Phew. I feel somewhat like Dorothy out of the Wizard of Oz. No, no, it’s not the pigtail thing, it’s just that cramming in a visit to every living relative and friend in the space of one long weekend is akin to being whizzed around in a tornado and then being unceremoniously dumped onto your bottom into a strange, dream-like place before finding yourself back where you started at the end of it. We arrived back and sat, blinking, at the kitchen table like survivors of an international incident.

So in the space of our weekend we managed the following: C&R and I had our girly spa day at Champneys (more of that later), the boys went out for a Chinese with their Disreputable Grandad, Hubby and I snatched one solitary meal out together: Thai, since you ask, and very nice it was too. Saturday saw us charge off to the boys’ old school for the summer fete where we saw loads of people we knew and the children rushed off happily with their old mates for the afternoon, followed by pizza with Grandma, oh and I squeezed in a quick cuppa with my lovely sister in law, whilst waiting for the delivery; straight off to my brother’s for a rather yummy couple of bottles of his finest white and a long overdue catch-up, leaving the boys to have an overnight stay with their much-missed cousins…deep breath…Sunday was cricket for the boys, then up to R’s for a really fab lunch cooked by the fahbulous M, in the delightful company of C and her hubby Big R, where we whiled away a delicious afternoon (more wine) as the kids played very nicely together. #1 then went off to cricket nets with his mates while Hubby (who was very giggly by that stage) and I had a further glass of wine with me Mum before heading off to bed. Monday was a trip to the cinema (Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer - very good), a visit to McDonald’s, a much longed-for catch-up and plenty of belly laughs with the magnificent B, fish and chips for tea (ooh, healthy) and a late visit into town to pick me Mum up from the station after a rather soggy day at Wimbledon. Tuesday was an opportunity for the boys to get a bit of coaching in the nets with DD, before a trip to lunch in a pub now run by a dear friend of ours, #2 went to a friend’s for the afternoon and the evening was dominated by the dreaded Morris dancers (slight disappointment to the smalls after the Disreputable one had convinced them that the Morrises throw knives at each other), made all the more bearable by a lovely meal with the Disreputable one and a couple of bottles of rather gluggable Merlot. And that, as they say, was that. One long-awaited visit over in a flurry of hugs, laughs, meals, a disgusting amount of alcohol and much muttering in airport queues. Still, you can’t say we didn’t use our time well.

Highlights were many and varied but my favourite had to be #1 being told by his Auntie L that he’d grown. ‘So have you’, he cried as he gave her an extra-hard hug, ‘you’re massive!’

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