Strollers Not Included - Day 0

[BevS97]

This ain't no Posturepedic

We are counting down all week, and excitement is building to feverish proportions, only slightly tempered by the fact that the kids are doing skate school all week and we've been getting up at 5:30am each morning for skating, and then returning home after lunch only slightly shattered!


Friday morning arrives, and I wake up Molly with 'Molly, Molly, Zero more days', Molly groans and pulls the duvet back over her head, it seems at 5:30am she's not really feeling the excitement.
I take the girls to skate camp, and Phil stays home and finishes packing. After camp, we return home and put the cases in the car, head back into the house 3 or 4 times for bits and pieces we've forgotten, and finally head off to Manchester airport around 1.45 Google says it will take us 3 hours to get to Manchester Airport. It's never taken us only 3 hours to get to Manchester, but I have faith in the internet, if google says 3 hours, then it must be so.

As we leave, it starts to hail, really hard, and by the time we get to the Tyne Tunnel there are large piles of hail on the road. I really hope this isn't some sort of foreshadowing of the trip to come.

We stop off at the service station for a Burger King (BK, £18.14) and I try to log onto the internet, as I've remembered I forgot to send a really important email, and we never did online check in.
There appears to be a Wifi connection but I can't work out how to connect to it, so I text the important bits of my email, and we decide we will have to check in the old-fashioned way. I'm not entirely sure if you can do online checkin without a printer anyway.

We head across the M62 and the traffic is horrendous. Molly is listening to Abba on her ipod and singing rather loudly and very random words, I keep hearing snippets of 'Super Trouper' and 'Mamma Mia' she is getting louder and more random 'Yes, I've been broken hearted, la Da di da the day he farted' which normally means she is tired, and eventually she drops to sleep. Rather stupidly, I try and make her more comfortable, and she instantly wakes back up and starts singing again. One day I will learn, don't touch a sleeping child, no matter how uncomfortable they may look.

We eventually find the Travelodge around 6pm, so that was 4 hours 15 minutes from home... and get checked in. We had paid £9 for our room, so we weren't expecting much - which was a good thing really because we didn't get much. We had to pay £5 to park for the night. The problem with paying only £9 for your room is it make everything else look expensive. £5 to park! that's nearly as much as the room costs. £10 for internet, not paying that, the room was only £9 you know... and so the evening went on. We have stayed in lots of Travelodges and they are all pretty much the same, but this one seems to have taken back to basics right back to a new level. There is not even a picture on the wall.

Molly is hot and decides she wants to wash her feet, so I lean in to turn on the tap, and manage to switch the shower on instead, I get a rather cold surprise! I am just a little drenched. We watch a little tv, and hang out in the room for a while and then decide to go to the Travelodge restaurant for tea.

This was actually pretty good, we had Chilli and Rice, Kids Sausage & Mash, Kids Spaghetti Bolognese, and I had a Jacket Potato with Tuna, along with drinks and a beer it came to £24.35 which we thought wasn't too bad at all. The food was ok, and the service was quick, which was really all we were after.


sausage & mash


We headed back to bed, and decided that since we'd had such a long week we would all be really tired, so we'd better set the alarm. Ha! This was to prove somewhat unnecessary...

The bed proves to be the most uncomfortable lumpy thing i've ever not slept in, and I am not entirely sure I fell asleep at all, although Phil assures me when he was awake at 1am I was asleep. I was definitely awake by 4am and we are all wide awake by 6am. That extra £1000 to fly from Newcastle is starting to sound like a bargain!

It's now 6:50am, and we don't need to leave the travelodge until 10am. The kids are entertaining themselves by playing Rock, Paper, Scissors, and apparently Katie's pumped. I think it's going to be a long morning.

[hayleyandhilda]

i love the thought of Molly's singing sounds so like Hilda lol
hope thatyour having a great time xxx

[V-1]

Great start! Looking forward to the rest.

[Juliemack]

"One day I will learn, don't touch a sleeping child, no matter how uncomfortable they may look".

haha, that brought back memories and made me laugh - look forward to reading more

[Maggiemae]

LOL at Molly's lyrics!

We always find it hard to get a good nights sleep the night before.

[Amy]

Lol sounds great!

[k l is excited]

Can't wait to read more, hope you are all having a wonderful time.

Karen

[Guest]

cant wait for more...thanks...

[KarenG]

Great start Bev!

[Guest]

Eeeek hope we get a comfier bed when we go in a few weeks! Pictures I can do without, but I like a comfy bed! I did at your comments about your DD singing