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gfrancieSunday we woke up and drank copious cups of tea and a few croissants and other fine goods. People lazed about. Later on the bride and groom showed up and began to open presents. They appreciated our ice cream maker. Then there was food. Someone broke out leftovers from the previous night, along with the remaining hog. Guests ate three quarters of that delicious pig but we still had a quarter of a pig to work through. We ate and ate and ate. Like locusts. Eventually I packed things up and then it was time for a proper Jenner goodbye. Which takes years. I am sure there are people today who are still saying goodbye from Sunday. As we were getting in the car, Mr. Jenner's Mother presented the children with Cadbury Buttons. I tried to take them from Miss Biscuit which resulted in a tantrum. (I didn't think it was a good idea for her to eat something like that in a moving car, I had the kids somewhat tidy and my children have this knack for getting carsick, so I try and prevent it.) Oh Grandmas and Nanas you are a dangerous lot.
We left about half an hour later than we had anticipated. (note to self, always build in goodbye time into schedule) We made up time on the motorway. We were to meet up with some friends of Mr. Jenner's in the Bristol area. Some pub neither one of us had ever been to so we had to rely on Googlemaps. There were moments when I thought we might be getting lost but after awhile it seemed like we were okay. Though just before we were to take a certain road, Mr. Jenner thought it was a dead-end. (we won't get into all of that because Mr. Jenner and I want to stay cheerfully married to one another but directions can bring out things in people.) I suppose it was a good thing because Senor Onion began to feel unwell and we tried to pullover as quickly as possible before he was sick. We didn't quite make it. Oh holidays with children. Side of a road in some part of Southern England... cleaning up vomit. That is my lot in life. We got him sorted and then turned back around and found the correct road. A road that seemed to become so narrow that one felt like they had to hold their breath. Then it widened and we found the damn pub. It is next to a river with a lock and weir. So the pub is called... the Lock and Weir. As it was closing soon we went to another pub next door and had a meal. Nice conversation and British food. (you know... meat heavy)
After a short walk along the river and a look at canal boats and spotting a Cadbury factory in the distance, it was time to be on our merry way.
We drove on to Newbury to stay at a hotel we stayed at in December. The beds are slightly lumpy but they have tea making facilities with biscuits and wifi. This is the place with the hilarious bathroom that makes it difficult to stand up and pee if you are the sort of person who needs to do that. The sloping ceilings are almost deadly. It is definitely an old building. The full English is reliable.
We dragged ourselves out of there and faced the M4 again. Traffic and slightly carsick Senor Onion galore.
Dropped the car off at the rental agency and then found the tube into London. It was on this tube that we found that Miss Biscuit HATES the ever-loving hell out of the thing or something. She was tantruming and I tried my best to calm her. I ended up nursing her and she briefly napped. Then we got off at Kings Cross to find the Eurostar. (ooooh fancy) After walking for a year and a day with our luggage we found the place and waited. With slightly dreary sandwiches. Then we were allowed to board and that involved another long walk as we were on the last car. We found quite a surprise on board. It seems that the geniuses at Eurostar double-booked one of our tickets. THE FUCKERS. We were facing this Englishwoman with one of those neutering haircuts that is so popular with a certain sort. That woman would not move for love or money. So we found ourselves holding two children for the entire trip. She COULD have moved but instead she decided to sleep. With her mouth open. I hated her choice of nail polish.
Miss Biscuit did some more weeping and so I took her on a walk and found a quiet spot to nurse her to calm her. Again. The people across from us were so fascinating to listen to. They both had accents so posh that it bordered on sounding like speech impediments. They spoke of finding perfect little weekend cottages in Somerset, family (the gentleman came from a family that had money but his parents came of an age where the interest was in socialism. He said of his Mother, "She didn't want to do the done thing. She wanted to be with 'the people' and talk a lot of common shit." His Father came down from Cambridge with ideas about changing the world, "look where that got us.") and class. (the importance of a public school education because you learn about art and you understand how important it is unlike grammar school children) They also talked about places to eat in Paris, name-dropped some people and why boiled pheasant is so lovely. I could have listened for hours. It was so funny and foreign.
We eventually arrived in Paris. Dropped our luggage off (so civilized) and made our way to our friend's office to pick up a key and a few other bits of information. It was screamingly hot on the metro and Miss Biscuit HATED the metro. She was tired. Then we came out of the bowels of the Earth to sunny busy Paris. Both times I have been in Paris I come up from the Metro and find myself so thrown for a moment. Paris becomes real and I feel I am on another planet. Once keys and things were acquired we went back to pick up our luggage and then had something to eat. We made our way to another train station (where Miss Biscuit screeched in ways never thought possible. The only thing I could do was... nurse. I have become the Sam-I-Am of breastfeeding in public places. In a house with a mouse...) It took a bit of work to figure out where/how to get tickets as we were taking a suburban line out to Normandy. I sat with the children and we ate bread. I did have a brief thought (as the day had been stressful) "What is if this how Mr. Jenner takes off? Leaves everyone in a train station and we have to beg for crumbs like the sparrows who were hustling for food themselves?"
Mr. Jenner arrived in time and we walked all the way to Nantes to find the train. We bought water along the way in case we never saw water again. We passed by some soldiers carrying rather large guns. It was that kind of crazy.
Then it was a peaceful-ish ride out to Normandy. Senor Onion saw a little girl near his age and he decided to try out his newly acquired French. He waved and said, "bonjour". Miss Biscuit joined the little girl to watch a French-language version of the Disney movie, "Aladdin" on some person's laptop.
We alighted at our stop (which is really an elegant way of saying we dragged all of our shit off of that train and said, "thank god, no more trains."
We had a brief but lovely and cool walk to the house.
When we opened the gate to the garden, things were immediately better. A great calm descended upon all of us. We were tired but it was okay. No more moving.
Eventually we got the kids to bed and we slept
The day was kind of an interesting experiment in travel with small children and trying to not use cars or planes to get places. It helps to take one's time and spread things out a bit and not feel too rushed. After all it isn't a contest to wear yourself out. Obviously you move at a slower pace as it is when you travel with the short set. Miss Biscuit isn't impressed with trains of any kind so that proved to be an incredibly stressful experience for me. I suppose it helps that I have no qualms about nursing in public, so I have this one thing that I can use to help calm her. Though what didn't help is that she is teething and she has taken to biting me. I can't shriek but I do gasp because DAMN that hurts. Senor Onion was incredible traveler. Four years old and he kept up so well. He was pretty worn near the end and dragged his feet a bit but I was so proud. He could probably hack a trip to Bhutan at this point.
The upside of a car is that you can stop and deal with things as they come along but the downside for us is the carsickness. (we may investigate some sort of medicine to help Senor Onion for those long trips) The downside of public transport is... Miss Biscuit not being able to move about so freely and getting worked up if she hasn't had enough sleep. But hey, it is cheap and you can go many places if you are in the right country.
Next:lazing about in Normandy. You know, eating, hanging out, eating some more and doing not too darn much.
We left about half an hour later than we had anticipated. (note to self, always build in goodbye time into schedule) We made up time on the motorway. We were to meet up with some friends of Mr. Jenner's in the Bristol area. Some pub neither one of us had ever been to so we had to rely on Googlemaps. There were moments when I thought we might be getting lost but after awhile it seemed like we were okay. Though just before we were to take a certain road, Mr. Jenner thought it was a dead-end. (we won't get into all of that because Mr. Jenner and I want to stay cheerfully married to one another but directions can bring out things in people.) I suppose it was a good thing because Senor Onion began to feel unwell and we tried to pullover as quickly as possible before he was sick. We didn't quite make it. Oh holidays with children. Side of a road in some part of Southern England... cleaning up vomit. That is my lot in life. We got him sorted and then turned back around and found the correct road. A road that seemed to become so narrow that one felt like they had to hold their breath. Then it widened and we found the damn pub. It is next to a river with a lock and weir. So the pub is called... the Lock and Weir. As it was closing soon we went to another pub next door and had a meal. Nice conversation and British food. (you know... meat heavy)
After a short walk along the river and a look at canal boats and spotting a Cadbury factory in the distance, it was time to be on our merry way.
We drove on to Newbury to stay at a hotel we stayed at in December. The beds are slightly lumpy but they have tea making facilities with biscuits and wifi. This is the place with the hilarious bathroom that makes it difficult to stand up and pee if you are the sort of person who needs to do that. The sloping ceilings are almost deadly. It is definitely an old building. The full English is reliable.
We dragged ourselves out of there and faced the M4 again. Traffic and slightly carsick Senor Onion galore.
Dropped the car off at the rental agency and then found the tube into London. It was on this tube that we found that Miss Biscuit HATES the ever-loving hell out of the thing or something. She was tantruming and I tried my best to calm her. I ended up nursing her and she briefly napped. Then we got off at Kings Cross to find the Eurostar. (ooooh fancy) After walking for a year and a day with our luggage we found the place and waited. With slightly dreary sandwiches. Then we were allowed to board and that involved another long walk as we were on the last car. We found quite a surprise on board. It seems that the geniuses at Eurostar double-booked one of our tickets. THE FUCKERS. We were facing this Englishwoman with one of those neutering haircuts that is so popular with a certain sort. That woman would not move for love or money. So we found ourselves holding two children for the entire trip. She COULD have moved but instead she decided to sleep. With her mouth open. I hated her choice of nail polish.
Miss Biscuit did some more weeping and so I took her on a walk and found a quiet spot to nurse her to calm her. Again. The people across from us were so fascinating to listen to. They both had accents so posh that it bordered on sounding like speech impediments. They spoke of finding perfect little weekend cottages in Somerset, family (the gentleman came from a family that had money but his parents came of an age where the interest was in socialism. He said of his Mother, "She didn't want to do the done thing. She wanted to be with 'the people' and talk a lot of common shit." His Father came down from Cambridge with ideas about changing the world, "look where that got us.") and class. (the importance of a public school education because you learn about art and you understand how important it is unlike grammar school children) They also talked about places to eat in Paris, name-dropped some people and why boiled pheasant is so lovely. I could have listened for hours. It was so funny and foreign.
We eventually arrived in Paris. Dropped our luggage off (so civilized) and made our way to our friend's office to pick up a key and a few other bits of information. It was screamingly hot on the metro and Miss Biscuit HATED the metro. She was tired. Then we came out of the bowels of the Earth to sunny busy Paris. Both times I have been in Paris I come up from the Metro and find myself so thrown for a moment. Paris becomes real and I feel I am on another planet. Once keys and things were acquired we went back to pick up our luggage and then had something to eat. We made our way to another train station (where Miss Biscuit screeched in ways never thought possible. The only thing I could do was... nurse. I have become the Sam-I-Am of breastfeeding in public places. In a house with a mouse...) It took a bit of work to figure out where/how to get tickets as we were taking a suburban line out to Normandy. I sat with the children and we ate bread. I did have a brief thought (as the day had been stressful) "What is if this how Mr. Jenner takes off? Leaves everyone in a train station and we have to beg for crumbs like the sparrows who were hustling for food themselves?"
Mr. Jenner arrived in time and we walked all the way to Nantes to find the train. We bought water along the way in case we never saw water again. We passed by some soldiers carrying rather large guns. It was that kind of crazy.
Then it was a peaceful-ish ride out to Normandy. Senor Onion saw a little girl near his age and he decided to try out his newly acquired French. He waved and said, "bonjour". Miss Biscuit joined the little girl to watch a French-language version of the Disney movie, "Aladdin" on some person's laptop.
We alighted at our stop (which is really an elegant way of saying we dragged all of our shit off of that train and said, "thank god, no more trains."
We had a brief but lovely and cool walk to the house.
When we opened the gate to the garden, things were immediately better. A great calm descended upon all of us. We were tired but it was okay. No more moving.
Eventually we got the kids to bed and we slept
The day was kind of an interesting experiment in travel with small children and trying to not use cars or planes to get places. It helps to take one's time and spread things out a bit and not feel too rushed. After all it isn't a contest to wear yourself out. Obviously you move at a slower pace as it is when you travel with the short set. Miss Biscuit isn't impressed with trains of any kind so that proved to be an incredibly stressful experience for me. I suppose it helps that I have no qualms about nursing in public, so I have this one thing that I can use to help calm her. Though what didn't help is that she is teething and she has taken to biting me. I can't shriek but I do gasp because DAMN that hurts. Senor Onion was incredible traveler. Four years old and he kept up so well. He was pretty worn near the end and dragged his feet a bit but I was so proud. He could probably hack a trip to Bhutan at this point.
The upside of a car is that you can stop and deal with things as they come along but the downside for us is the carsickness. (we may investigate some sort of medicine to help Senor Onion for those long trips) The downside of public transport is... Miss Biscuit not being able to move about so freely and getting worked up if she hasn't had enough sleep. But hey, it is cheap and you can go many places if you are in the right country.
Next:lazing about in Normandy. You know, eating, hanging out, eating some more and doing not too darn much.
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no subject
Date: 2011-05-25 02:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-25 02:33 pm (UTC)Also, the woman who didn't switch deserved to get a toy stuck down her throat whilst she was sleeping.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-25 04:37 pm (UTC)We simply don't do road trips unless absolutely unavoidable.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-25 05:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-27 08:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-25 05:39 pm (UTC)i'm also jealous of your luxury vacation (minus the traveling and vomiting parts).
no subject
Date: 2011-05-26 04:18 am (UTC)