TRAMPS LIKE US Apr-12- Day 1- The surprise!

[Irishrover]

YOU MAY IF I GET THIS RIGHT FIND THE PRE-TRIPPY HERE


Well we are Back. We had a most superb holiday, and now the trippy must be started & finished before my fragile memory store is raided by boring old day to day stuff again.As I am jetlagged - what better time to start? 8pm USA time ..

So here we GOOOOOOOO

US- Paul, Bren & Georgia (7) Been many times but just cant help ourselves.

After spending the last four months scurrying about, telling lies, and tripping ourselves up, the day had finally come to spill the beans about our imminent holiday.

So imminent, the house was full of post holiday clues, clothes out of season piled on the ironing board, the faint whiff of self tan hanging in the air, wires and chargers filling the open suitcase at the bottom of the bed.

Georgia was still clueless. More than clueless. She had swallowed the smokescreen so well she was totally DREADING this day to come. When she woke up she reiterated the "deal" we had made... "ok so we DEFINITELY can go to the Disney shop today, and you PROMISE I can pick out anything? And in return I will watch your stupid football game in the freezing cold and not winge one little bit"

Thats the deal Georgia.

Another little "treat" we had was a visit to the hairdressers, where Georgia wanted her nails painted black & white for the "football" and my hairdresser (who knew the surprise) skillfully advised her that pink was definitely the in colour.



While thinking our cunning plans were actually going to work, and having a lovely cappachino, I got a call from a frantic Paul.

" Fifi has broken down. I left her plug in the hire care yesterday….She's just not saying anything, I think it might be serious, I don't know what Im gonna do, its gonna cock up all our plans. "

My little smug bubble popped.

I had no idea who this Fifi was or what he was talking about and was so nervous about asking any questions in case the game was given away in front of georgia.

I finally I found out that Fifi was the sat nav. Slightly disturbed it was an inanimate object who he was on first name terms with, and not some floozy in the office. I spent the next five minutes trying to write down the make model colour, d.o.b and other details about this gadget without which the whole world will come to a standstill. Literally.

Whatever happened to the old A-Z road maps?

I was told in no uncertain terms unless I got it going … It would be impossible to find the Radisson in the dark, and therefore our holiday will be ruined before it started.

Off to Halfords where a keen young man sold me the bit I "needed" to waylay the disaster, after a wasted 30 mins trying to convince me it was probably best just to get a new one..

Smug cloud returns until Paul gets home.

As usual he's an hour later than planned so he thinks its a good idea (after 6 months of planning) to suggest we don't stop at the Metrocentre, don't follow our surprise plan, just tell her now and drive straight down to the Radisson NOW.
GRRRRRRRRR

He is the grinch that stole the fun outve everything he really is.
Well it only took about 5 mins before he was in full gloom mode. The bit the guy had sold me in Halfords, didn't work, Fifi wouldnt say a word, not one bleddy thing. Also the traffic to the Metrocentre was HIDEOUS. It took 70mins to do a usual 15 min drive.
You can imagine how much Dr Gloom enjoyed himself in that car.
When we eventually got there, you could hear the teeth grinding echoing down the shiny malls,all the way to the Disney Store.

This is where the surprise was to take place, and it did, and the disney lady was fabulous,even after I had only a minute to explain to her….. however, as usual, nothing goes totally to plan, and in my over excitement to capture Georgia's reaction, I had double pressed the record button on the iphone. So although Im standing looking like Im recording I actually wasn't. Plonker me.

Id given Paul the proper video and he took some footage of the back of her head. If you want to see the bits we did capture take a look at the video of the day at the end of this.
She was delighted and just kept saying, Im dreaming aren't I? All the way to Manchester.

After this Magical moment was over, the Grinch was still grinching & whining about Fifi, how hungry he was, how long it was going to take us to find the Radisson (did I mention we've stayed here 3 times before?) But in his wisdom he wanted to waste some more time to go into M&S and pick up some things to eat for supper in the room (this was suggested in some other TR on the dibb apparently, whoever you are TY for adding to my torture) Paul spent ages looking, faffing, arguing with the cashier, swapping lanes in the queue, arguing again with the next poor girl who thought he wanted to pay with his M&S savings card (don't ask) so she took the £17 off it when he wanted her to put £10 ON it.

How the hell she was supposed to know that he wanted to do that I will never know, but he was adamant she was an idiot and should have been able to see he didn't want to spend his xmas savings money in April.



We had a sit down in Starbucks for some food, and a valium for me. I always blame the lack of food or too much beer for Pauls idiosyncrasys whereas in reality he is just a twot.



Well he was on full belt in here where he'd asked for an extra shot in an extra loaded coffee then spent the next five mins arguing that the extra shot was already in with the price. The result of all this ? The girl refunded him his 35p.
People think Im harsh on Paul you know. I think Im freakin Mother Theresa.


Then we went to the apple shop where I had a very good idea to log in to the shiny ipad2 and load up google maps and take a photo of the directions. Sheer genius, as Paul didn't want me to have my 3G on all the way down to manchester … again don't ask why. I have no idea.

But he wasn't satisfied, he needed Fifi, as on the way back when we we're all half asleep he wouldn't be able to drive all the way home without Fifi's chatter to keep him awake.

Im seriously worried about him.

So off he went into some other electronic shop and paid twice as much for the part Id bought in Halfords which hadn't worked.

Eventually we got back to the car, and set off.
Needless to say the second part didn't work either, so Paul spent the next half hour trying to resuscitate Fifi with every method known to man, turning her upside down, wiggling her wires, blowing into her holes, whacking her a few times, and finally peeling her off the window, swinging her around and slugging her into the furthest corner of the car.





It was an extremely quiet journey down.

Amazingly we didn't get lost once thanks to my directions

" Stay on the M62 for the rest of your life" ,
" Move to left lane in 50m"
" Find a place to turn around quickly you eedgit"
" Beep beep beep beep beep beep speed camera"

All in Fifis dulcet tones, hoping he would forget she wasnt actually here.

At last we got to the Radisson and got a room high up where we could see the runways. Lovely.



"See that Thomas Cook plane?" I said to Georgia, "that might be ours…"
"don't be so stupid" said Paul "thats the other terminal, it'll be going to Boredrom or Sharmel shyte."

Hmmm. My man is a mine of knowledge. Or so it seemed.

Me & Georgia settled down to watch TV in bed and Paul went to the bar just so he could come back and complain about the prices. As for the M&S picnic? Well most of it got left in the fridge.

We fell asleep pretty early after the disco light in the bathroom gave us all a unified moment of rage. Just try shaving your bleddy legs in this bathroom…

youtube/watch?v=XhXBxlX9JDw

All settled by 12 midnight with Georgia still saying "Im not dreaming am I? " as she was falling asleep.




VIDEO OF THE SURPRISE HERE



TOMMORROW- Day 2- Ooops HERE

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[Melanie R]

Very very sorry Bren - it could have been our Trippie suggesting M&S supper in the room

Great start though - looking forward to the rest

[Guest]

I also mentioned an M&S picnic at the Radisson in my pre-trippie! But it probably wasn't that he read...
Awesome first day!
Think I'd use disco light as a good excuse not to shave my legs! Am I just lazy like that? lol

Kitty

[mrsbigbeak]

Great first day x

[PrincessRebex]

What a fab start! I loved the reveal, your daughter is so cute!

I can't wait to read more, the start of this has been a hoot!

[joanna23]

An amazing start, I know I've said it before but I LOVE your trip reports!

[k l is excited]

What a lovely reveal, Georgia looks so excited. Men and their gadgets what are they like, glad you managed to find the Radisson ok. Look forward to reading more.

[Huskies]

What an amazing way to reveal the holiday so touching and such a good first day.

[Guest]

Brilliant great video brought a lump to my throat, cant wait to read more

[Juliemack]

Enjoyed your 'day before'... looking forward to the rest

How nice of the Radisson to put a phone next to the loo in case you run out of paper, true luxury