The end of our visit and return home.

We had not booked our return crossing on the EuroTunnel so that we were sufficiently flexible if we were needed. At Helen's request, we extended our stay in the flat and the UK by a week.

We still had a few things on our list, although we knew that it was unlikely that we would manage all of them. The most important outstanding job was to get Jim's wine up to his flat in Hackney and this meant the dreaded trip in London in a French car! Previous experience of driving around London on the wrong side of the car has not been good. Thankfully, there were no issues this time; we arrived safely and, having parked the car in Jim's parking slot, we walked down to a small Turkish cafe on Kingsland road and enjoyed our Gozleme, a Turkish flat bread stuffed with cheese, potato or spinach, or any combination. Delicious!

In the evening we ate at a very good Turkish restaurant which serves superb kebabs. We have eaten there many times and each have our favourite dish and always order that.

The following day, John went up to Cambridge to attend to a few things at our house and Pat returned to Broadstairs.

Our final meeting was with Andew and Elisa. Andrew is an old friend of John from school in Northern Ireland. We had been trying to get together for a few years but failed up to this point.

We met in a pub at East Malling and spent an interesting couple of hours catching up.

Now it was time to clean the flat, pack up the car and take Ernie out for a scoot and an ice cream. Once we are on the promenade and there is no traffic, the scoot usually just means trying to keep up with Ernie for as long as he wants to scoot. On this occasion, we ended up at Stone bay.

It may have been cool, but Ernie is game for the beach at almost any temperature. We were trying NOT to get our feet wet and had good fun on our way back waiting for the high waves without getting drenched

We ate with the family that evening and so time for a cuddle with Lenny; here is a happy Grandad.

The next morning, we set off bright an early for the EuroTunnel. There was a short delay while we retrieved John's passport from the flat, but nevertheless, we made our appointed checkin time with 2 minutes to spare.

We stopped at our usual overnight stop in Montluçon in the centre of France and enjoyed a good meal at a Le Grenier à Sel, where we had eaten before.

Unfortunately, we had a slow pucture and so the next morning, John pumped up the tyre sufficiently that we could limp round to a tyre repairer, who identified a nail in the tyre and repaired the tyre in minutes.

As we drove south, chinks of blue began to appear between the clouds and the countryside became very colourful and as we drove on, we anticipated an evening on the terrace with a glass of wine.

 

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At last ....

By the next morning, we had news that the baby should arrive shortly. We took Ernie off to a soft play at Quex park, which includes a museum, gardens, a good vegetable and cheese shop as well as the soft play. We were there by 10am, when it opens (Ernie having woken at 0630) and he had a great time with one or other of us playing with him on the slides, tunnels and other equipment. There were not too many people there, unlike the afternoons when lots of children are there after their childcare or school day.

It was after lunch that we heard that a baby boy had been born just before noon on Friday, October 2nd and that Ernie would be sleeping at his own home that night. When we delivered Ernie back to Mum and Dad, he went upstairs to meet the baby. After a while, he came downstairs to get his favourite tram then raced back upstairs to show the baby. We had a brief glimpse of the new arrival and then left the exhausted family to recover.

We managed to get a peek at the new arrival on the next day and by Sunday, John's birthday, mum and baby were downstairs and meeting Uncle Jim, who came to Broadstairs for lunch.

Our job now was to help out in anyway that we could, so collecting Ernie from his childcare, entertaining him afterwards, shopping, getting the pram ready for use, various jobs relating to the house renovation, etc have kept us busy. After a few days, Helen and Nick announced the names that they had chosen, Leonard John Herrett (Lenny), names from a Great-Grandad and a Grandad, just as Ernie.

A happy Nana

The days have whizzed by since. We had one booking that we really could not miss. Our bridesmaid from 45 years ago, Olive, from who lives in Preston, was to be in London and had the afternoon free. Pat was determined to meet her if at all possible. We were joined by another friend from our school days, Frances. We had lunch in the Booking Office, a bar restaurant at St Pancras (this being a convenient location for everyone).

Here we are, three out of the 'four maths girls'.

John's cousin Sandra, from Belfast, came to Broadstairs for the weekend. Sandra knows Broadstairs well, having visited regularly with her parents to watch cricket in Canterbury. We spent a most enjoyable couple of days together. Here we are in Ramsgate

With Ernie in the flat

Ramsgate

Ernie demanded that he was to be picked up from childcare by Nana and Grandad for the next couple of days, so we were out and about. We had had a lot of rain, so there was a small problem when Ernie's scooter came to a stop in a deep puddle. Wet shoes didn't stop him however and, despite the temperature, he was soon running around on the beach and into the sea. Fortunately we had a change of clothes to hand.

Early on in our visit, Ernie had mentioned the London Eye. When I asked Nick about it, the Eye was mentioned in one of Ernie's books. The first time that I asked, Ernie wasn't sure whether he would like it and we had gone to the Science Museum, but subsequently (and after much reading of the book), he thought that he would like to go.

We told him that we would take the usual blue train to London, then a taxi to the Eye. By the time we got out of the taxi and he saw it, he was very excited. Tickets bought, we then had 30 minutes to kill, so we went to hear Big Ben strike one (Big Ben is also in the book, Charlie and Lola).

By the time we reached the Eye, Ernie was very positive and greatly enjoyed the ride and looking down on the trains arriving at Waterloo and Charing Cross. This is towards the end of the trip when we are over County Hall.

So we had a great day out and I expect that we will be back.

On our return, John caught this magic moment when Ernie asked to hold Lenny

 

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Car trip to the UK

We usually go to the UK by car once a year. This year we moved the usual spring trip to September, as we will be spending a few weeks in Broadstairs when Helen's second baby arrives.

The days when we drove from Cambridge to the Meditteranean coast are gone and we now stop overnight on the way. This time we spent the night at St Gillies, on the Atlantic coast in the Vendée, where we met Paddy and Alec, cousins of John who have a holiday home nearby. We had rain on and off on the way up France, but while we were walking near the harbour, the sky turned dark and the rain arrived.

We retreated to a bar until it was time to meet Paddy and Alec in a small restaurant where we enjoyed a good meal and a quick catchup on news.

The next day, Tuesday, we continued our journey to Broadstairs through the Tunnel and established ourselves in a flat which is close to Helen's house. Helen and Nick's house has moved on since we were last there about 3 weeks ago, but there is plenty to do and builders were still around.

As well as helping out in the house, we have looked after Ernie, leaving Helen and Nick space to get on and to have some time together.

This was 'soft play', at he bottom of a slide at Jumping Jim's

On Sunday, we had a day off and walked along the coastal path to Ramsgate. We went along the beach in one direction and along the cliffs on the way back. This is Dumpton Gap with a cafe and many beach huts.

We stopped for a sandwich in Ramsgate and then walked around the port

 

The promenade.

The wartime tunnels in the cliffs reopened recently. The tunnels were first opened in 1939 and used as an air raid shelter equivalent. The tunnels reopened recently as a tourist attraction and seem to be popular: it was fully booked as we passed, so we will have to try another day.

Ernie goes to childcare 3 days of the week, so we are not always looking after him. On Wednesday, he wanted to go to Birchington-on-Sea which is the other side of Margate from Broadstairs. There we had some very empty beaches

This was Broadstairs on Friday September 25th with people in the sea.

The local model railway club had a open day on Saturday and we were there bright and early and had a very good reception. There were plenty of layouts available foe Ernie to interact with plus a very small steam train that ran along a short track.

We also saw the largest slot car (Scalectrix) layout that we had come across. Ernie was very good at keeping the cars on the track until other children came to play and he was distracted.

The club premises are at Crampton Tower, just near the railway station. The tower, which was built to provide fresh water for Boadstairs, was built by Thomas Crampton in 1859.

We understand the Father Christmas has a visit in his diary for December, so we plan to be there again.

By now, the builders had left for the time being. A few things remain but priority moved to the expected baby. We were looking after Ernie when he was available and developed a routine of park, beach, scooting, ice cream at 1630, different soft play centres and other trips out. We had his bedroom ready for him at the flat ready for him when it was needed.

We were at the Science Museum in London when we received a message from Nick, saying that he should stay with us for the night. The play centre for the very young is quite small, very well staffed and seems to be enjoyed. It has a 'water feature' with pumps, waterways and boats. Plus a 'building site' with a bucket for hauling up 'bricks' and an elephant's trunk for throwing them down. This is the water feature.

The following day, there being no news, we set off for the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch railway. This had been on my list for a while and had been on hold until we were had our car in the UK. There was a big event at the R H & D R the previous weekend when two of their engines, the Green Godess and the Northern Chief, had celebrated their 90th birthdays.

Neither engine was on duty when we were there, but there were plenty of others around. this is Doctor Syn which tool us from Hythe to New Romney via Dymchurch

Typhoon took us on the return journey

The carriage wash, showing the size of the carriages

Here we are inside

And still no baby ....

 

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