Tag Archives: whipsnade

Here and there in Herts (and Beds and Bucks)

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Sunset from Dunstable Downs.
Sunset from Dunstable Downs.

Back in Norwich, with plenty of sleep to catch up on. Not Amy’s fault: she was a model child, and could probably have looked after herself if she could drive. It was the early mornings and the multiple journeys: I seem to have covered a good chunk of Hertfordshire, plus pieces of neighbouring counties.

Friday was an interesting day. The journey to school was smooth, with none of the problems of the previous day. Dot settled down to cleaning limescale off the shower, and I did a bit of reading. We picked up Amy at 4.15pm, and I saw Becky (Amelie’s mother) arrive and meet her parents, who appeared to be taking Amelie’s brother Sebastian somewhere while Becky waited for the girls. We decided to take Amy home and collect a change of clothes (as a precaution) before heading towards Felden, just the other side of Hemel Hempstead.

The M1 was fine, but the bits before and after were crowded, and we seemed to take an age getting through Hemel Hempstead with its famously weird (but efficient) roundabout. Amy was worried about being late, but in fact we arrived ten minutes before Becky and the other girls and chatted to Becky’s parents or sat quietly in the car, depending on who we were.

Not wanting to go back on to the M1 on  a Friday evening in rush hour, we reset the satnav for “shortest” instead of “fastest” and ruled out motorways. At first this backfired badly, as it kept returning us to where we started, but in the end it guided us through some side streets and on to the Leighton Buzzard road, when we arrived quickly and surprisingly at Water End, not far from Beechwood Park. Dot started on cooking the lasagne, and we decided it was best if I picked up Oliver from the Travellers’ Rest.

This went well, and I delivered him back to Caddington for his meal. I had a bite or two before setting off for Felden again, using the new route, which again worked well. I was only a minute or two late to pick up Amy at just after 8.30pm. I was invited in: the house was beautiful and in a lovely setting on Felden ridge. Becky chatted for a while about schools and other things, and then Amy and I drove back again to Caddington, where I fell upon my lasagne and, shortly afterwards, into bed.

Not quite such an early start on Saturday. We were at Dunstable Leisure Centre in good time for Amy’s swimming lesson at 9am, followed by Oliver’s at 9.30. We met Claire, a chartered surveyor, whose son James is in Oliver’s group, and enjoyed a  hot drink. Afterwards we returned to Caddington, where Amy unwrapped her presents and got a visit from Grace. Amy seemed to like her sponsored snow leopard. I found that Grace had also sponsored one; so snow leopards are safe in Caddington.

Next up was the birthday lunch at Flamstead Harvester. Very pleasant, though it’s hard to resist eating too much of the free salad. The waitress was excellent. Returning to the house, Grace came round again, before heading off to Dubai. Amazing. The four of us then set off for Aylesbury, following the satnav route until it was overruled by Oliver directing us to his school, which we caught a glimpse of as we turned back to Vicky’s house.

We found this with the combined help of Oliver and the satnav, and Vicky invited us in for a cup of tea. The children invited us to look round the house, and then we had a viewing of the rather frightening video of Oliver driving a Ferrari at 100mph. It was nice to see where the children spent half their time.

Heading back to Caddington, we had to divert when police blocked the Whipsnade road where, it transpired later, a motorcyclist had been killed in a crash. This just put us back on to the road over Dunstable Downs, where I got some quite nice pictures of the sunset.

We set off for home just before 7pm and had an easy journey – Dot driving – arriving about 9.15pm after calling in at the Hitchin garage for petrol, food and flowers (a bouquet for Heather the next day). Both totally shattered when we got to Norwich: watched a bit of TV and didn’t unpack till today…

…missing out Sunday completely. But we still had to get up reasonably early to reach St Luke’s by 9.30am for a rehearsal with their worship band (four guitars, keyboards, flute, violin, viola – and that was without Phil, who didn’t make it). This Communion service was the final appearance by Nicholas before his departure for Aspen at the beginning of next month, and included a bring-and-share lunch, for which Nicholas sat me next to Stuart, presumably so that I could talk to him. Other than playing our instruments, we didn’t take any leading role in the service, but being in such a big music group was fun.

Afterwards, with autumn hastening on, we more or less collapsed into the sofa and watched lots of television. Today we were late up and have been slowly unravelling. Although it was tiring, we loved being with Amy and being part of her routine, and spending a day with Oliver too.

It’s now raining, and there is the promise of strong winds later. I got out just in time to pay in some church cheques, and Dot picked up her pills. David no doubt is recovering from his journey. We spoke at length on FaceTime yesterday, and he seemed pretty well. Today is Amy’s birthday, but we have been unable to contact her yet.

30 May 2008

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Back late last night from three days in Caddington, looking after the grandchildren during half term. Journey back was in heavy rain, and so was the journey down on Monday night. In between we had a little dry weather, but plenty of rain too. Vicky is working very hard on a project which is up against a difficult deadline; David took the opportunity to go up to Lancaster on one of his regular visits – a little bit worrying, as he has still got a kidney stone lodged above his bladder, but it shows no sign of moving.

On the Tuesday we stayed in the house, but on the Wednesday we braved the dodgy weather in the afternoon to go to Ashridge Forest, where we had a drink and a snack before popping into the visitors’ centre and shop. Oliver bought a frog, of which he quickly became fond. Amy got a ball and something else, which I’ve forgotten. I bought them a secondhand book each and one for Dot (three for £1). The forest was soggy and muddy. We drove over Ivinghoe Beacon on the way back, which is a pleasant road.

We spent all of yesterday at Whipsnade Zoo, leaving home not much after 10am in fine and dry weather that persisted for several hours before collapsing into solid rain midway through the afternoon, roughly at the point when Oliver and Amy were queueing to go on the train (see picture). We also went on the bus, and Oliver had an earlier ride on the train with me while Amy was on the bouncy castle. We paid two visits to the flying birds display (the first quite exceptional, the second pretty good) and took in the sea lions and the elephants, though we were a bit late for the latter, and Oliver was too shy to push himself forward for a good view. Still, he did see them. The gift shop was total chaos as it was pouring with rain and everyone funnelled in there, but we managed to emerge intact, and with something for each of the children. All in all, a pretty good day, with some nice food from the Marquee Cafe for lunch. Amy attempted a death plunge from her buggy, but this was only partially successful. Plunge spectacular, but not even minor injuries.

Whipsnade has a lot to offer with huge amounts of space and some lovely animals, but it is expensive, unless you live nearby and can get a season ticket.

Today has been mainly catching up, though Dot and I went to Park Farm for the usual routine, which was quite pleasant. I tried to find out the date of my operation, but it hasn’t been fixed yet. The nurse thought it wouldn’t be arranged until after Monday’s cystoscopy, but I should know on Tuesday. She felt sure it would be in June, though. Weather today a bit better, and the brown bin got emptied, though they hid it three doors down after emptying, presumably because they’re a bit miffed at having to empty it.