Family Time and other stories...

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Good morning (for it is morning for me as I write). I'm curious still in bed, although wide awake. I can have a little more time before I get up for work - advantage of working from home being that I can roll out of bed, no worrying about rushing for public transport and getting to the office on time! My last update was all about some time off that I spent with family - children, grandchildren, cousins, and a little time with one niece and one nephew. Well today is the youngest granddaughter's birthday. She's 2 years old. I asked to call her today but her mummy said they're out for the day. We will call at the weekend instead. It'll be the first time in a few years that we haven't called a grandchild on her birthday, but we can wait a few days. I had a few more days off work last week. On the Wednesday, I picked up a hire car and drove to a town called Ormskirk, which is in Lancashire, near to Liverpool. That's where my eldest son goes to university. I took my eldest niece (well, she's my eldest nephew's partner but I call her my niece). We picked up my son, went to a little cafe that he'd recommended, and drove home. It took us about 6 hours in total (there and back and stopping for lunch). Thursday, I took my husband and two sons to our favourite place, Weston-super-Mare in Somerset (mine and my husband's favourite place. The boys hadn't been since they were little so didn't really remember it). My husband and I had most recently been there for our honeymoon almost 2 years ago. We parked at the beach (and regretted it as it was expensive and we could have parked cheaper elsewhere! We walked along to a pub, had a quick drink in there, walked back to the car. We then went for a meal at a pub/restaurant called The Landing Light. It was very nice. None of us had been there before. We recently found out that the owners of another place we liked were retiring this week. Had we realised, we would have gone there instead. Landing Light was nice, though, albeit a little pricey. After that, we visited the Helicopter Museum, which is just up the road from the pub. I took the boy in, but my husband had a nap in the car. The boys said they enjoyed it there (they'd not been before but I had, although it had changed since I went with my husband several years ago). We spent about an hour in there, then drove back to the seafront - remembering to look for the cheap car park where we usually park this time A big difference between the £6 for 4 hours to the £3 for 24 hours. We'll have to keep that car park address in the satnav! Anyway, we went to go into a pub that we'd been telling the boys about, but it was closed. However, there were some steps leading down from the chip shop nextdoor. They took us to The Brig, where we sat with a glass of pop, overlooking the marine lake and the Bristol Channel. Husband and I then wandered down some more steps to cool down by the water, then he took the youngest back to the car while the eldest and I got ice-cream (because the others didn't want ice-cream). I think we must have for home about 7pm. I forgot what we did on Friday. My husband was tired from the previous day, so I left him to rest. I don't think we did much other than maybe play some games. I took the boys over to my parents in the evening, and picked them up later. I didn't stay with them as I was helping my sister with an event. On Saturday, I fetched my little niece and nephew. The boys and I took them to the Transport Museum in Coventry. It uses to be free, so I was rather unhappy about it now being quite expensive. I'd never been much of a fan of it when it was free! My niece had asked to go, though, and I'd agreed before realising it wasn't free any more (and her mum - my little sister - apparently didn't think to mention it). After the hour we spent in there, we wandered over the bridge that leads to Lady Herbert's Garden then I took everyone for ice-cream. I then realised it was about lunch time and we'd only had ice-cream, but nobody wanted anything proper to eat! We then came home, and niece and nephew said they'd like to stay for dinner. I was making a sort of mini fry-up - sausages, bacon, hash browns, beans. Niece had a couple of sausages and a bit of bacon. Nephew had a couple of potato waffles because he hardly likes anything. My own children eat what they're given or they make something for themselves. My two sisters had gone out for dinner together so they picked up niece and nephew when they finished. On Sunday, we had a lazy morning and then went to see my parents-in-law in the afternoon. We briefly saw our brother-in-law, and our other niece (who has been staying with the in-laws). My mother-in-law gave us some runner beans fresh from their garden. My father-in-law has been working very hard to get their garden nice. On Monday, I had to return the hire car and get back to work It's not too bad, though, as I've not got long before my proper holiday! I try to spread my time off about through the year as much as possible but I like to get as much as I can when the boys are home. Apart from all those things, I joined a local archery club. I've only been to the field twice so far, hoping to go up at the weekend. I'm trying to get there every Saturday. The coaches have suggested coming up other days but I can't always do that. The field is only a short walk from me so it's easy to get to when I have the time. That's all from me for now. I need to get out of bed and switch on my work computer. How has your week been? Or your month or however long it's been since I've interacted with you! I look forward to reading all of your antics too