Thursday 19 July 2007

Home sweet home

We’ve all just arrived back from a very pleasant visit to England. We visited as many family and friends as we could squeeze into a week and a half. April met lots of people for the first time and (thankfully) for the most part wore her happy face.

We took the car, traversing the Channel by ferry. Always one to favour luxury, I booked us into the ferry's ‘VIP Lounge’ for an extra few pounds each way. It was well worth the money. On the way there we shared the vast lounge with just two other people and on the way back it was just us. We had acres of space, privacy (great when you have a hassled baby) and free refreshments. We were very pleased to find that there were complimentary small bottles of wine. Obviously we couldn’t drink and drive, but we stowed some away in my baby changing bag (personal allowances only, obviously, but it’s best to hide it where no one would suspect, just in case…) for when we got home.

April holds forth on business affairs and politicsAs you can see, April suits being a VIP. Here she is in the business zone of the VIP lounge, enjoying the paper. We’re probably going to regret giving her the best, so early. It'll be our fault if she grows into a toddler who just MUST travel VIP class everywhere..

I was very excited on arrival at Dover. However, April, on landing, was less than impressed with her first view of Blighty. She vented her disappointment by crying pretty much all the way from Dover to Norwich, where we were staying with our families. That kid has a lot to learn about gratitude.

The holiday was a great chance to meet many, many relatives and friends. We were lucky enough to be offered some baby sitting by the grandparents too, which meant we even squeezed in an evening out, just the two of us.

On our holiday we munched our way through many traditional English meals – roast dinner, fish and chips, sausage and mash – and some more modern English cuisine – Thai, Chinese, Indian and French!

I got my fix of English shops. Great to go shopping in a country where you know the language - so much more relaxing. Even though I am probably technically too old for them now, I still get a thrill when visiting Topshop and Miss Selfridge. I just have to go when there aren’t too many young ’uns around, otherwise I might get an age complex.

April made great strides while we were in England. She began sucking her thumb, said more baby sounds, rolled herself over for the first time and, greatest of all, actually went to bed in the evenings. We are hoping this last development wasn't just show for the grandparents, but the start of a routine, which would give us evening time together alone! I think all these leaps forward were helped along by all of the attention she received from our relatives and friends.

Better go as the little VIP has just awakened from her nap and is demanding her mother's full attention…

1 comment:

Anna said...

"Day 34 in the Big Harris House. 11:48am April comes to the diary room. She wants to know whether she can have a pen to do the Times crossword with."