Friday 18th December: Today was the day that Helen and Laura were due to arrive in England. I was so looking forward to seeing them again, but somehow I was delayed setting out from Exeter as there were so many little jobs about the house to catch up on. As I was driving up to Heathrow Helen sent me an SMS to say that their flight would be delayed by at least 1.5 hours, so I pull in at Reading Services and snoozed away an hour. It was snowing as I arrived, and snow lay about on the grass, which was a bit of a worry.
Helen and Laura’s plane arrived as expected just 1.5 hours later than schedule. The reason for the delay was the snow bound airports of Stanstead and Luton which had delayed the plane arriving in Stuttgart. Anyway, we were soon on our way and it wasn’t long before we were sat around the table having our traditional holiday kick-off meal of a KFC supper.
The spies are out!I told Helen and Laura about my damaged hands, and how this was caused by Swine Flu. Well, not exactly, more a case of my over enthusiastic washing that had dried them out making them horribly chapped. I was of course then nagged and regularly told that I should put cream on them, especially by Laura who would look out for me each night from her bed. I have to confess this did the trick and my hands soon became a lot better. Thank goodness I’ve got daughters to look after me!
Saturday 19th December: Today was to be a belated birthday celebration for Mum who was 75 yesterday, so we took her out to lunch at one of Mum’s favourite eating places, the Mount Pleasant Inn at Dawlish Warren. We presented Mum with her birthday cards and our present of a photo book that Helen, Laura and I had put together during the preceding weeks. This photo book contains a selection of photos spanning 20 ‘growing up’ years from Helen’s birth in 1984.
Celebrating Mum's Birthday at the Mount Pleasant Inn, Dawlish WarrenAfter our meal we walked down to the coast and on into Dawlish as far as the breakwater. At least this year we weren’t threatened with getting our feet wet from breaking waves as the tide was out.
In the evening we had the first of our traditional ‘dips’ meals back at Mum’s. Later that evening we watched Room with a View on DVD, which we all thoroughly enjoyed, especially as many scenes were filmed in and around Florence where we had holidayed in the summer. Many of the locations were recognizable to us and for a while we were transported back to Italy.
Sunday 20th December: Helen and I attempted to install photo editing software on my computer but were totally frustrated in our endeavours as the software loaded in the German language and we could find no way to switch it to English.
In the afternoon we arranged to play badminton with David, Christine and their family. Helen and Laura opened one of their Christmas presents early, a badminton racquet for each of them.
In the evening, after eating, we settled on watching a DVD, and so sifted through what we had. We plumped for an old favourite of ours, Chocolat, which seems a suitable subject for Christmas considering all the goodies lying around Mum’s place. David failed to go the distance, and missed all bar the first and last 10 minutes of the film. Perhaps there weren’t enough trains in the film!
Monday 21st December: We decide to do our usual ‘Fish-n-Chips’ outing to Torquay today. Christine, David and family planned to come with us. We meet up on the sea front only to find that our usual cafe that has so consistently supplied our winter sustenance these many years is closed. We settled on Wetherspoons which was down on the harbour side and therefore convenient. When we entered the building we were pleasantly surprised by just how cosy and welcoming the interior was. We found a large table set on a high floor towards the back of the building and had a very nice lunch there.
After lunch we strolled for a little while in the Torquay shopping centre, in particular at the candle shop which has always been an old favourite of ours. Helen sees a snow pine cone which she buys as a Christmas present for me. We then set off for the Riviera Centre where we plan to have a swim.
The swim was a lot of fun. It’s so nice to be in warm water on cold dark days such as this. David had brought a beach ball with him and we played a form of volleyball with this. The objective being to keep the ball from dropping into the water. I think we reached something like a count of 120, which wasn’t bad going.
As we’d all had a substantial lunch we felt a light meal in the evening was all that we needed, so we agreed to snack it back at Mum’s.
Tuesday 22nd December: I’d a couple of Cumberland Pies from Tesco’s in the fridge so I suggested to Mum she come around to my place and we have these for lunch, which she did.
Bird watching from Exmouth to LympstoneThe sun was shining and we felt like a bit of a walk today so I proposed that we catch the train from Lympstone to Exmouth and then walk back along the Exe Estuary. It was nice to see and hear the wading birds as we walked along the Exe Estuary trail.
We decided on pancakes for our evening meal, only to find when I got home that I was short of flour. We popped to the Tesco Express store in Heavitree to purchase some and also, somehow, came away with a copy of Angels and Demons on DVD. Well, at £5.00 it seemed so reasonable. Can you guess what we watched later that evening? It was especially interesting for Helen, Laura and myself as we had holidayed in Rome during the summer and a number of the locations in the film were familiar to us.
(left) So who is pretending to be a twitcher?
Wednesday 23rd December: Mum was due to attend a hospital appointment today for a cystoscopy scheduled for about mid afternoon. We decided upon driving into town and doing some shopping with Mum, and eating in town, from where Mum would be able to catch a bus to her hospital appointment. The town was still quite busy even this close to Christmas. We had a simple lunch in a cafe, and probably ate too much.
As Mum’s appointment drew nigh she caught the bus to the hospital. The plan was for Mum to ring us at the end of her appointment and we would go around and pick her up. I bought myself a fondue kit, as we thought it would be nice to have some chocolate fondue over Christmas. I was looking forward to trying my first fondue. As we left town we stopped to look at some desk chairs as mine is falling apart, but what we saw didn’t seem very special so we decided to leave it. Whilst driving towards home we got a message from Mum to say that she was ready to be picked up.
That evening we didn’t really feel like watching anything on television so we played cards. Christine and Louise popped around and played with us. We played Chase the Ace. I was hopeless!
Thursday 24th December: This was a very cold morning with much ice on the road. Speaking with Michael, he told me that he planned to drive to North Devon to pick up Penny his mother-in-law who would be staying with them over Christmas, but he was hoping to delay the start of his journey as he’d just witnessed a car slide into another just in front of his house. I explained that Mum had an hospital appointment for her pre-op assessment around lunchtime and Michael offered to take her to that.
Helen was quite busy with a translation job of work that she is helping a friend with, so she wanted to spend some time on this and get the job completed if possible. Laura and I say we’d like to take a walk whilst Helen is doing this, so off we set for a walk along the river. I park on the Marsh Barton trading estate and we cut in for the canal and walk in the direction of town. We discovered that the canal was completely frozen, which drove home to us just how cold it had been. There was a camper van parked by the canal; not sure if anyone was staying in it. On arriving in the city centre Laura and I browse the DVD shops and come away with a copy of Twilight. We’d noticed that the sequel to this film was showing in the cinema and felt it would be good to watch the original before going to see the sequel.
That evening we watched the Twilight DVD that we’d purchased earlier that afternoon. We all enjoyed the film, and although not too scary, it did give us dreams inspired by the film.
Christmas morning present openingFriday 25th December: Today being Christmas Day the first thing we do is invite Mum around and have a present opening session at our house. Helen gave me a calendar which she’s produced by creating collages of photos taken during our summer holiday in England and Italy. Laura gave me a ‘return’ present of coasters with some of our photos from Italy in them; I say ‘return’, as this was the present that I gave to Laura and Helen on their birthdays. It was lovely to receive these presents from Helen and Laura.
I gave Laura a digital picture frame and for Helen I had bought her a picture of Brent Tor. I think Helen was particularly surprised by her present, but thankfully she liked the picture.
Christmas Day at David & Christine's
We then went down to David and Christine’s to spend Christmas Day with them. We had a very nice traditional Christmas lunch with them, complete with crackers. In the afternoon there was a present opening session at which David seemed to receive the most toys, appropriately.
In the evening we played an old favourite game of ours, Password. You divide into two teams and then one member of each teams is given a word and then has to prompt the rest of the member’s from their team who have to guess the word as quickly as possible and then pass the word disk machine to the other team. The team holding this device when the timer buzzer goes off loses that round. I was in the ‘Carpet’ team, but, somewhat dubiously, the ‘Sofa’ team won.
Saturday 26th December: I suggested to Helen that she might like to take a trip to Brent Tor and see the location of her picture for real and she said that she’d like to do that. We settled therefore on a trip to Dartmoor on what was a cold but sunny day. We packed a snack lunch of bits and pieces and set off for the moor.
Brent Tor, subject of Helen's pictureThe little isolated church of St Michael’s perched on Brent Tor is quite a sight, something we glanced from all angles as we approached the car park. We decide to have lunch immediately on arrival as a shower had come in, which proved sound planning, as the sun came out by the time we’d finished.
After our visit to Brent Tor we drove down into Tavistock where we had a brief stroll and toilet stop. After this I drove across the bleak and wintery landscape of the moor which had a kind of wild and desolate appearance on this day.
Mum had recorded the final of Strictly Come Dancing a few days previous and we decided to watch this during the evening. Helen and Laura were rather indignant about the choice of winner, Chris and Olga, saying they weren’t the best dance pair of the two contenders. Quite evidently in the end it comes down to entertainment value and personalities, and the winners won out on that score. I suppose one has to accept the fact that Strictly Come Dancing just isn’t a serious dance programme.
Sunday 27th December: Today we planned to have everyone around for a baked potato meal at our place. There was going to be quite a number of people, so this took a lot of preparation throughout the day.
We invited Mum over for lunch as we had lasagne for four which is a favourite of Mum’s. I was scrubbing the patio when Mum arrived as we decided we’d put the drinks outside the back door to keep them cool, and I didn’t want people slipping on the moss.
We felt the evening was a success, with everyone seemingly enjoying the food and the evening. We candle lit the dining area and this gave the proceedings a nice atmosphere. Helen had prepared a chocolate and mint cheesecake for pudding, which we supplemented with a chocolate fondue.
Monday 28th December: As Claire had stopped over at Mum’s and was still in Exeter we decided to meet up and go for a walk. We settled on Exmouth, not wanting to spend too much time in our cars. I did a slight detour to the Point-In-View church which I thought everyone would like to see. This is such a unique little church, standing plump in the middle of a field, looking not a bit like a church at all. It commands quite a view down to Exmouth.
The English by the seasideHelen was keen to pose us in a sea front shelter for a photo, perhaps as a demonstration of Englishness. I think the end result is really quite pleasing – what do you think? There were hordes of people in Exmouth on this day, all looking for a little fresh sea air and exercise.
We came back to my place for a snack lunch, eating up some of the left-over food that filled my fridge.
Claire departed early after lunch. The rest of us thought that it would be nice to take in a film at the cinema. The Odeon was showing Sherlock Holmes which looked the most promising. The film was a lot of fun; sort of Sherlock Holmes with testosterone. We decided on a Chinese meal for later so we prepared an order and emailed it to David who we asked to place the order whilst we were viewing the film, the plan being for us to collect it after the showing.
Late at night I give Helen my Sherlock Holmes book to read as Helen now has a taste for these stories. She spent several nights reading from this book during the rest of the holiday, even taking it to Grandma and Grandpa’s.
Tuesday 29th December: Helen and I fancied a swim but Laura didn’t. Laura said she was happy to stay at home and catch up on emails and do a little studying. Helen and I packed our swimming things and set off to Nanny’s for the purpose of making a cheesecake, a second attempt at a cheese cake that was a bit of a failure on our first attempt. This time we decided on using cream cheese rather than double cream as a replacement for the curd cheese, that we’d failed to find in Tesco.
Once we’d made the cheesecake we set off to Riverside leisure centre for our swim. We had a really good workout, swimming hard for about 40 lengths, which was just what we both needed. We came out feeling totally refreshed and charged up for anything. We stopped in Sainsbury’s to buy the things we needed for a wok meal we planned to cook that evening. Helen notices I’ve cut my nose, which at first I struggle to explain. Then I remember briefly colliding with the swim barrier with my nose, which is when it must have happened. One of the more stupid things I was to do on this holiday. Still, I’m sure these sort of things happen to everyone from time to time! For lunch we snacked it back at my place with Laura.
The wok meal, a beef meal, turned out really nice. We washed it down with a wine we’d purchased 2 years before whilst holidaying in the Mediterranean on our Greek holiday. The wine came from the island of Santorini, where it is a speciality. It is made from sun dried grapes which gives it a kind of sherry like quality. It was perfect for the meal.
In the evening we watched The Long Kiss Goodnight DVD that Laura had brought with her from Germany. This was a stirring drama that gripped us all.
Wednesday 30th December: Laura had said that she fancied a trip to the zoo so that was our plan for today. I texted Christine to let her know our intentions and then we set off for Paignton Zoo. It was raining first thing that morning but the weather forecast suggested the day would improve, which it did.
Tiger at Paignton ZooWe did get to see the lions and tigers, even if only from a distance. Thank goodness I had the ‘foresight’ to bring my binoculars with me. On each visit there appears to be something new at the zoo. This time we found that they’d introduced a crocodile swamp which was a nice idea.
Monkeys in the Christmas treeWe reminisced a little on previous visits when Helen and Laura were small. There is a photograph of Helen tucking into a candy floss with real relish that was taken here on a visit with Mum and Dad. There was also the time when Laura had a sandwich snatched from her hand by a seagull swooping over her shoulder, which quite alarmed her at the time. David and Christine also told a story of the time that Rachel was bothered by a peacock, something which has left her with a permanent fear of peacocks. I was about to tell the story of the amorous flapping penguin when I thought better of it!
Mum hadn’t come with us on this trip as Wendy and Colin were due to arrive back in the country today from Australia. They needed Mum’s car so that they might take their hire car back to Exeter Airport. That evening we and Christine and David and family all popped around to Mum’s to pay them a visit.
Thursday 31st December: I dropped Helen and Laura around at their grandparents where they will stay for a few days. As usual, Riki and John plan to have a large family gathering at their place for the New Year’s Eve celebrations.
I worked on constructing a plywood packing box for Helen’s picture today. I’m referring to the picture of St Michael’s Church on Brent Tor, Dartmoor, a print that I gave Helen as a Christmas present. We now have to devise a way of getting this back to Germany, and whichever method we choose, it will be necessary to have the picture securely packaged in a box if it is to survive the knocks of transit. I also caught up on a little housework, but did little else.
Friday 1st January: Today I went for a walk near Lustleigh, Dartmoor. This was my first lone walk since the Woodbury to Exmouth walk I did on 31st October. I gave up most of November to preparing with Helen and Laura a photo book for Mum. Then of course preparations for Christmas were due, and hence no walking.
Today was a cold crisp day, ideal for walking. It was only a short walk at just under 4 miles, but at least it got me out and exercised a little.
Christopher dunks a foot in the riverI later learnt from Helen and Laura that on this same day they were on Haytor, which was visible from where I was walking. Their cousin Christopher took them up on Dartmoor in his flash new sports car. At Dartmeet Christopher lost his footing on a slippery boulder and got one foot wet when he fell in the river.
A Dartmoor sunset
Saturday 2nd January: Another day on my own today. First job of the day was to get Helen’s picture into transit for Germany. I labelled up the picture crate that I’d made with Helen’s address and took it along to the main post office. Here I was greeted with a “It’s going to be very expensive.” The cheapest option open to me was £45 with no insurance cover, which I had to admit, did seem expensive. I’m not convinced there was ever was going to be a cheap option.
As I have some time to spare I wander around town for a bit. I manage to get Helen another top of the type she’d already bought in red, but this time in ‘sky blue’. I got Laura an SD memory card for her digital photo frame, as I’m sure this will make transferring photos a lot easier than using a USB cable link to her laptop. Next stop was home to grab some lunch then off to Tesco for a general shop. Needed to pick up some new oven gloves whilst there, as everyone, including myself, has been getting quite fed up with burning our fingers.
Sunday 3rd January: In the morning I drove over to Riki and John’s to pick up Helen and Laura. It was good to see John who was up and about but looking rather weak after his operation to remove his colon.
When we got home we rang Mum with a view to us going out for a meal but Mum said she wasn’t really in the mood for that so we settle on us preparing some food at Mum’s place. We decided on making a chicken, bacon and leek pie for lunch. Laura and I dropped Helen off at Mum’s so that she could make a start on the pastry, whilst Laura and I went shopping in Tesco for the rest of the ingredients needed for the filling. We also bought baguettes, mozzarella and tomatoes for our supper.
As we were dishing up our lunch Wendy and Colin, who were staying at Mum’s, appeared through the door. As we has some spare food we invited them to join us in our pie lunch.
In the afternoon Claire and her friend Dave looked in. They’d been running down by the canal and were pretty cold. We spent some time looking at Colin’s photos from Australia.
That night Helen was violently sick and had diarrhoea. We had no idea what caused this.
Monday 4th January: Mum was due to go into hospital today. Wendy and Colin said they would take her in. Because beds were short Mum didn’t actually go in till around 4pm.
Teign Valley frost pocketHelen, Laura and I decided that as the weather was good it would be nice to do a walk. We drove to Castle Drogo with the intention of walking the high level Hunter’s Path before dropping down to the River Teign and coming back along the valley bottom. It was a very cold frosty day. We had a picnic lunch of crackers and cheese before setting off. I parked the car so that the sun streamed in through the windscreen as we looked out on the valley.
Ice steps
We set out in the sun for our walk, not knowing how Helen would manage, as she was very weak after her vomiting and diarrhoea of the night before. As we dropped down to the river so the temperature plummeted, and it felt as if we were entering a refrigerator. The sun doesn’t penetrate this deep in the valley and so temperatures remain cold, and there was frost all about. This tinged everything white which was rather picturesque. At one point there are some granite steps to climb up over which water would normally tumble, but on this day they had become steps of ice. We needed to grab the hand rail to steady ourselves as we climbed these steps.
That evening Laura and I visited Mum in hospital. We thought it advisable that Helen didn’t go in because of her illness the night before. After this we three curled up on the sofa and watched the Gladiator DVD. Yet another chance for us to be transported back to the Italy of our holidays, but this time it was of course to a much earlier age. What with Room With a View, Angels and Demons and now Gladiator, we had quite a dose of Italy this Christmas.
Tuesday 5th January: Overnight Laura went down with the same vomiting symptoms Helen had been suffering with. She was so weak that she stayed in bed all morning.
Wendy phoned to ask about Helen and mentions the ‘severe weather warning’. Apparently heavy falls of snow are expected, especially in the M4 corridor; just what we need. I decided I must replace the wipers on my car so Wendy and Colin gave me a lift over to Halfords. When I return home I find that Helen is giving my car windscreen and all the windows a good scrub. It’s freezing cold outdoors so we finish the job as quick as we can and then return indoors.
In the afternoon we’re attempting to track what’s happening with Mum as she was due her operation today. Phone calls to Lyme ward are of no avail as Mum still has not appeared by 4 pm. Eventually we hear that Mum was expected to return to the ward by about 5:30 pm. As Helen and Laura are both sick we decide that it wouldn’t be wise for us to visit Mum, which is rather disappointing as this would have been the last opportunity on this holiday for Helen and Laura to see Mum.
Whilst on the phone to Wendy she invites us around to supper at Mum’s place. Wendy has cooked a splendid Spaghetti Bolognese for supper of which we all partake bar Laura who settles for a banana. Poor Laura is so weak and tired she fell asleep later that evening.
We while away a pleasant evening talking about holidays etc. By 9 pm we decide we’re all too tired, especially Laura, so we say our goodbyes.
Wednesday 6th January: The snow fell overnight as predicted, although not quite as heavy as forecast. There had been talk of 30-40 centimetres of snow, but only about 5-10 centimetres actually had fallen. This was still enough to cause us some concern. We loaded the car with blankets, thermos flask and a spade in case we wound up in difficulty.
We didn’t get any further than Quarry Lane before we had demonstration of just how difficult conditions were. A pick-up truck was attempting to drive up the road but it’s rear wheels were spinning hopelessly. It pulled over and my front-wheel drive car had better luck.
We didn’t get further than Taunton Deane services before I needed a toilet stop. Must have been the cold wind. Pulling in here was quite alarming because, although the main motorway was relatively clear of snow, the service station was just a blanket of white. We found the service station closed anyway, odd for 9:30 am, but presumed staff couldn’t get through, so we motored on.
We actually made good time, and arrived at Heathrow at noon. The worst we’d seen on the way up was a couple of jack-knifed lorries on the opposite carriageway. By 12:40 Helen and Laura had got their boarding passes and dropped their baggage. At 22.9 Kgs Helen’s bag was as close to the weight limit as a person might get. As we were told the plane was on time (scheduled to fly at 1:40 pm) we sadly said our final goodbyes and departed our separate ways.
On arriving home I decided I would like to visit Mum so I parked my car at home and walked across to the hospital. Mum was looking rather drained from the experience of the operation, but that was perhaps to be expected so soon after surgery. I didn’t stay long as Mum had had a whole string of visitors and was looking quite tired. Actually I was quite tired myself too.
Thinking that Helen and Laura would be home relaxing long before now I was shocked to get a phone call from Laura to say that they were still at Heathrow. Apparently, after sitting on the plane for four hours, they were finally told their flight had been cancelled. Laura was waiting at baggage reclaim as she had been instructed, hoping to catch sight of their luggage. Helen was in a BA service queue for accommodation arrangements for those suffering cancelled flights. Helen told me she still had an hour’s worth of queuing ahead of her before she would reach the desk. I attempted to call the flight rebooking number to no avail, as there was no response to my calls. As 10 pm was approaching there was nothing to do but sort some accommodation out for the night and forget all about baggage and rebooking flights. Just after this time Can, after topping up Helen’s mobile credit, tells me that he has spoken with Helen and that she and Laura are on a bus that will take them to their hotel (Regents Park Marriott).
Just after 11 pm I received a call from Helen who informed me that they were in their room and that they were exhausted. All that they wanted at this time was to get some sleep. We said our good nights and turned in after what had been a gruelling day.
Thursday 7th January: I attempted to phone BA flight rebooking at 6 am but to no avail. At 7:30 I try again and, after being on hold for about 45 minutes, finally speak with someone. By this time there are no seats on flights to Stuttgart for today so we have to settle for Friday 8th. I spoke with Helen and Laura and they opt for the early 7:50 flight. I spoke with someone on the baggage helpline and am informed Helen and Laura’s baggage is still at Heathrow and a request will be made to have these bags put on the newly rearranged flight.
The only thing outstanding was accommodation for Thursday night. It would have been convenient if Helen and Laura could have stayed on at the Regents Park Marriott hotel, but they were told that they had to return to Heathrow Terminal 5 to request new accommodation. None of us were very amused at the prospect of having to do this. Helen and Laura find themselves queuing once again, this time for 3 hours, for new accommodation, this time at the Ibis Heathrow hotel. This hotel is very close to Heathrow and operates a shuttle-bus to the various terminals. When I phone Helen and Laura at the hotel at 5:30 pm they’re in their room watching Weakest Link. Everything now seemed to be in place for their rearranged flight. They had been given vouchers for an evening meal and breakfast at the Ibis.
I had visited Mum during the afternoon. She was sitting up in a chair on my arrival, chatting to the physiotherapists who were commending Mum on her level of fitness. Mum looked a lot more relaxed and far more her normal self on this visit.
I also took down the Christmas decorations today.
Friday 8th January: Today didn’t start well as I soon learnt that Helen and Laura’s flight had yet again been cancelled. With temperatures falling overnight in some parts of the country to –22C this was perhaps to be expected. I quickly got onto the BA re-booking telephone number and rearranged Helen and Laura’s booking for the 18:45 departure. Already seats were going fast and none were available on the noon flight. Attempting to notify BA baggage of this change I was told their computer systems were down and I should call back in 2 hours. When next I called the answering machine simply said they were not taking calls. Really helpful!
Helen and Laura board the flight as per schedule but find that once again the plane must be de-iced before take off. They’re told this will delay the flight by an hour. In fact the plane was not cleared for take-off till 21:21, nearly 2 and 3/4 hours late. Laura sends me one last text message saying, “15 minutes to take-off, phone is off”. I’ve been told by Can that it has snowed all day in Stuttgart. The last thing that Laura said to me was that Stuttgart would be able to keep the runways open till midnight. If Helen and Laura were going to fly tonight, it had to be now!
The following morning I received an email from Sue informing that Helen and Laura’s flight circled Stuttgart airport for an hour waiting to land. I guess the airport authorities were struggling to keep the runways clear of snow. Eventually they land, without their luggage. They arrived home whacked out at 3 am. What a way to end a holiday!
