If you book it, they will come! August 2015 - Travel Day 1 - The Journey to Manchester

[JoJo88]

If you book it, they will come - Team Jamerica Reunited... August 2015

INDEX

Travel Day 1 - The Journey to Manchester

Wednesday 5th August 2015

Departure day for me started very calmly. I can’t explain why, it should’ve been the exact opposite, especially as I’d been away with work for the two days beforehand, therefore missing out on vital preparation time. But I had most things organised. I’d raided the shelves at the local Boots so that every medical emergency was covered, (particularly insect bites! ) and all the clothes and bits and bobs were in a pile ready to be sorted into cases. I’m not one for intense personal grooming pre-hols. I don’t have holiday nails, and I’ve given up on waxing since I realised it would be impossible for the ‘waxer’ to work out where my bikini line ends and leg hair begins

The house was reasonably tidy so a quick whip round with the hoover and duster was all it really needed. Oh, and the boys were at my Mum’s. That in itself can instil a certain serenity! I could wake up knowing that I had the whole morning to do what needed to be done without having to stop and supply food, or entertainment, or to referee the latest bust up…. Simon was working from home though, so there would be a little bit of that…..

I’m not really used to calm. To give you an idea of what I have to deal with on a fairly regular basis, I might as well let you know how the day before departure day ended.

So, as I mentioned, I was away with work for the two days before we left, at a trade show in London. Once the show was finished, bang on the dot of 4.30pm, I was very keen to get home. Not least because I knew the boys weren’t there and I could carry on with the Prison Break marathon I had begun a few days before.

So, desperate to get home, but with a 70 odd mile journey between me and Netflix, I settled back in my boss’ car for the next couple of hours. Now, Maggie, my boss, obviously knew that I was about to go on holiday, after all, she’s my boss and I have to run that kind of thing by her, and with this is mind, and knowing I was keen to get home, I have absolutely no idea why or how she managed to miss our turning THREE TIMES! I am absolutely not exaggerating for the purposes of this report, she hand on heart missed our turning on three separate occasions!

The plan had been for Simon to meet us back at my work, not only to pick me up, but to help unload all the show paraphernalia, and so during the journey I received a text from him to ask what time we’d be arriving. I replied, three times actually, as I had to update our ETA three times don’t forget, and I also let him know that Maggie had decided she didn’t want to unload the car that evening after all, (probably due to us being home a lot later than anticipated! ).

Anyway, eventually we pulled up outside the shop, and I quickly rushed up into my office as I had to send a quick email, and then went back outside to wait for my lift.

After waiting a few minutes my phone beeped and there was a text message from Simon, asking ‘do you still need me there?’! Erm, yes, yes I do, unless you expect me to walk the ten miles home!?!?! Obviously everyone else in my life wasn’t as keen for me to get home as I was that evening!

Talking of text messages, let me share you with a little exchange from a few days ago:

Who on earth did he think it was meant for?!

As bonkers as he is though, he really does make me laugh. I posted the following photo of Daniel on his birthday on Instagram, saying ‘Birthday Boy – all set’.

To which Simon replied ‘what for? Gay pride?’

Honestly, I snorted when I saw the comment and laughed every time I saw it for the rest of the day!

Okay, I’ve digressed ever so slightly (better get used to it, I’m very short on actual trippy notes ), shall I get back to Travel Day Part 1?

Today we were making the journey to Manchester, staying overnight at the Premier Inn at Heald Green, ready for our flight to JFK the following day. It was a bit of a trek for us, being in the South, but the price we’d got for the flights was too good to pass up, and could well have been the difference between going on holiday and not.

The day started for me at 6am, and I knew there was no chance of going back to sleep so I got on with the day. Which naturally meant watching another couple of episodes of Prison Break! I then sent a couple of ‘No More Sleeps’ messages to the boys, both of which were ignored, and eventually got out of bed at 7.30. I turfed Simon out too so that I could get the bedding in the wash, and he got on with his ‘working from home’, whatever that means.

I moved the cases downstairs - along with everything due to go into them, where I’d have more room to get organised. The playroom for the rest of the morning looked like this:

With so much to do, I have no idea why I didn’t get on with the packing, and instead spent the next couple of hours generally faffing about, playing Simpsons Tapped Out, or this with my Dad….

Simon interrupted my faffing at one point, desperately looking for a marker pen. I thought it was for something important and work-related so stopped what I was doing and helped him find one. Then I saw what he needed it for:

It was to stake his claim on one of the neck pillows, so that he didn’t have to share it, and so that no one else would use it, thus taking his OCD to a whole new level. I kid you not, he is getting worse. It used to be little things like taking his own pillow case whenever he travelled, or not touching toilet door handles. But last year we went away for the week, staying in a lovely little house on a remote island off the coast of southern Ireland. When we got there he picked a chair, a wicker chair, and that was then his for the week, he wouldn’t sit in any other. He’d move it around with him to whichever room we were sitting in, like a little turtle carrying his shell around.

Anyway, what he failed to remember is that by marking the pillow with ‘H’ (for Howard, our surname), it meant it could be for any one of us. And what he also didn’t realise is that I could mark the other neck pillows with the same ‘H’, meaning what he had done was completely pointless!

Eventually I began to make a start on the packing. I do that thing where I pack across all the cases, just in case one goes missing, but I also like to pack everything that we’ll be needing first together so that I’m not rooting around trying to find things and only need to go to one case to begin with. For this holiday I was packing for two overnight stays, so it was a little complicated, but I’m a Virgo, and organisation and perfection are two typical Virgoan traits. Let’s just say, I’m not a typical Virgo

One of my pre-holiday purchases was some packing bags which worked brilliantly. Of course, if I was a typical Virgo I’d have taken a photo of my perfectly packed cases, but I forgot. Instead, have a photo of the bags themselves, which were around a tenner on Amazon, I bought two sets.

I kept everyone’s clothes together in each little bag, but was able to spread them all out across the cases which made it so much easier when packing and unpacking, especially as we were moving around quite a bit this holiday.

Packing done, Simon & I had a quick lunch of beans on toast, and before we knew it, 1pm arrived and so did the boys. They were verrrrry excited, and I was verrrrry grateful to have had the few hours that morning to get sorted. The boys got their own travel bags ready, packed with all the essentials, soft toys that can’t possibly be left behind, and a huge box of loom bands to keep them amused on the plane! Oh, and ipads and chargers of course, just as essential as food and water.

I finished off getting the house ready for our return (the only thing worse than coming home is coming home to a messy house! ), and then at 3pm the Grandparents got on the road, the boys tagging along with them. Bliss! Yet more peace and quiet for me, I was totally spoilt!

Daniel literally danced his way into the car, and after a quick wave…..

….they were off, chunder boy sitting in the front to save the upholstery. My Dad is a Sunday driver, regardless of which day of the week it is, and so we deliberately gave them a bit of a head start. I popped to both sets of neighbours to let them know what needed doing with Charlie the cat. Our neighbours to the left were moving house while we were away but were insistent on looking after Charlie for us one last time. Thankfully our neighbour on the right is lovely too and was happy to take over half way through.

That was the last thing on the list, and once Simon had shut down his laptop, at around 3.45pm, we were off, yipppeeeeeee!

There were texts flying back and forth between the two cars, apparently Dan slept for a lot of the way and they had a pretty good run up whereas we got stuck for aaaaaggges at the M5/M6 junction. We still managed to catch them up though and pulled into the Keele services just after them, at around 6pm.

Then began the debate over what to do for tea. There were the usual options at the services but we were only around half an hour from the Premier Inn and so decided to book a table there instead.

Grabbing a few snacks for the boys as they were starving, we piled back into the cars and set off on the final leg of our journey.

We pulled up outside the Heald Green Premier Inn just after 7pm

One thing that struck me as soon as I began the check in process was how incredibly friendly the guy behind the counter was. Not forced or fake either, he just came across as genuinely warm and chatty.

We trotted down the corridor to our rooms, where the boys decided on which bed they were having. Simon and I then told them they weren’t having the double and would have to choose one of the ‘put-you-up’ beds each instead

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Job done, we made our way down to the on site Beefeater. As we passed reception, ‘friendly guy’ pointed out that my cardi was hitched up into my skirt. Thanks for that, not one of my lot thought to tell me!

We met up with the Grandparents at the bar and ordered some drinks before being show to our table.

We were seated at a lovely big round table a little out of the way of the rest of restaurant which was probably for the best as we were in quite high spirits as we settled down for our first meal of the holiday.

Now, I know I was given the receipt for the meal, but I can’t find it – perhaps with four flights, 5 hotels and 2 months between being given it and now, I can be forgiven! Anyway, we all had a starter, garlic bread, soup, prawn cocktails and loaded potato skins….

Everyone enjoyed their starters except for me, the dip that came with my skins tasted like Pantene….

Main courses next, and thanks to lack of receipt and photo, I have no idea what Simon had, but here’s what the rest of us indulged in….

The food was fine, although not a patch on what we knew we'd be enjoying for the next couple of weeks, and we all tucked in. Starting as we meant to go on, most of us went for a pud too….

On a recent car journey Daniel had been learning how to count in German, as well as picking up a few phrases along the way, and so throughout the meal managed to annoy Adam by practising his new language on the waitress, who joined in the fun, and signed the receipt with “danke”! See, I was given a receipt, and I’m sure it’ll show up as soon as I’ve posted this entry! Of course, I’m not able to tell you what the meal came to, but it was a great way to start the holiday, and knowing that I wouldn’t have to cook or clear up for the next couple of weeks was bliss for me!

We were back in the room by 9.30 with showers all round for the boys – I chose to wait and have one in the morning.

We were all in bed by 10.45 and surprisingly didn’t take long to drop off to sleep, me the last as usual.

Edit:

As predicted, a day after posting this thread, I found the receipt from the Beefeater, and can happily report that Simon had a chicken burger

[dixonsontour]

Great start.We are friendly oop north

[ely3857]

Yup, I'm a Northerner and I'm adorable!

Can't believe you managed to get rid of the boys for so much of the day, win!

Those packing bags look ace #offtocheckAmazon

[Pussycat Doll]

Great start, looking forward to more. Pussycat

[nickyjw]

Great read, can't wait for travel day!

[slow.jo]

Jo! I’m so happy to see you’ve started

A chilled start to a holiday? Never! No last minute panic packing, just solo Netflix and chill? Sounds amazing

I spy my cushion in your packing!

Premier Inn looks great - and I agree about Northerners being so much friendlier than us lot. Isabella vomited all over me and the floor in Altrincham Currys and an old lady offered me her make up bag to put the sicky tissues in! In Stevenage Currys I would have been chased out.

Great start - looking forward to the rest!

See you on the other side!

Jo xx

#dibbafterbitsbeingmentionedalreadygetin

[smedley]

Yay you've started (not that I've been stalking you or anything, honest )

How did you find the packing cubes worked for you? With less than 2 weeks till we go I'm still dithering whether these wouldn't be a good idea for us (We are 3 hotels and a cruise) but I also won't be taking 16 nights worth of clothes because I hope to do at least one wash, so would it be pointless/more faff than it's worth... See dithering lol

[Bear-family]

Great start. Can't wait to read the next instalment 😀

[jorm35]

Us Northerners recently had 2 nights in a premier inn in Luton and had a great crack with the staff there. My dh though will start a conversation with anyone, whether they want him to or not lol.
Love the packing cubes, will check them out. I also pack across cases for the very same reason. Looking forward to the next instalment 😀

[Diz]

Fab! Have been waiting not very patiently for you to start!

Who knew packing cubes existed - clearly not me. Can't believe I have missed them.

Funny enough I had exactly the same thought about the premier inn staff at Manchester. The lady at reception went out of her way to help us print off our skip the counter confirmation as we had realised on way that the bar code hadn't printed properly. Everyone we spoke to was lovely!
Can't wait for the rest no pressure just words of encouragement!
Bye
Diane x