Monday the 6th had me up at 5am for an
early morning airport transfer. There was no time for breakfast,
only time for a quick cuppa as the shuttle bus turned up 15 minutes
early. Got to the airport at 7 to face the maze of Charles De
Gaulle. Found my way to the gate, checked out the duty free shops
but couldn't buy any French champagne for Carol & Eddie as it
wouldn't be allowed through Switzerland customs. The flight was
supposed to leave at 9.50 with boarding at 9am, but the plane hadn't
even come in at 9. We were finally on the plane and the wheels
left the ground at 10.15, arriving in Zurich at 11.06 with another maze
to navigate, no time to do any souvenir shopping here. By time
the shuttle bus got us to where we were to go through the boarding gate
were really pushed for time. The line at the boarding gate was
rather long and looking at the clock I was worried that we wouldn't be
on board for the 12.10 departure, especially when I saw another shuttle
bus picking up the people that had already gone through the gate.
Finally my turn came to board the shuttle bus which took us directly to
the tarmac where the plane was waiting. I was expecting to go
through a tunnel as with all internation flights, but to have to walk
the tarmac as if I was on a domestic flight was new. We didn't do
too badly though, the plane took off at 12.17, just a tad late, with
about 627 miles to Manchester. I won't bore you with all the
flight details but flying over Switzerland has prompted me to add it to
my list of places to visit.
Either my flight itinerary is incorrect, my calculations were way off or we had one hell of a tail wind as we arrived in Manchester 1 hour early at 12.05 instead of 1.05. No issues with customs, I walked straight through as a British subject, have to remember to renew my British passport before March 2012. Carol and Eddie arrived through the front doors about 5 minutes after I got to the arrival lounge, smallest one I've ever seen. Carol had been checking the flight online so was aware of our time of arrival, but they got caught up in a bit of traffic. After arriving at their house we sat and chatted till 11pm. Carol had to get up for work next morning or I'm sure we would have talked longer. I slept like a log and was glad of the rest.
Tuesday 7th
Woke at 6.30, read for a while till I knew Carol was up. Got all my washing done. Took some photo's of the pond, I think you'll like this one dad -->
After tea we went to watch Carol play crown green bowls, very different
from the lawn bowls my dad plays, I had no idea who was going
where. Mark and Dawn came to see us.
Wednesday 8th
Woke up with a killer of a cold, guess the flu injection doesn't work on the common cold. Eddie took me into Warrington for a wander around Golden Square, it's certainly grown a lot since I was last here, as had the markets. Tried to get some Warrington souvenirs at the tourist centre in the markets but they didn't have what I wanted. They suggest we went to the Wolves shop, Warrington's rugby league team. Got a few interesting bits here but I won't tell you what I got as I don't want to spoil it for the recipients.
Thursday 9th
Went out to visit Louise, Carol & Eddie's youngest daughter, to take her birthday present. Louise's daughter Jessica did a Jamie on me, the family will understand that one, but long story short, walked the long way around to get past me whilst keeping her eye on me all the time. After leaving Louise's we stopped in at Cheshire Oaks outlet shopping, picked up some good bargains. The cold isn't getting any better despite a hot toddy and medications.
Friday 10th
Dawn invited me to go to the Wolves game tonight but with the wind and rain expected I had to decline, I wasn't really fit enough to go anywhere. Got myself some more medications to try and knock the bugger on the head as fast as I could, didn't want to miss out on another shopping spree tomorrow.
Saturday 11th
Not feeling much better but found my ventolin has helped with the cough so the shopping spree today should be ok. It's a nice day, no rain and not too cold either so fingers crossed I make it around Chester. Carol, Lynn and I met Dawn at the train station and off we went for a girl's day out. The Scholl shop in Chester was no longer there, it had been bought by another shoe shop 2 years ago, no more Scholl clogs for me :-( That didn't stop me picking up other bargains though. Louise and the kids met us for lunch then off back to the station for the train home. How sad that we had just missed the 5.50 train and the next one was another hour away. No time to go back into the main street and shop so we had to make do with going to the pub for a couple of pints.
Sunday 12th
Uncle Walt (Carol's dad) came to visit in the morning for a while. It was nice to catch up with him again. Had a quiet day around thehouse, still fighting the dreaded lurgy with pills, cough mixture and ventolin. Went to Penketh to watch Carol & Eddie in a bowls game, still haven't figured the game out yet. One of the opposition ladies was so concerned about my cough she came over and gave me a lozenge to suck on with the advice to go get some as soon as I could. Wow, did that hit home quickly, I could actually breath through my nose at last and the cough settled a little, so Kilkoff was the first item on my shopping list for tomorrow.
Monday 13th
Eddie took me back into town to buy the Kilkoff and some more pills. Back at home I took 2 pills and 1 Kilkoff then I set to work on my web update. The head is already feeling heaps nbetter and my nose doesn't feel like it's the drain pipe for my brains, no comments thanks. :-)
I haven't had chance to catch up with any family yet as I didn't want to pass this cold on. I just hope it doesn't hit Carol or Eddie as they are leaving on Thursday for Jersey.
Tuesday 14th, Wednesday 15th, still haven't seen anyone but am starting to feel human again so maybe tomorrow will be the day I can venture out.
Thursday 16th
Carol, Eddie & Jessica left for Jersey this morning to visit their youngest granddaughter for her birthday. Blanche came to pick me upand took me back to her place for a visit. Blanche & Terry and had to leave home at 11.30 to pick up their grandson from school so I went with them, after which they dropped me off to visit with my Aunty Alice. Spent a good few hours chatting with Aunty Alice and she gave me a beautiful doll dressed for Christmas. I wish I had photo's from my childhood Christmas day visits to Aunty Alice, her house was a little girl's wonderland, and although she has given a lot of her stuff away, she still has lots of cute, cuddly, interesting, amazing things, yeah, still a little girl's wonderland.
After leaving Aunty Alice's, the sky cleared and I decided a nice walk home would do me good. Headed off around my old home village when nature decided it was going to call on me and I still have a good 20-30 minutes before I reached home. Linda's house is much closer, just hope she's home or I'm going to be in a fix. As I turned into Linda's close she was just walking out of her front door to go shopping, what timing hey. The bladder relieved I proceeded to fill it again with a nice cuppa and a chat with Linda & Keith. Got some stuff for dad off Keith and asked if there was a dvd of the Warrington GF at Wembley. They're not out yet but you will get one dad, not just yet.
Linda & Keith dropped me home about 3.30 then went on their shopping trip. Linda is picking me up tomorrow at 10 for a couple of hours shopping. Yeah, again.
Friday 17th
Linda picked me up as arranged at 10 and off we went. Whilst wandering around the centre we saw Wolfie, the Warrington Wolves mascot with the Cup. Check this out dad -->
thanks
Linda for asking security if it could be done. Our couple
of hours shopping trip took 6 hours, got home about 4pm, loaded up with
goodies once more. I'm going to have to clear out my wardrobe
when I get home, or take over one of the kids rooms as a dressing room
:-). Ran into Stan whilst we were out shopping, he said that he
and his family would be catching up with me tonight, so I thought I'd
better get the washing hung out, it certainly won't dry sitting in the
washing machine. Forgot that I had put some new jeans in the wash
so ended up with 2 white shirts with a slight blue tinge and a cream
woollen dress with a lot of blue patches all over it. Put the
dress back through the wash with all the towels and it solved that
problem, a bit of bleach when I get home should fix the shirts.
Mark called in on his way home from work to drop off a car seat and to let me know that he and Dawn were going to be over at the pub if I wanted to join them. I wasn't sure what I was doing as I wasn't sure what time I was going to be seeing Stan and family. Whilst Mark was here the phone rang so I got him to answer it, I figured he'd know who it was until he passed it to me saying 'Bernie from Australia', what a nice surprise that was. Don't worry Tony, we didn't do our usual 5 hour stint but the phone bill might be a little larger this month, there was a fair bit to catch up on. :-)
7pm and not sure what's happening with Stan so started packing my cases with the stuff I won't need over the next 2 days. Hope it's all going to fit in.
Either my flight itinerary is incorrect, my calculations were way off or we had one hell of a tail wind as we arrived in Manchester 1 hour early at 12.05 instead of 1.05. No issues with customs, I walked straight through as a British subject, have to remember to renew my British passport before March 2012. Carol and Eddie arrived through the front doors about 5 minutes after I got to the arrival lounge, smallest one I've ever seen. Carol had been checking the flight online so was aware of our time of arrival, but they got caught up in a bit of traffic. After arriving at their house we sat and chatted till 11pm. Carol had to get up for work next morning or I'm sure we would have talked longer. I slept like a log and was glad of the rest.
Tuesday 7th
Woke at 6.30, read for a while till I knew Carol was up. Got all my washing done. Took some photo's of the pond, I think you'll like this one dad -->
After tea we went to watch Carol play crown green bowls, very different
from the lawn bowls my dad plays, I had no idea who was going
where. Mark and Dawn came to see us.Wednesday 8th
Woke up with a killer of a cold, guess the flu injection doesn't work on the common cold. Eddie took me into Warrington for a wander around Golden Square, it's certainly grown a lot since I was last here, as had the markets. Tried to get some Warrington souvenirs at the tourist centre in the markets but they didn't have what I wanted. They suggest we went to the Wolves shop, Warrington's rugby league team. Got a few interesting bits here but I won't tell you what I got as I don't want to spoil it for the recipients.
Thursday 9th
Went out to visit Louise, Carol & Eddie's youngest daughter, to take her birthday present. Louise's daughter Jessica did a Jamie on me, the family will understand that one, but long story short, walked the long way around to get past me whilst keeping her eye on me all the time. After leaving Louise's we stopped in at Cheshire Oaks outlet shopping, picked up some good bargains. The cold isn't getting any better despite a hot toddy and medications.
Friday 10th
Dawn invited me to go to the Wolves game tonight but with the wind and rain expected I had to decline, I wasn't really fit enough to go anywhere. Got myself some more medications to try and knock the bugger on the head as fast as I could, didn't want to miss out on another shopping spree tomorrow.
Saturday 11th
Not feeling much better but found my ventolin has helped with the cough so the shopping spree today should be ok. It's a nice day, no rain and not too cold either so fingers crossed I make it around Chester. Carol, Lynn and I met Dawn at the train station and off we went for a girl's day out. The Scholl shop in Chester was no longer there, it had been bought by another shoe shop 2 years ago, no more Scholl clogs for me :-( That didn't stop me picking up other bargains though. Louise and the kids met us for lunch then off back to the station for the train home. How sad that we had just missed the 5.50 train and the next one was another hour away. No time to go back into the main street and shop so we had to make do with going to the pub for a couple of pints.
Sunday 12th
Uncle Walt (Carol's dad) came to visit in the morning for a while. It was nice to catch up with him again. Had a quiet day around thehouse, still fighting the dreaded lurgy with pills, cough mixture and ventolin. Went to Penketh to watch Carol & Eddie in a bowls game, still haven't figured the game out yet. One of the opposition ladies was so concerned about my cough she came over and gave me a lozenge to suck on with the advice to go get some as soon as I could. Wow, did that hit home quickly, I could actually breath through my nose at last and the cough settled a little, so Kilkoff was the first item on my shopping list for tomorrow.
Monday 13th
Eddie took me back into town to buy the Kilkoff and some more pills. Back at home I took 2 pills and 1 Kilkoff then I set to work on my web update. The head is already feeling heaps nbetter and my nose doesn't feel like it's the drain pipe for my brains, no comments thanks. :-)
I haven't had chance to catch up with any family yet as I didn't want to pass this cold on. I just hope it doesn't hit Carol or Eddie as they are leaving on Thursday for Jersey.
Tuesday 14th, Wednesday 15th, still haven't seen anyone but am starting to feel human again so maybe tomorrow will be the day I can venture out.
Thursday 16th
Carol, Eddie & Jessica left for Jersey this morning to visit their youngest granddaughter for her birthday. Blanche came to pick me upand took me back to her place for a visit. Blanche & Terry and had to leave home at 11.30 to pick up their grandson from school so I went with them, after which they dropped me off to visit with my Aunty Alice. Spent a good few hours chatting with Aunty Alice and she gave me a beautiful doll dressed for Christmas. I wish I had photo's from my childhood Christmas day visits to Aunty Alice, her house was a little girl's wonderland, and although she has given a lot of her stuff away, she still has lots of cute, cuddly, interesting, amazing things, yeah, still a little girl's wonderland.
After leaving Aunty Alice's, the sky cleared and I decided a nice walk home would do me good. Headed off around my old home village when nature decided it was going to call on me and I still have a good 20-30 minutes before I reached home. Linda's house is much closer, just hope she's home or I'm going to be in a fix. As I turned into Linda's close she was just walking out of her front door to go shopping, what timing hey. The bladder relieved I proceeded to fill it again with a nice cuppa and a chat with Linda & Keith. Got some stuff for dad off Keith and asked if there was a dvd of the Warrington GF at Wembley. They're not out yet but you will get one dad, not just yet.
Linda & Keith dropped me home about 3.30 then went on their shopping trip. Linda is picking me up tomorrow at 10 for a couple of hours shopping. Yeah, again.
Friday 17th
Linda picked me up as arranged at 10 and off we went. Whilst wandering around the centre we saw Wolfie, the Warrington Wolves mascot with the Cup. Check this out dad -->
thanks
Linda for asking security if it could be done. Our couple
of hours shopping trip took 6 hours, got home about 4pm, loaded up with
goodies once more. I'm going to have to clear out my wardrobe
when I get home, or take over one of the kids rooms as a dressing room
:-). Ran into Stan whilst we were out shopping, he said that he
and his family would be catching up with me tonight, so I thought I'd
better get the washing hung out, it certainly won't dry sitting in the
washing machine. Forgot that I had put some new jeans in the wash
so ended up with 2 white shirts with a slight blue tinge and a cream
woollen dress with a lot of blue patches all over it. Put the
dress back through the wash with all the towels and it solved that
problem, a bit of bleach when I get home should fix the shirts.Mark called in on his way home from work to drop off a car seat and to let me know that he and Dawn were going to be over at the pub if I wanted to join them. I wasn't sure what I was doing as I wasn't sure what time I was going to be seeing Stan and family. Whilst Mark was here the phone rang so I got him to answer it, I figured he'd know who it was until he passed it to me saying 'Bernie from Australia', what a nice surprise that was. Don't worry Tony, we didn't do our usual 5 hour stint but the phone bill might be a little larger this month, there was a fair bit to catch up on. :-)
7pm and not sure what's happening with Stan so started packing my cases with the stuff I won't need over the next 2 days. Hope it's all going to fit in.