngest bro and his family.
Lunch was great and paid for by dad, (I think he was pleased to have us there). *L*
Then it was up to meet my bessie mate and her family which went very well.
So, weekend #1 was a success all-round!
Monday rolls around and the lil man gets poorly - it turns out, after a consultation with the doc, that he has viral gastroenteritis - it lasts til Friday when he finally starts to act his old self again.
He was so lethargic that week, we all felt really sorry for him, though, to be honest, he's done damn well to have gone a full 17 months without any illness whatsoever!
My boys stayed with us from Wednesday through til Sunday as they were on half term - my eldest got to have a butcher's at the new house, (son #2 was asleep) and he thought it looked great!
Unfortunately, due to the weather and the lil man being poorly, they didn't get to do a lot while they were with us but we did manage a trip to Trethorne on the Sunday before I took them back to their dad.
The second week really needed to make up for the first as we were behind on our house-hunting schedule. I had only booked one viewing and that was for the house which we have settled on.
We also managed to get an appointment with the bank manager of Lloyd's TSB and get the Hubster set up with an account, (whoever said it can't be done needs to review the new rules)!
On the Thursday of the second week Hubs went out with my youngest bro and his lil boy, and took the lil man with them for a day of driving around the coast of north Cornwall.
This gave me and my lil bro's girlfriend, (and their lil girl) some quality girl time! It was great!
We did lunch and we shopped - something I've not done without a kid in tow for quite some time!!
On my lil bro's advice, (thanks Ben) we took the M5, M4 on the way back to London on the Friday and I swear it took us a good hour or more longer due to coming across at least six areas of roadworks!!
It took us a mere 3 hours to get down to Cornwall from London the route I'm used to, (M3, A303, A38) and no reports of any speeding tickets from the hire company that I know of! (Love that car)!!!! *L*
Anyway, on our final night in the UK we decided that we would love to stay on a couple of extra days in London but, unfortunately, our tickets were fixed so we couldn't change them, we could only buy new ones, (at a steep cost) so we decided that it wasn't to be.
We had a minor panic at the airport the next day when I thought I'd lost my green card but, thankfully, a more thorough search of my tote revealed that it had found it's way into an unexpected pocket and we were allowed to board the plane. Whew!!
Both on the way to the UK and back again we were upgraded from cattle class and given a bassinet which was very handy for dumping the lil man in, (we had a chair, not the bassinet itself and, laughably, the weight limit on the table was 30lb - the lil man hit that at his 15 month appointment)!
The only downer on the majority of our two weeks away, (apart from the lil man's illness) was that my cash card wasn't working or, rather, it had been stopped from working!
I couldn't believe it - my branch even knew that we were going to be in the UK for two weeks! Hubby's was working just fine and he wasn't the bloody UKc!
I was fuming, particularly when we got home and I discovered a letter from the bank saying I needed to phone them about my card - I was ready to chew them a new arsehole there and then!
If looks could kill down a phone then the poor bloke on the other end was doomed!!!!
It was a damn good job that I had a credit card - I would've been bollocksed without it!
Now we need to get our arses in gear and get this house ready to be sold.
Tomorrow though, we're off to D.C. to get the lil man's UK passport if we can get our butts out of bed early enough!
Labels: airport, bank, car, children, Cornwall, DC, doctor, family, flying, hotel, house, lil guy, London, passport, plane, sick, trip
