Weekend away anyone?

We've just had a quick weekend trip to Devon. Let's just see how many things went wrong.

We left before the rush hour at 3:30. WRONG!!! It took us almost 2 hours to clear the M25.

This wasn't our only bad traffic encounter as somewhere on the A303 we ended up behind some fairground trailer travelling at 20mph.

So we'd hoped to arrive before 8:00 and actually arrived before 9:00 with crotchety kiddiwinks that matched their parents.

Our trips to Devon are planned with timings to ensure we get to see everyone in the short amount of time we have available.

It started well with us arriving at about 10:30 at my Dad's and things were still looking good when we made it to the pub for lunch at 12:00. Things started going wrong when we were still in the pub at 1:30. We had to leave at 1:30 to get to Dave's Granny by 2:30. We just wouldn't have the time to take Dad back to his place and still be beyond Okehampton in the time available. We asked my brother to help out and he very kindly took dad back for us.

So we were just approaching Okehampton and we got a call from Ian "Ann, do you have Dad's door keys?". Well strictly speaking I didn't have them, but I knew they were in Dave's pocket and he was driving our car.

Luckily Ian had managed to break into Dad's house, but we didn't realise, until we caught up with him later, was that he'd had to spend an hour and a half breaking and entering and manouvring Dad round the back of his house while Shona and the kiddiwinks waited in the car.


The only inconvenience for us was that we had to drop past Dad's to return his front door keys on our way back that evening.

So we managed to get to Dave's Granny when we'd said we would. The children behaved impeccably but I think I may have damaged my good character. I had an allergic reaction to the dogs. I was sneezing, coughing, had a tickly throat and my eyes were itchy as hell. I clearly wasn't well and had to confess the cause was the canines. We all know that the last thing you do to a dog lover, is accuse their dog of causing any discomfort or inconvenience. I'll just have to pack Benadryl next time.

So that was the end of the trauma for that day.

Remember the Exorcist style tummy bug Ethan had? Well the next day, I was feeling sick, disoriented and weak. Still we'd promised Dad we'd go and take him out to see the children playing in a park so we started to get ready to go over to him. And the heavens opened and we had thunder and lightening, torrential downpours and we were loading the children into the car in monsoon conditions. All this time I'm wondering whether we can still go to the park.

We decide on a cafe instead and ice cream and/or coffee all round, except for me because I'm feeling poorly, makes everyone feel better.

We then zip back to Ian's for lunch. I decide I'm good for nothing and behave appallingly by retiring to bed and avoiding lunch.

So having seen very little of Ian and his family we pack up and get into the car for the return trip to Essex.

We are doing well until we hit the M5/M4 queues which we should have expected. And then later we hit the completely unpredictable M4 queues near Membury. And whilst I'm sickened by the realisation that the queues were caused, in our direction, by rubber necking, I have to admit to taking a peek. I can justify it on the grounds that Ethan is obsessed by Emergency Service vehicles and it was even more exciting for him because in addition to the 4 fire appliances, 2 ambulances and 4 police vehicles there was a helicopter (air ambulance). OK, so maybe I had more than a peek but I maintain that natural curiosity is part of human nature and at least I wasn't driving.

The journey is a bit of a blur as I was drifting in and out of consciousness.

So, anyone fancy a weekend away?