Hedonism at Highland Madness!

Well as you may recall, sometime ago, I posted about a trip we were planning. It came off and I am now sufficiently recovered to tell (not) all. It started with me getting up at sparrows doodah to meet The font of all knowledge to collect some more hens. I was up and they were all asleep, I returned and they were STILL ALL ASLEEP!!! Unfair or what? That just never EVER happens. I put in a complaint.

Hot-hubs toook Meg to stay in her holiday home which she rushed into without a backward glance - something about 6 mile a day walks and lots of fuss was mentioned in her own doggy way. Then it was back to load up the car with kids, cases and all the paraphernalia of holidays.

Dropped the kids off to their holidays and equally with less than a dismissive glance they were off. By this time I was getting a little bit of a complex, no doubt compounded by my separation anxiety. Were they all that unhappy with me? What was I doing so wrong?. I tried to follow Hot-hubby's lead (or should that be front?) and be happy they were going to be having as much fun if not more than we were.

We were truly on our way now and decided to grab some lunch at the garden centre (great cafe, don't laugh!) on the way to the airport. (Had to send a wee text to Big Help to let her know where to take kids for cafe trip on the way home - Christmas stuff in at the garden centre - Scrumpy was delighted!!)

All went smoothly, the car was parked, the plane was on time and would you believe the guy doing the bag security and the guy in front of us both had a sister in the same place as Hot-Hubs! What's the odds of that? We arrived in the South East. I know it wasn't hell but it was doing a fair impression. The people the traffic the noise - lost count of the number of "Beam me up Scotty!"s.

We made it to Hot-Hubby's sister in one piece and was just delighted to see nephew was still up. He soon disappeared off to bed and we consumed the odd glass of wine catching up on all the family news. Staggered up stairs - (both flights as we were on the top floor, just a bit different to our single storey living as my thighs told me by the end of our stay!) and slept with out interruption 'til 7.30am, a luxury we don't often have.

After receiving a reassuring text from Bear's carer we spent the day Friday playing with nephew who already could say my name and point to me when asked where I was - he's an 18month old genius with a real sense of humour. When asked who mum is will only say "Daddy", first word was "hoover". Mum was not pleased he was saying "Amanda" after an evening and a morning but what can I say? I must have made an impression!! After some quality nephew time and getting more acclimatised we headed off to She who introduced me to Hot-Hubs for Friday night in the pub with old friends. It was just great to spend time with everyone again and those of you who didn't make it, we missed you!!

Alcohol levels suitably adjusted we slept well again!

Saturday was the big day for She who introduced us so we helped out with a few last minute things then headed off to our old next door neighbours for a slap up lunch. This served two purposes - one, to allow Mr & Mrs S-W-I-U to panic in privacy and two, we got to catch up with more friends and remind ourselves how much we miss our neighbours and their cooking!

Suitably refreshed we headed to the hotel and had a (ahem) leisurely get ready. We don't often dress up these days so it took a while. Once scrubbed up we braved the glass lifts to the bar area and met up with people we haven't seen for about 15 or 20 years in some cases.

The wedding went without a hitch (and nearly without the brides knickers!!) and was followed by a great evening of drinking and dancing and laughing with old friends and a few new ones too. Unfortunately even the suitably adjusted alcohol levels couldn't drown out the noise of the trains and we didn't sleep as well that night, but a slap up breakfast brought us back to life and we headed back to nephew to meet up with other brother in law and his family who had travelled three hours down the road just to see us.

Sunday whizzed passed in a whirl and before we knew it we were in the all you can eat Chinese with a bottle or two of wine and a sister in law eager to enjoy a rare night out. What could I do? I could hardly let her down so had to join her in a glass or two.....you guessed it, alcohol levels suitably adjusted and we were dead to the world until after 7am again!

Monday morning and we were going home. You know that going home feeling, the one where you want to stay but you really want to get home right there and then, preferably by teleport? Well we had it BIG style. Having kept my homesickness under control by being so busy it came over me in a wave of tsunami proportions and all I wanted was to be home with my girls and my dog and my chaos. No more high density living, just space and quiet. BEAM ME UP SCOTTY!!

Thankfully the journey home was uneventful and we were home safe with our girls - who had survived trial by respite for four days and enjoyed a cafe treat with Big Help on the way home. I can honestly say we all enjoyed our four day holiday but we're all glad it's over. Scrumpy particularly had a hard time spending that long in respite, even having as much fun as they did Bear also had a moment of sitting by the door with her suitcase (but then she has done that before on an overnight when asked to eat shepherd's pie!) I think we'll stick to a maximum of two nights in future.