Our 2015 holidays: 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.