A Weekend at the Olds

We left at 10 o'clock and a nice 4 1/2 hour drive later, through the drama of whinging kids, we arrived to the smell of a fantastic curry. I always look forward to my mothers cooking and this was no exception. We unpacked the car and hung the keys up for the night.

My brothers time keeping was not up to scratch, so as a consequence we all sat there staving waiting for him to ring. He eventually did, so Dad went to get him and I cracked open the first beer. It was an evening of good catch up, cold beer and tasty food.

It was the first time I've met my brothers girlfriend. A very nice 16 year old young lady. I managed to put aside how young she was, but couldn't quite get around the fact that she didn't know that a baby sheep was a lamb. (What is the world coming to?) I suppose they belong together, because Luke was having trouble with it as well.

On Saturday we got wrapped up and went out to find conkers in the woods. (Little did we know all the conkers had gone) We had an hour or so in the park, during which time both Lauren and Jake managed to do the monkey bars on their own. They were highly delighted with themselves.

We had a trek through the woods and found a saw lying on the floor. This was hidden up a tree out of the way of kids by the old man. We had a little chuckle at his expense when one of the branches gave way. On the way back to the house we found a rope swing which swung out over the river; all the kids had a go as the river was dried up and then ended up walking up the river bed looking to see if there were any trolls under the bridges.

On the evening we had a nice meal in a restaurant called Ask. Grandad and Jake had a pizza and the rest of us had pasta. (Apart from little Miss Fussy of course. She had Garlic bread on its own.) After this we went to the guild hall to watch the wrestling. It took Jake a little while to get in to the swing of things, but he was soon cheering with the rest of them. The American contingent spent the entire night cheating, but predictably the English won through and the Smackdown Warrior was crowned champion. He was a six foot six giant of a man, who was a look alike to King Leonidas out of the film 300. (I'm sure I saw Sarah eyeing him

We had a lazy day on Sunday. Normally we have to travel home, but as I was not back to work until Tuesday, it was a welcomed change to eat a big roast dinner and not drive home. I shared a bottle of port with the my Dad and Sarah and my Mum drank a lot of wine. (I think Sarah did the majority of it though)

All in all a fantastic weekend. I don't think we will have many more of them in England so we need to make the most of them now.

Thanks a lot Mum and Dad!