Approximately 2.30am. I am sharing a bed with my snuggle partner..3 year old Oliver Aspen. He is very happy to be sharing a bed with dad all night.
Buffy and Hannah are asleep on airbeds next to the bed Ollie and I are in. (I find out later that Buffy is actually wide awake and hears this whole conversation)
Ollie ever so slowly turns to face me, his nose practically touching mine. He has a wide mischievous grin on his face. Very slowly and quietly, in an exceedingly well-controlled whisper, he asks me a very important question...
'Do you like Oranges? '
Me - '(Thinking What the actual Fuck?) Err, Yes?
'Do you like the inside or the outside?'
Me - I like the inside...
'Do you like cars?'
I cannot help but giggle and Ollie joins in. This is ridiculous. But I LOVE every second of it.
This is also the story that will be told the most about our trip to the UK, even though so much more happened.....
Monday morning in the UK, I collected our rental car from Heathrow Airport while the kids slept in after the crazy day out in London. I was up around 7 a.m. and on the tube to the airport less than 20 minutes later, then I jumped on the car rental transfer bus and arrived for my 9:30 am pick-up just a little after 8 a.m. Luckily, I didn't have to wait as the great Enterprise rental staff met everyone off the minibus and were happy for me to take the car right then. They have a really cool system now that basically everything is done on a tablet, including scanning my driver's license and paying by credit card, so there are no queues or waiting for multiple printouts. The longest thing I had to wait for was for the guy to go and get the toddler car seat for Ollie. But I was out of there by 8.30 and back at the Airbnb by 9 a.m.
We got the car packed up and were just about to get the kid's shoes on when Ollie puked on himself, so we had to unpack again to get him a fresh set of clothes before we could finally get off. Ollie was fine by the way, probably just a bit of reflux!
Unusually for the UK, the drive up to Manchester was fabulous. We didn't have one set of roadworks or any crashes or traffic issues to deal with at all. So we arrived a little early at my brother's house. Chris was working from home and was in the middle of a virtual meeting when we arrived, so he clambered down his stairs and let us in whilst pointing at the Bluetooth headset he was wearing and ran back upstairs! We made ourselves a brew in the kitchen and said hello to 'Frank', Chris's quite shy pet dog.
Once Chris finished his meeting he came down to say hi and meet the kids, which was lovely. It's so great that the kids are finally meeting my two brothers and a shame that my mum and dad are no longer around to do the same. Chris showed us our room and then went back to work while we settled in! IN the wardrobe we found Hannah's dress for the wedding, which we had ordered and had delivered to the house. She was very excited to try it on and the smaller size of the two we had ordered fitted perfectly, so luckily for her she has that and a bigger one to grow into!
Emma's youngest son Adam came home for the night and spent ages telling us all about his job - he is a runner for TV shows, spends a lot of time working around celebrities, and knows some of them quite well. Adama was still a kid and at school the last time we saw him but has grown up into a really good bloke, so it was really nice to chat and catch up with him and his girlfriend while we were there. It was a lovely first evening in Manchester, just sat around chatting with a couple of beers and when we went to bed we all slept very well......for a bit.
Hannah and Ollie both started with a blow-up mattress on the floor next to our bed, but somehow halfway through the night they managed to swap sides and blankets and everyone got a little bit confused about where they should be. So before it got too loud with people getting upset we pulled Ollie up onto our bed. But then he wouldn't settle and I went onto his blow-up for a bit, until it was quiet. I clambered back onto the bed and Ollie started moving and messing about again, so Buffy tried the blow-up instead. This seemed to work as Ollie went down pretty quickly after that and we stayed like that for the rest of the night. (During the night was when the now infamous 'Orange' conversation occurred!
For the next 2 nights, Hannah was happy with her blow-up, so Buffy and I took turns sleeping on the other blow-up, whilst Ollie shared the bed with the other one of us! It's not a huge bedroom either so we had our legs actually under the bed. But I know we all spelt well and it's great that we all enjoyed being together in the same room so much.
On Tuesday we went out in the car and drove about 20 miles north of the city, out into the beautiful rolling hills of the countryside to visit one of Buffy's best friends - Kate - who Buffy met whilst travelling.
Kate, her hubby Mark and their son Clarey live in a lovely old terraced house with a big back window overlooking the valley and a canal. They were great hosts, getting out lots of games (including a weird squirrel puppet thing) and books for the kids as well as a few bags of Pickled Onion Monster much for me and the kids! We had a lovely spread for lunchtime sandwiches and then headed out for the afternoon to wander along the valley. The kids got to wave at the trains as they went past and we played in a park and visited a garden centre - which was actually really impressive with a big kids play area and a pumpkin patch with tractor all set up for Halloween! The kids enjoyed playing and obviously enjoyed another ice cream on the way home on what turned out to be a glorious October afternoon!
We had a lovely surprise when we arrived back at Chris and Emma's house in Manchester. Gareth and Tracey were there waiting for us! We hadn't expected to see my oldest brother and Tracey until the wedding later in the week and it was so nice that they came back up to Manchester for a couple of extra days. Just like Chris and Emma they hadn't met the kids before and one thing we really wanted was to spend some quality time with my two brothers and Tracey and Emma, so to be able to be in the same house all together for a few days was just wonderful!
Anyway, there wasn't anything else we could really do that night than grab the kids and head to the pub with my brothers! I honestly cannot tell you how nice it was to be all together and out down the pub enjoying a couple of pints together, having a bit of dinner and with the kids too! We took some drawing stuff for Hannah and Ollie's car mat and cars and they were pretty happy just playing and eating while the big kids caught up. It was all over too soon though as they started to get tired so Buffy, me and the kids jumped in an Uber to get them home quickly, while everyone else walked. By the time everyone got home the kids were nearly down and we enjoyed the rest of the night in front of the telly together!
Wednesday was another big day. My nephew James (Jim) got a new job about a year ago and it's a job that, to be honest - we all absolutely love! James works at Man United - he arranges and takes tours around the hallowed turf that is the Theatre of Dreams - Old Trafford. As I say quite often - he literally has the keys to United.
Now he had very kindly arranged a complimentary tour for us and the kids and we thought we would just be part of a larger normal tour group. But that didn't happen! Instead, James walked us in, got us our passes and then took us on an extended behind-the-scenes tour of the ground. No more add-ons or people - just the 4 of us and James with Old Trafford at our leisure. It was surreal as James unlocked doors, and took us out into the stadium bowl and under the stands. The kids were just mental, running around like idiots, but with no one else around they had the freedom to do so. He even explained about the weird Garlic machine that puts garlic on the pitch - for whatever reason it does that! The whole place smelled like a good Italian restaurant!
We stopped in the museum to look at the trophies first and then made our way around to the East side of the stadium where we entered the dressing room. We had the whole place to ourselves for about 40 minutes before the 'real' tour group arrived. So we did what you expect - we played hide and seek -in the United dressing room! What was happening?!?!? haha, it was brilliant.
From there we headed out into the famous tunnel, where you see the players gather before the game starts. It's also where the infamous music is played from as James showed us - pressing the button to start 'This is the One', the anthem that plays before the games and one of the bits of music that was played at our wedding!
After that, we took the kids to the dugouts where they played for a while trying every single seat. At one point Ollie copied Arsene Wenger by wandering off and finding himself stuck between the two sets of opposing seats on what is now affectionately known now as the Wemger Platform!
Finally, we went to the press box and had photos taken signing a fake united contract before we all jumped back in the car and headed back to the house for a well-deserved break. It was a fabulous and amazing tour and we cant thank James enough for coming in on what was a day off for him and showing us around!
The day just continued to be great too, because that afternoon we met up for lunch with one of my oldest and best mates - Chuck - and his new wife Joanne. We had a lovely lunch in one of the new pubs in Urmston before heading back to the house for a catch-up and a brew due to eth poor weather. It was so lovely to spend the afternoon with Chuck and Jo and they also brought pressies for us and the kids, which we made good use of as Hannah led us all through an hour of crafts - cutting and sticking bits of paper and pictures together around the kitchen island. Jo and Chuck were great sports and joined right in making them firm friends with both of our kids forever!
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