I love this: The Muppets are announced as New York City’s new ambassadors
You’ve got to love those Muppets. And fresh from their turn presenting at this year’s Oscars, it’s just been announced that they’ve been appointed New York City’s official family ambassadors.
For the whole year, they’ll be encouraging families to visit New York City. I only wish I’d been at that press conference – can you imagine? The poor Mayor of New York City, Michael R Bloomberg sharing the stand with Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Gonzo the Great and Pepe the King Prawn. Hilarious.
And in the best soundbite in the whole history of soundbites, Miss Piggy had the following to say on the matter:
New York is the most fabulous city in the world. In fact, it’s almost as fabulous as moi. And trust me, that’s high praise indeed! So don’t just sit there! Get ready world! You’re about to take the ultimate diva’s tour of moi’s favorite city! Lucky vous!
For more info, you can check out the Muppets’ personal views of New York at nycgo.com/family, including my favourite bit, the Swedish Chef’s pick of New York cuisine.
The Gatwick Passenger Panel meeting: buggies, castles… and snazzy toilets
So I was back at Gatwick today for the next Passenger Panel Meeting. As you probably remember, I’m a member of the panel and I’m there to represent families.
We’re a funny bunch, us families. The trouble is, we need so many different things to make us happy… we’d like our journey through the airport to ‘flow’ (this is a word that crops up a lot), and we’d really rather not cause a big fuss (nothing guaranteed to get you worked into a tizz faster than someone standing behind you rolling their eyes and tutting as you struggle with a toddler and a pushchair). We’d like a bit of help on occasions, yes, BUT we don’t want to be seen to be making ‘a fuss’ or to be singled out for ‘special’ treatment exactly… it’s a tough one.
Before the meeting, I asked around my friends and on Twitter about what parents really want when travelling, and how Gatwick (and the other airports – this panel is designed to help everyone, really) can help. Several things came up, so let’s deal with them one by one:
Getting through security
This can be a nightmare (see aforementioned struggling and tutting). It was mentioned in our last meeting and happily, Gatwick listened and did something about it. Something brilliant.
They’ve now introduced a new ‘Assistance/Family’ security area, where families, disabled travellers and others needing a bit of help will get one to one service, friendly help and, in conjunction with a local school, they’ve even designed a special body X-ray machine that looks like a castle! The scanner thingies are extra large to accommodate buggies (no more levering your buggy through one-handed while clutching a child with the other) and at busy times, Gatwick provide extra people to help. The area has been open since December, so make sure you look for the signs. Spot on, I reckon.
Something for children to do while waiting in the departure lounge
Lots of people asked about soft play areas/toys, etc, to keep children occupied while you’re waiting to go. Few people know that there are already ‘kids zones’ in both terminals with a separate area for the children to have a play, and watch TV and plenty of seating for parents too.
In the South Terminal, the play areas are upstairs in the departure lounge opposite Café Rouge, and in the North Terminal they’re behind Boots. Seek them out!
We also talked about the possibility of providing children’s entertainers and other special events during busy times like the school holidays, something that Gatwick have done before with great results.
Returning home – buggies and Immigration
Picture the scene: you’ve just dragged yourself off a night flight. You’ve got a grumpy toddler (or two) and an older one that’s tired and irritable. You get off the plane with your hand luggage and have to carry the toddler all the way to the baggage area to collect your buggy. This is made worse by the fact that the baggage reclaim is packed and you daren’t put them down in case they disappear in the crowd. Sound familiar? Thought so. One of my friends, Catherine, said: ‘it can be a very long walk from gate to arrivals, especially when carrying a toddler and with the long queues seen recently’. Also, someone else pointed out that, annoyingly, they’re often the very last things to come through.
The problem, apparently, is that once something is in the hold, protocol says that it can only be unloaded with the other baggage and picked up on the belts. This is obviously too late for parents, who need a buggy when they get off the plane. Gatwick are working hard with the airlines to provide a solution for this. One idea, which I quite like, is to provide free ‘airline buggies’ for parents to borrow that they can then give back at the terminal once they’re reunited with their own buggy.
And that dreadful queue at Immigration? Well this isn’t directly managed by Gatwick Airport, but they do work in conjunction with Immigration and have already implemented assistance lanes to help families get through faster. And obviously new technology being introduced (the new ‘chip’ passports in particular), will also help to speed up transition through Immigration too.
And finally…
Next time you’re at the South terminal check out their new toilets. Gatwick have spent loads of time and effort (and a good few quid too) making the toilets absolutely blingy and fabulous. Each cubicle has tons of room, plus its own sink and hand dryer too, so you don’t even have to share tap space with anyone. Awesome.
If there’s anything you’d like me to bring up at the next meeting, do let me know. And do check out Gatwick’s information about flying with children on their website. You’ll even find a few little hints and tips from yours truly!
The Disreputable one and the nasty case of the travelator nun pile-up
My Disreputable Dad popped by for a cuppa today. He does make me laugh. He was telling me about his business trip to Santo Domingo (I don’t know either, you’ll have to look it up).
I’m really not sure he should travel alone. He was telling me about the amazing seats Iberia have in business class now – there are loads of buttons and apparently you can lie almost horizontal ‘although when I was just waking up, I pushed the button of the lady sitting next to me instead of my own and shot her bolt upright from her reclining position, in the process showering herself with hot coffee’. Oops.
He was also telling me about the nasty cut on his calf:
DD: ‘Oh, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you’.
Me: ‘Go on, try me’
DD: ‘Well, I was on one of those travelator things in the airport, and there were a load of nuns pushing wheelchairs…’
Me: ‘Rrriiiiggghhhht… empty wheelchairs?’
DD: ‘No! Wheelchairs full of old people and people with no legs and things.. So we’re all going along this travelator, and there’s a nun pushing a wheelchair in the front, then another nun pushing a wheelchair behind her, then an old man, then me, then another nun pushing a wheelchair…’
Failing to see how this could possibly have caused the nasty cut on the back of his calf, I allowed him to push on.
DD: ‘So we get to the end of the travelator, and the nun at the front doesn’t realise that you’ve got to lift the front wheels of the wheelchair over the little lip. So her wheels stick fast and her wheelchair stops dead, then the nun pushing the wheelchair behind her piles into the back of her, then I pile into them, the old man falls flailing to the floor, then the nun behind us rams into the back of me. Hence the cut calf.
Me: ‘OMG! What happened next?’
DD: ‘Well then the first nun realised her mistake, lifted the wheels of the wheelchair up and everybody started moving again and fell onto the floor in a big heap.’
‘Nuns’, he informed me solemnly, ‘are the worst drivers in the world’ (this is actually true – ask anyone who’s lived in Ireland).
You just couldn’t make it up.
What to do for New Year’s Eve?
I’m just not sure about New Year’s Eve. I ADORE Christmas, basically obsessing about it from the very minute that bonfire night is over, but New Year? Not so much. We’re not big party animals, and usually end up sitting in, watching the fireworks on the telly and having a nice glass of red, which is nice, but frankly a bit boring.
This year, however, we’re determined to do something a bit different. But what to do? I was initially tempted to book one of those country house hotel places, but most of them do a black tie dinner on New Year’s Eve and I can’t imagine it would be very easy to tempt either of my teens into a dinner jacket, even if I’d want to.
The other thing we’ve considered is maybe renting a little cottage somewhere. Picture the scene: crisp country walks, a roaring log fire, a roast dinner and a big slab of cake…
Check out this gorgeous place: ‘a delightful early 19th century stone-built cottage, part of a small terrace in the attractive, sleepy village of Penmachno, 4 miles from picturesque Betws-y-Coed, within the Snowdonia National Park’. I could definitely imagine myself slumped in front of that fire:
It looks divine. And I’d have the added advantage of the sweet little kitchen too.
There are also some adorable cottages to rent in Yorkshire - I’m thinking a stroll around the harbour in Whitby, then home with a hot parcel of fish and chips… or a little farmer’s cottage in the Dales?
What about you, then? Home or away for New Year?
Very many thanks to Sykes Cottage for allowing me to reproduce these images. Check out their website for more cottages to rent.
The Gatwick Passenger Panel – our first meeting
To Gatwick yesterday, then, for the first meeting of the new Gatwick Passenger Panel that I told you about a while back. We took a tour through the much improved, light, airy and enormous north terminal, with its huge, covered outside area and modern glass frontage. After a slightly embarrassing journey through customs – who knew that I had three tubes of half-used handcream and four lipbalms (look, I love a lipbalm, I can’t help it. One of these days we’ll discuss the merits of Carmex vs Blistex, but not now, okay – people are looking), dropping my magazine and nearly strangling myself with my security pass when it got tangled with my scarf (I know, classy) – we arrived at our meeting room in the lovely passenger lounge.
The meeting was hosted by the gorgeous BBC News 24 presenter and all round lovely lass Penny Haslam (bit like herding cats, frankly – the poor girl did well to keep us all in order). We are a random bunch: John Carter (travel journalism LEGEND – who incidentally was a top bloke), the wonderful Jasmine Birtles from MoneyMagpie.com, incredibly knowledgable business travel journalist and editor Mike Toynbee and the Disabled Living Foundation’s Philippa Bromley with, of course, Gatwick’s CEO, Stewart Wingate (not forgetting the lovely Sarah from Gatwick and PR Ellie).
Times are a-changing for Gatwick. No longer under the umbrella of the BAA, they are free to be competitive and want people to actively choose to fly from Gatwick. They are investing hugely and are keen to provide a service second to none (the Apple effect, as Penny called it). The positive outcomes from these panel meetings, though, will benefit all travellers and, hopefully, improve the experience for passengers at all UK airports. No pressure, then.
We started off our panel discussions by listing the one thing for each of us that really makes or breaks our airport experience. Considering our diverse backgrounds and specialisms our answers were similar. It seems what most of us want out of an airport is information (but not an overload of it) and a general flow (as John eloquently put it) from checking in, through security, into departures and off onto our flight. We don’t want to get lost, we don’t want massive holdups through security, complicated technology or surly immigration officials. What we’d love is to see a friendly, helpful face or two – a nice light airy environment and an all-round pleasant experience.
From Stewart Wingate’s perspective, he was very open and honest about our views, telling us the feedback he’d received from other passenger surveys/complaints etc and he was, most importantly, really interested in what we all had to say.
From my own perspective, representing parents, the pitfalls of family travel are many and it was easy for me to list them: after setting off at 4am to the airport, your child has just fallen asleep in the buggy when the surly man at security wants to turf them out so that the buggy can go through the x-ray machine… You’ve just come off an 8 hour flight, with a child desperate for the loo, only to find a mile-long queue for just two toilets…
But then consider the business traveller – they don’t generally care so much about shopping or duty free – they just want to get to their destination as quickly as possible. Things that would make the business travellers’ life easier aren’t so different to those of, say, parents, or the disabled – but maybe a day room where they can grab a quick shower between connecting flights would be nice – places to charge laptops, meeting rooms…
John also made a really valid point about older travellers – frustrated with huge queues, complicated check in procedures and invasive security checks, it seems that they’re moving away from the airports towards other forms of transport: the Eurostar being one of the major ones. I found this fascinating – and a bit disturbing.
But the biggest eye openers for me were the points raised by Philippa Bromley of the Disabled Living Foundation about the very diverse challenges faced by the disabled traveller: imagine how upsetting it must be, when travelling with a disabled child, to be confronted by a massive queue for security when you know your child will shout out and make noises, and other travellers will stare and make comments. Consider also how terrifying a disembodied automated voice could be for someone with, say, Autism or Alzheimer’s. Think how daunting it must be for a person with learning difficulties when confronted with an automated check-in. All these people must be considered, and Gatwick are determined to make travelling better for everyone.
All in all, it was an enjoyable, enlightening – and exhausting – day. My journey home was delayed in a rather comic fashion when our train appeared to have no driver. After a 20 minute hunt (and a bit of giggling during the announcements) a driver was found and I eventually got home safe and sound. I do admire those that rely on trains and tubes to get them to work every day – I’ll need a sofa day tomorrow to get over it.
More information on Gatwick Airport is available on their website: gatwickairport.com – and if there’s anything you’d like me to bring up at the meetings, feel free to contact me or leave a comment below.
The Gallery: a million paper butterflies
My buddy Taralara runs an online gallery with a different theme every week. Not being much of a photographer, I tend to dip in and out a bit, but this week, the theme is ‘travel’ – how could I not join in!
This picture is the ceiling of the Dubai Mall, which took me by surprise when I looked up to see it filled with thousands of delicate paper butterflies. It took my breath away.
For more entries to this week’s gallery, just click here.
The Sensatori Resort, Riviera Maya, Mexico. Part 1: getting there
Where. To. Start.
I could regale you with stories of white-suited beach butlers, of 24hr gourmet room service (so personalised that the second time I rang they said ‘ah, yes, no onions in the burger for DWC, isn’t it?’), of the amazing Mojito bar (30 different varieties) and watching Pelicans clumsily dive into the azure Mexican Caribbean…
…but then you’d just switch off, or throw rotten veg at me or something. So instead? I thought I’d keep a diary of my trip, and now I can take you with me. Grab your suitcase, then…
Day 1
Dublin’s new Terminal 2 is a gorgeous futuristic marvel. There is a fabulous, sparkly mirrored bar, a Laduree wooden wagon (I resist a macaron thinking of my impending swimwear time) and tons of lovely posh shops. Aer Lingus is fabulously efficient and in no time at all we are whisked to London Heathrow. A quick wizz along the motorway takes us to Gatwick, and our overnight resting place of the fabulously swish Gatwick Sofitel.
We walk into an impressive central atrium. Glass lifts shoot up into the air on either side of us and fountains twinkle everywhere.
I am greeted with a rather sexy ‘bonsoir, Madame’ by suavely dressed reception staff. The place oozes Gallic charm and we are swiftly and efficiently checked in to our adjoining rooms.
There is a choice of three different restaurants: there’s Gatwick Oriental, serving a varied selection of Far Eastern fare, La Brasserie : a nice. laid back place serving classic French brasserie food, and Le Cafe serving a selection of pizzas/pastas etc. We settle on Le Cafe and our food is fabulous. My spicy crayfish tail pizza is delicious, and £65 for the four of us seems pretty reasonable to me.
Our rooms are modern, really nicely furnished and immaculately clean. The bathrooms stock gorgeous L’Occitane Verbena smellies (you can tell a lot by the products in a hotel bathroom). Sadly, we don’t spend a great deal of time there as we’re off early, checked out in seconds and through the very handy walkway straight into the North Terminal.
Day 2
A quick mooch around the shops and very shortly we’re up, up and away in a very swanky Boeing 767-300. English Dad is the aeroplane officionado and declares this one to be ‘quite new and well decked out’. I don’t know a thing about planes but am particularly taken by the turquoise leather. Our seats are huge (in fact, they seem just as big as the ones in Premium Class) and the crew are really lovely and friendly.
The press office has very kindly sent word ahead and we’re extended every courtesy (which basically pans out as the Death Wish Child disappearing from his seat on a regular basis and coming back weighed down with armfuls of Peanut M&Ms and Pringles). Gordon and his lovely team keep me in Mojitos the whole journey too. I feel like a celeb. Happy, happy bunny.
An easy journey means that the ten hours flies by (see what I did there?) and soon we’re peering out over the Florida Keys and then Mexico.
We’re met by a team from the Sensatori (A TEAM!!) and whisked into a private car for the short journey to the hotel, where we’re greeted with a blast of lemon-balm scented air conditioning and a chilled glass of champagne. I think I might faint.
It gets even better when we’re shown to our room:
And then, the long journey just gets the better of me. I’m afraid I succumb to a little sniffle when I walk out onto the balcony and see….
This:
Much, much more to come.
Stranded
Hello!
Well, we had a fabulous holiday – I’ve got all sorts of photos, stories, mentalness and even a spot of Danny Dyer stalking to tell you about, but sadly, we can’t get home.
A delay of ten hours in Cancun meant that we missed our onward Ryanair flight back home and Ryanair wanted – wait for it – £1008 to put us on another flight, even with proof from Thomson that we’d missed our connection because of a delay. Soooo after picking ourselves up from the shock, we decided to go to English Grandma’s for an impromptu stay and regroup.
Thanks to a lovely friend on twitter (@NailishRambling I owe you big style), we discovered www.sailrail.co.uk and have managed to book train tickets to Holyhead PLUS a ferry ticket to Dublin port for less than £80 for all of us. Bless lovely Marc at Thomson who was also haring around like a lunatic trying to find us a journey home.
Two fingers to Ryanair *shakes fist at Michael O’Leary*, then, and I’ll see you all tomorrow. Mwah xx
Our amazing trip to Thomson’s Sensatori Resort Mexico, and packing for holidays, with a little help from The Online Stylist
So it’s just one more sleep until we jet off for our fabulous holiday in Mexico!
It’s an amazing opportunity – we’re going to check out Thomson’s 5T Sensatori Resort Mexico (it’s a funny link – scroll down). Located on Bahia Petempich beach, the spa hotel and resort is Thomson’s flagship Sensatori property in a long haul destination. There are six restaurants in the property, and I’m planning on visiting each of them at least once – especially the Mexican restaurant… well, when in Rome, eh?
I’m not just visiting for the luxury though, oh no… The Sensatori Resort Mexico has achieved ABTA’s coveted Travelife Gold standard. The businesses with this award ‘display a very high commitment to sustainability. They encourage others to get involved, constantly seek new opportunities for improvement, and actively communicate their progress to others’ and I’m looking forward to seeing this sustainable approach to hospitality in action.
While we’re there, we’re going to have the most amazing experience: a visit to the villagers of Chumpon to see first hand how their new ‘jungle jams’ project is getting on.
Thomson recently helped this co-operative of Mayan women to set up their own jam-making business. They supply local hotels and tourism businesses and the best thing is that they can earn an income without moving away from their village.
I promise I’ll take tons of photos (and maybe even a vlog *cough*) so you can hear all about our big adventure.
But wait – what to wear to such a fabulous location? Being somewhat fashionably-challenged, I’m very lucky to have a most gorgeous and stylish friend in the form of The Online Stylist, and – excitement! – she’s written a blog post just for me to give me lots of advice for my trip:
‘Dear Wardrobe Mistress’ - The Online Stylist
It’s a hand luggage only affair – we’re only going for seven days and we’ve got to fly from Dublin to Gatwick to catch our flight. This has caused a bit of head scratching, and sadly the inflatable dolphin has had to go back in the cupboard, but I think I’m there. Plus, of course, travelling light isn’t just handy for avoiding the dreaded luggage carousel, if a third of holiday makers left that extra 25% of unused luggage at home it would save 7,537 tonnes* of carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere each year. This equates to taking a staggering 2,216 cars family cars off the road each year.**
Here’s my guide to packing light for a week away, with fantastic suggestions by the Online Stylist:
Clothes:
Daytime: hopefully I’ll be on the beach, so I’m taking two bikinis (one drying, one to wear – see below), a couple of cover ups (check out the gorgous kaftans in the Online Stylist article), vest tops, t-shirts (I’ve just been told that the lovely chaps at EcoCreeper are going to send me some of their fabulous 100% organic t-shirts), and a pair of linen shorts. I’d usually take a denim skirt, but weight is an issue (the bag, not me. Cheeky).
Shoes:
Don’t go mad. I don’t wear heels, as I look like a drunken giraffe when I do (it’s something about the leg to body ratio – don’t ask), but will be taking a pair of sparkly sandals to do me for evenings. Add my flip flops (below) for the daytime, some Converse trainers for travelling and for our trip and I’m done.
Beachwear:
The best people to talk to about the world of swimmers are the lovelies at Figleaves. They always know what’s going on, and I grilled gorgeous Hayley to find out what’s going to be big this summer:
‘In terms of this season, green is a massive beach trend – across all shades lime to grass!’ So these Havaianas from Office should be just perfect:
Hayley mentioned that ‘floral prints were also big news on the Miami swimwear catwalk’, which is good as I have a flowery bikini from Next, and that ‘the nautical theme is always a good bet’, which is also a bonus because it just so happens that I already own Monsoon’s ‘Stella’ stripy tankini top.
I’ve got plain blue bikini bottoms, but they do the complete set too.
Lastly, ‘…the fashion catwalks were big on bright colours, clashing bold shades’, which is fantastic if you want to mix and match a little.
Evening:
dresses are the order of the day – nice and light to pack, easy to wear and you can choose what suits you, from a cover-all maxi dress to a little strappy cotton number. I got this beauty from Asos.com (free delivery, even to Ireland. Magic).
I also got a gorgeous stretch jersey wrap from Zara, which I shall be using as an extra layer on the plane and a quick cover-up on the beach, plus I’ve got a cardi in case it’s nippy. I’m going to do as I’m told and wear lightweight trousers for travelling and also for our trip into the jungle. Sadly, I haven’t got the bottom (or the budget) for Houlihans, so I got some linen ones from Vero Moda instead. I hope the Stylish One approves.
And so to packing. Here’s my top tips:
Roll don’t fold – everything’s going to get squished, but if you roll a couple of items together, it minimises creasing. Hang it all up in a steamy bathroom when you get there and it’ll soon uncrease.
Stuff all the little edges with your underwear (keep it neutral) and add a sun hat.
Stick your shoes in plastic bags to stop them making your clothes dirty, and pack them next to the wheels at the bottom (if you’ve got wheels).
Electrical items:
Don’t forget the appropriate travel adaptor, and all your chargers – in our case, that’s about 20 with all the phones, iPods, PSPs, laptops, etc…
Skip the straighteners. In fact, skip the hairdryer. Most hotels provide them and if there’s not one in the room, you’re bound to be able to borrow one at reception. Pack some hair clips and be creative!
Toiletries:
Remember that everything in your hand luggage has got to be under 100ml.
Make use of multi-use items. My favourite is Dr Bronner’s liquid soap, which can be used for everything from shampoo and shower gel to washing your smalls. You can even use it as toothpaste (the minty version is obviously best for this!). They do a travel size of 59ml too.
Decant! It’s always cheaper to buy bigger sizes, so buy travel bottles (check out www.icklebockles.co.uk) and decant into 100ml measures.
Don’t take the mini antiperspirant sprays, they’re a waste of money and don’t last the week. I like the solid antiperspirant sticks, but if you prefer a roll on, take one of those.
Pack wet wipes. They’re great for freshening up when travelling, and taking make-up off when you get there too.
Before you fly, split your make up and toiletries into a couple of different clear bags. Remember each bag can’t be more than 20 x 20cm and must seal at the top.
I’ve been using Marks and Spencer clear toiletry bags with no problems for several flights, but in Cologne they made me throw them away and use plain ziplock bags, which was annoying.
Towels:
The decision on whether or not to take a towel will depend upon where you’re headed. I got a fabulous thin hammam wrap/towel from The White Company that doesn’t take up much room but does the job.
Suncream:
I’m sure you can buy 100ml suncreams and after sun lotions, but honestly, if you’re headed to the beach, you know you’re going to need loads more than that – at least 1 bottle per person per week, in fact – so I’m going to buy them at the airport – that way I can buy decent sizes. My friend, Poppy’s Mum told me recently that she buys ALL her toiletries when she gets to the resort.
Add your camera, sunglasses, a bit of jewellery, a bag for the beach and a small first-aid kit (this will depend on the age of your travellers – I got a little ready-made one from Boots and just top it up when necessary) and you’re done!
My little luxury is a gorgeous travel candle to make the room smell nice (I adore the Jo Malone shop at Dublin airport – I wish I could live there).
So that’s me, then. I am packed, waxed and ready. I’ll see you very soon xx
*Based on 1/3 of Thomson’s airline, Thomson Airways passengers packing 25% less luggage. Fuel and carbon calculations based on popular mid haul route flying 223,724 hours.
**Source:http://communicationcentre.thomson.co.uk/2010/07/21/packing-tips/
Motorways, Xbox magnificence and bird murder
It’s been a funny old Christmas. We thought it would never get started as due to awful weather conditions both here and in the UK, English Dad looked as though he’d never get over here to celebrate Christmas with us. Endless delays and cancellations saw him backwards and forwards to the airport, before finally he got re-booked on a flight due to come in on Christmas Eve Eve evening (if you get my drift). We were also hampered by frozen pipes. Still, the teenagers embraced the ‘not having to wash’ lifestyle and I performed weird spit-washes in two inches of kettle water.
The snow was really coming down, but I roped the Death Wish Child into coming with me and we set off a little gingerly for Dublin Airport. The highlight of the trip occurred just as we were getting off the motorway at the airport turnoff. There was about a foot of fresh snow and we exited onto the sliproad sideways. While I screamed, clutching the steering wheel for dear life (hysteria is my middle name), the DWC squealed with delight: ‘Awesome Mum! You’re drifting! It’s like Gran Turismo!’
Arriving traumatised at the airport, I persuaded my passengers that there was no way I wanted a repeat of GT5 and would be returning to Cavan via the M50 and then via the M3. BIG mistake. Big, huge mistake. We sat, as more snow fluttered down, in solid traffic.
In total, our trip took us over five hours. In the meantime, my lovingly prepared ham in coca cola had boiled dry, but in a spectacular culinary rescue mission, the Mad Professor had smelt the smoke and topped up the liquid. Impressive.
Christmas morning, we were greeted by a hungry pheasant hoovering up the food we’d left out for the birds. It was somewhat tainted by the fact that the Ninja Cat of Death murdered one of the little Wagtails that had come along for a snack. The poor little thing’s body laid frozen and bloody as all the other birds continued to stuff their faces, leading English Dad to ponder that it must be the equivalent of eating in The Ivy with a large cadaver draped across the table.
Continuing on the theme of bird murder, our turkey turned out really well:
I got some fab pressies: lots of smellies, some gorgeous Gucci perfume, Nigella Kitchen and an awesome Dualit hand blender. De brevren were lucky enough to have been sent an Xbox Kinect and some games and I discovered (to my children’s disgust) that I’m REALLY good at ‘QB in motion’ – a kind of American football game on Kinect Game Party in Motion. The Xbox Harry Potter Deathly Hallows game is awesome as well (it’s got bits you can play with the Kinect). We spent the afternoon playing Xbox International Cricket and creating our teams entirely with names starting with Fat. Childish, yes, but very funny. Fatkinson scored a century, if you’re interested.
How about you, then? Good Christmas?
