theDIBB - The Triple Treat Tour July 2016 : Pre Travel Day(s)

To see who we are the pre trip is HERE.

Pre Travel Day (s)

And so it was the Day Before .

But no, wait

It has to be set in context of the Day Before The Real Day Before (DBTRDB).

Which really belongs in the pre trippy but It was so crazy I didn’t get to update it.

Thanks to a very understanding boss, I ended up taking an extra days holiday on the DBTRDB (I think this should be an official Dibb acronym now).

On the DBTRDB I would either be cancelling the holiday, cancelling Nick off the holiday, re booking Nick to join us later – or none of these and frantically confirming everything in order for us to be on our way tomorrow. :omg:

This was Thursday

As of the Monday we had Andy’s Mum in our local hospital and us all
coming to terms with her recent diagnosis of terminal liver cancer .

My Dad had just been taken to hospital on the Isle of Wight with severe pneumonia and Andy’s son Nick was also now in hospital in the Midlands with complications from a viral infection and looking very unlikely to be able to fly. :(

He couldn’t speak or eat .

No way he is scoffing cheeseburgers then.

Not really the best start to holiday week.

Seriously.

Are you kidding me?:cry:

Is this the crappiest set of circumstances or what?:nonono:

We had talked a lot about whether to still go away or not.

And had decided that we still would and if needs be we could return at any time.

Life is short, you can’t wait for ifs, buts and maybes.

You need to put on your poncho and dance in the rain.

You can’t always wait for the storm to pass.

Profound – yes ?

I read it on a card, I confess

Not the poncho bit, I added that for Disneyfication ( another real word)

So I was all geared up to make the relevant calls.

Happily Nick was cleared on Wednesday night and so my only phone call was to notify the insurance company.

Big smiles all round:D – we would all have been so disappointed if he hadn’t made it.

And burger sales would have plummeted and restaurant chains been bankrupted.

The patty economy breathed a sigh of relief.:pgig:

Now I needed to press the button on the paperwork .

So my evil pc decided that today was the day it absolutely HAD to update itself.:angry:

And all I am faced with is the whirling void of cyberspace and the malevolent little blue circle going round and round and driving me mad.

No access to the emails to print anything off.

AAAAAAARRRRGGGGGGHHGHHHH

The revenge of the inanimate object

Skynet is real – trust me.

Meltdown imminent– but the assistance of the household tech expert (aged 15) soon had it sorted and sanity was restored .

Small rainforest later and I am in spending that evening in Dibb filing heaven, painstakingly putting each day in order .

Its just so satisfying .;)

Is that sad ?

That was rhetorical, no responses required.

And thus we came to the end of the DBTRDB and it had been busy and stressful. But at least we were all going.

Friday 1 July

A day of unbridled pampering and luxury and floating airily about .

Nah, only in my dreams:confused2

We were up early as Jamie was at school today for a 6th form induction

Probably for the best as that was one less underfoot for the mega clean .

Andy had gone to collect Nick and was then making the first hospital visit of the day.

Which left me to my own devices

So I did indeed go for some pampering at the hairdresser and when not twitching in my chair at the thought of the all jobs I REALLY should be doing, I was having a nice relaxing time.

There were only two jobs :

Packing ( which in truth had mostly been done the night before ) and finishing the cleaning.

Both of these pre holiday tasks get me disproportionately stressed in relation to their importance.

Does the oven really HAVE to be cleaned before going away ? :erm:

I had discovered packing cubes thanks to the DIbb :thumbs-up

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What can I say

They have transformed my packing life

I love them

I need more of them :d:

And its definitely roll, not fold

I had hours of fun deciding what needed to go where – with 10 days of travel before any laundry, there was a reasonable amount to pack.

I loved how neat it all looked afterwards

Ok this is cheating as this was a case coming home, but you get the idea

Neat cube heaven:spin:

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I was also getting very excited about my new trainers – I know, I bought some trainers , that means i have two pairs, more than I have ever had in my life, or wardrobe.

Got me some flys!:D

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So light and comfy

So much so that of course Andy had to then buy multiple pairs, but that’s for later.

On reflection, maybe I took too many shoes , oops

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I was a bit frazzled by the time I collected Jamie and our pre holiday supper from Subway - £27 for 5 various sandwiches and some drinks. But at least we had eaten something and wouldn’t have to re mortgage the house for Dinner at the airport.

There was a final and emotional trip to say good bye to Andys Mum with a promise from her that she would last out while we were away .

Gosh it was hard. We were fully expecting her to be going home over the weekend that we travelled but its been a saga and she’s still in hospital and certainly a lot less well than when we left.

She was upset as she has been our house and dog sitter for years when we have gone away. It was pretty tough.

Speaking of Dog sitters – the three dingos were eagerly awaiting the arrival of Andys friends who had kindly stepped in at the last minute – and we are SOOOOOOO grateful to them

Don’t be fooled, they are not sleeping, they are plotting with their eyes closed

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Especially the old lady

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But she has a tumor, so we forgive her

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Another crappy thing for the list :(

Wiley thought the ostrich travel pillows were a hoot

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Aya, rambling woman, enough with the pooch pictures – its not Pet Weekly.

Where were we?

Yes, the taxi arrived on time ( the firm are super reliable ) and soon we are loaded up.

On our way by 5pm.

Yes that’s 5pm on a Friday night

No traffic ahead then

Eeesh the driver had the aircon set to arctic chill , which I realised wasn’t so great for my now blossoming full on COLD.

What the :(

A Cold – now? – really ?– too much

But unfortunately it was and by the time we got to Heathrow I felt cold, tired and generally rubbish

It was a very uneventful journey

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And there was some sniggering at the annual road sign photo taking

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We arrived just after 7 at the Premier Inn Bath Road

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A few smiles may have appeared

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It was really nice – Jamie said it felt like a mini airport

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The teens had a family room – so one double and a sofa bed

Not that anyone of them slept but they enjoyed having their own space

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We had a double room

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Pretty standard – you can see from the pics that Andy is always checking something out …

I looked out the window and saw this – and decided it was a good omen

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The teens settled in their room to watch the footy – it was the Wales v Belgium match.

Andy and I went to the bar – I had a hot chocolate, I know, what a devil.

I asked the front desk to book us a cab for 0315 the next morning ( the precision of the time is important , as Jean Brodie used to say, its “intimidation by the use of the quarter hour”. Younger readers, you probably need to google that ) .

Obviously I didn’t ask the actual desk, that would have been ludicrous, I asked the nice lady behind it- whose eyes kinda popped wide open when I gave her the time.

She asked me what time our flight was ( it was at 0630).

We are like 5 minutes from the terminal. Its not like there will be a ton of traffic.

But I reassured her that the lovely man I had spoken to at Aer Lingus only just that morning had assured me he “ was pretty sure “ the check in desks were open that early.

I’d even opened a Dibb thread on it and been assured that no, they probably wouldn’t be open that early – so I had this sneaking suspicion it could be a bit Pete Tong……but you know when it says be there 3 hours early, I just can’t not comply.

Well, let’s see how that all worked out shall we.

I had also been assured we definitely had the exit row seats we had paid extra for ….

Well all I can say it I did not feel the Aer Lingus love the next day !

Back to the bar, which was filling up with people wanting to watch the footy.

The picture quality on the tv in the bar was terrible , it had this added shade of green which was very unappealing so by half time I had gone back to the room and had a bath in a bid to warm up.

Andy was back not much later having decided that the astronomical price of beer really wasn’t worth taking on national debt for another pint.

We watched the end of the footy in the room– Wales won.

I had not factored the progress of Wales into my meticulous day planner.

A few choice words about football and holidays were said.

I took some night nurse in the hope of getting some sleep with the beastly sniffles– omg this is such a rock’n’roll start to the holiday, I am not sure how we contained the excitement.

I set the alarm for 0250 – is that even allowed ?

We called the boys and reminded them to be ready for 0300.

And a long night of slumber – all 4.5 hours of it stretched ahead of us

We must be bonkers.

See you early doors the next day – hey, its nearly even the same day !

Todays Spends

£100 taxi to Heathrow
£98 two rooms at the Premier Inn ( pre paid)
£13 Hot chocolate, fruit smoothie and bag of shortbread - i almost passed out
£xx cant recall the exact amount - twenty ish for a couple of pints