A memorable Wednesday

Well, today was one that the children will remember.

My wife and I had been discussing where I was to do with the children today.  We had been thinking about me taking them to London, but she did not appear keen.  And with today being a hot one, we decided last night that staying in Colchester might be better.  Anyway, the children did not leave bed until after my wife left for work, so a morning trip to London would have been useless.

After breakfast, we travelled into town, stopping at TESCO to get lunch.  After that, it was a cycle through town to the park which is where the picture was taken.  The kids spent over an hour playing in the park.  At the end of this, my son had an ice-cream, my daughter had a lolly.  We sat elsewhere in the park while my son ate his later and then rode to the boating lake (or rather, pond).  After locking the bikes, the kids went on the boats and loved it.  After this, it was a cycling trip to show them where the skate park was and then lunch.

They loved feeding the ducks later with the crusts that they had not eaten.  Then we rode along the river and across to the Hythe.  And that is when the day crashed.  While cycling along the river, at the back of Brook Street we came across two men almost fighting.  One asked us to call the police as he said he wanted to hit a bearded man who he said had accused him of selling drugs.  While I thought this was an extreme reaction, he then later claimed that this man had put a broken bottle to him.  They came much to close to us while they were discussing this, worrying me and freaking the kids out.  The bearded man had a chance to run to his bike, which we then used to turn round and cycle away.  And I have to say that my daughter can cycle really fast!

The journey back home was meant to be much more relaxed, but due to this, the kids just wanted to get home as quickly as possible.  Later in the day, we did get home, and I have to say, as freaked out as they were, they were amazing both with that and the journey back home.

Our first proper weekend back

Well, it has been a while since we have had a weekend at home with our holiday in France.

At the end of last week, my wife took her mother back to her home and stayed over there.  This meant that on Friday the kids went to Madame Tussaud's.  I have not been there since I was a child, and we had intended to take them there for ages.  But they went without me (sniff) and they had a great time.  When they came back on Saturday, I had been to work and got back to wait for them.  It was great seeing all three of them, absence does make the heart grow fonder.

On Sunday, we went out for a meal, but before then, it was the first bike rides of the holiday.  First, it was my daughter who now is even faster than before.  At the end of the ride with her, I was out of puff, and then, after a rest, took my son out.  And he is getting better at tackling hills as well.  I am determined that they are both to get fitter and cycling is a way that I can do so as well.  Saying that, we have discussed the option to swim as well, but that may come later. The meal was amazing, and once back at home I was finally able to watch the football.

Now on the game against Leicester, Arsenal were fortunate.  There were some decisions that could have gone against us, two penalty ones, and the other was when a second yellow card was not issued.  Saying that though, we look like we are going to be feared once more.  So long as our defence is protected properly.  The Ox was amazing and it is always great to see Ozil play.  And Cazorla almost got a goal from one of his fantastic free kicks.

And now an update on chess.  I have had a fantastic win but sadly have not won the following tournaments.
1st Amateur Arsenal Chess Championship
CCC Less Than 1300 Tourney
Queens Gambit
TSS Head-to-head tournament #3
ICC Division 2
Still I hope to do better in other games.

At home, finally

We have finally returned home.  Properly.  Yesterday we stayed at my in-laws which did mean that we got to visit my mother.  My wife, was knackered after driving so much yesterday so she rested, and if you have read some of the previous posts, you will know just how much she deserved it.

While at my mothers, we played a game of Chinese Chequers, the kids now being more determined to beat me when playing it (my son managed it once when he was winning when we ran out of time, so I said that he won).  They enjoyed it as did my mother, but the downside was that she was late for a meeting.

Anyway, we returned home, unpacked, and got to business as almost usual.  My daughter helped a lot while I rode my bike for the first time in two weeks to get some milk.  The kids have been unwinding and have spent the last hour or so before bed watching James Corden and his carpool's with various people.  It is great to be home, and great to be able to have spent time with the family.  I am truly lucky as I know so many others are not so fortunate.

Which sort of makes the loss of Arsenal today a bit more bearable.  While ironing, the kids and my wife went upstairs to watch Modern Family allowing me to watch the match.  And it all looked so promising.  But we lost, but regained some honour when pulling back the score from 1-4 to 3-4.  A loss, one where we had four goals scored against us, but one where we had a chance to draw.  Yes, we should have won, but the season shows promise and I think that we have a chance to finish in 4th place (I think that Chelski or the Manchester team that rhymes with City will take the top two places and ManUre will get 3rd).  So it was not as bad as it looked it would be.  But, I do think that Arsenal fans should get behind the team and stop booing.

Back in Blighty

Well, that was an interesting day.  At the time of posting this entry, I have yet to upload the post from yesterday, and this will make more sense when that is done.

Waking up with a full belly turned out to be important.  After getting ready, we went downstairs to find that breakfast was being served before we had been told it would.  We met up with the others staying at the B&B a family travelling to a similar area to us, between Bordeaux and Bergerac, they had brought the grandparents (I presume to baby sit).  This was over breakfast, which was in essence, a croissant and a brioche as well as a café au lait.  The setting of the B&B was amazing, but when it comes to value for money, and the stress we had, the Ibis would have been a much better place to stay in.  But hindsight is one thing and on paper, this place did look wonderful.

We left Tours today, to return to the garage and have our wheels replaced.  Having had the chance to look at the maps in the morning and last night, I realised that we had not been taken along the most direct route to our B&B.  A slow trip through Tours took us to the garage and I got us there 30 minutes late, but they were great and if you ever are unfortunate to break down around Tours, visit them.

When on the road, the issue of contacting EuroTunnel was raised.  My wife was driving, so when I was sure that I would not be needed for directions, I made the call to them.  Unfortunately, I did not ask the questions the way she wanted them to be asked, but before I was cut off with poor reception, I found out that we could delay our departure, but that there would be an additional fee to pay.  Again, once past some more navigational hazards, I rang again, but this time was placed on hold and once going through a poor reception area, lost contact with them again.  However she pulled over at a service station, which we had been to earlier this holiday when heading south.  But this time, as it was not when we usually went to them (i.e. before lunch) there was an issue with car parking as well as having to wait in line for food and the toilets.  But my wife got the food while I hunted down a parking space and then found them.  While eating lunch she made the various calls that were needed to delay our departure so that we could actually arrive on time and then we set off in good time.

But then we had decided to fill up with petrol in Rouen.  Which on paper sounded great, but my iPhone, which would direct us to the relevant petrol stations was out of action, and the iPhone of my wife was using Google Maps as a SatNav,  While this is great, it is no competition and due to a few more failings on my part, we wasted a lot of time there searching for petrol that we had hoped would be cheaper than on the motorways, but ended up paying more as well as losing time.  And that was a big issue as now we had little margin for error.  Fortunately, traffic was on our side and we made it with time to spare.  We thought that we would be able to visit Duty Free, as my son had saved his holiday money to buy something there, but were ushered straight to the train.  Cue a nap there, and then on the other side, freedom in England!

I am now at my in-laws house, with still no internet access (I am using the iPhone of my wife for this), and hopefully, if all goes well, it will be a trip to see my mother and then home.

Day Eleven in France - Flat

Just in case I have not said this often enough, my wife is amazing and is our hero.



We left La Batellerie today, our hosts being helpful with our departure. My wife and I had a disagreement about which route we should take to Tours and our next destination but she won. She had hurt her foot yesterday so I did not want her to drive so we went through the French countryside. I had wanted to make for the motorway and return by the route that we had come by, but Google said that it would take longer. A problem with this was that the SatNav, on my now malfunctioning iPhone when we came, had the ETA wrong due to the villages that we would have to drive through.  But, the scenic route it was.  



When we were almost at the dual carriageway, we stopped for lunch, just before a diversion due to roadworks blocking our route.  After this excellent lunch, we took a different route than initially planned and ended up driving near to Châteauneuf, my wife not being allowed to stop though (which was good as it was the wrong one)!  Soon we were on the dual carriageway and then later the motorway but after stopping at a service station we developed a flat tyre.  That was fun. My wife, the French speaker, had to walk to the emergency phone while we waited to be picked up. Our breakdown cover did not allow them to collect us from the motorway and while waiting a motorway service vehicle but some bollards around us and the police stopped to see how we were doing. The kids coped well with this but did love seeing our car being pulled up onto the recovery vehicle once it arrived. They were not going to change the tyre on the hard shoulder and instead took us to a local garage.  Who spoke no English! Fortunately, my wife, finally managed to get through to someone in England who could speak French and a lady there allowed us to use the Google Translation service until a local lady came around who spoke English.  Our tyre was changed and a new one ordered for the morning (hopefully).




Then it was a journey through Tours trying to drive below 80Kph (50mph) which meant avoiding as many dual carriageways as possible and driving close to the Ibis where we had stayed on our journey south. We arrived at our destination, a B&B on the other side of Tours to find no one here and no way in!  A lady came around later to let us in and show us around. We were told (in French as she spoke no English) about a local place to eat which was very close by. With no internet access we walked only to find that they were fully booked and did not have the dinner reservation that my wife had been told had been made for us (my fantastic wife found is out as they spoke no English either).  We walked to a hotel that the local signs said had a restaurant to find it was closed and then walked back home, my son despondent that he might not be fed, and my wife, who had been through a lot, started to show the strains.  How we wished that we had stayed at the Ibis in Tours now!  Fortunately, when we got back, one of the families from the restaurant arrived at the B&B, which meant that we knew that a table was now free. We returned and they took pity on us and let us dine there.

And the food was worth the visit, so long as you like crepes. So now we are back and have a journey back to the garage in the morning, but it should be more direct, and if we are lucky, less stressful and if all goes well, our only issue should be not making the EuroTunnel train that we have booked to travel on.

And while the kids showed admirable resilience during what must have been a scary time for them and deserve heaps of praise, my wife deserves most for dealing with this and keeping things together when everything seemed to be going wrong.

Day Ten in France - up and down again

Today is our last night in this area before we journey back north.  We woke and ate at a local patisserie and then travelled, as planned to Saint-Émilion.  We had heard that it is best to visit the town in the morning, but due to one reason or another, we did not arrive until about 1100 in the morning.  The reason for arriving in the morning is that we had been told that in the afternoon, tour buses containing loads of Chinese and Japanese tourists descend upon the town.

Unforutnately, we just missed some tours, but in a way, this was a good thing.  The town is pretty and certainly worth visiting.  I had the chance to take the children on a 90 minute journey around the town on a tour, but I decided that they would not appreciate this, something when they were told, they agreed with.  They were interested in the ideas of entering the catacombs below, but settled for a journey up the bell tower.  And they loved it there.  We spent over an hour as they enjoyed the view, something I fail to understand that others do not try to experience.  In a town where so many experiences appear to cost so much, this was €5 for the three of us (I think that we were charged for four of us to explore, but my wife decided to learn more about the local wines).  By the time my wife was ready to meet up, the kids were starting to get ready to leave the tower.

After this, it was a trip home, with a detour to buy biscuits for our respective workplaces and then lunch.  We had aimed to take the children to the river beach, but an injury to the toe of my daughter prevented that.  Instead we watched a film and then went out for dinner at the amazing restaurant that we had been to before.

Anyway, packing has commenced and I have to get to bed to finish this with my wife tomorrow morning before we journey north to Tours.

Day Nine In France - An Amazing Meal

Today was another easy day.  I woke late to the smell of bacon.  My wife and kids and woken up earlier, but I was so tired, that I had slept through them getting ready and then leaving and returning with breakfast. 

After this, we went into the town and wandered about.  I wanted to explore some of its history and my wife let me (I will post this to YouTube when back in the UK).  I found her in the central square and completed my quest which had started aided by my son, instead, with my daughter. 

After this, we returned for a light lunch and then a trip to taste some of the local wines.  My ability to do this was limited by my driving and also my reluctance to spit out the wine rather than drink it.  My wife, who was being the passenger, was making the use of her superior knowledge of wine to the benefit of us both. 

After a trip home to relax, we went out to eat later and had an amazing meal.  I feel that this was one of the best that we have had in ages, not just in France this holiday, and neither of use expected it.  They were great with our kids and now we are in bed recovering from a busy day.