I went back to Newcastle this weekend for a get together with 30 or so of my schoolboy friends. It did me a lot of good. On Saturday morning as the train made the final approach over the River Tyne it felt good to be “home”. When I stepped off the train at Central Station a few minutes later, the next thing I thought was, bloody hell it’s cold here….and to think we used to play football with an orange ball in the snow not so many years ago. Over the last couple of years I have started to wonder whether or not the only reason you spend time with certain friends in the evenings and weekends is because they happen to have children of a similar age. This weekend reminded me that life and conversation is all the easier with the friends who you grew up and shared so much with for so long – it’s all so natural, even if we hadn’t seen each other sometimes for 2 or 3 years. What was even better was being back in the traditional North East environment – I stayed at an old friend’s house and the thing that finally woke me this morning was the waft of his wife’s homemade grilled bacon sandwiches. Even better was when I asked for the iron to sort out a t-shirt for the journey home, his wife just told me to give it to her without even batting an eyelid – no negotiations or conversation required! I just laughed as I got out of the shower and found it hanging perfectly on a coat hanger outside my room. Now that’s all wonderfully relaxing, if only we hadn’t got to bed at 3.30AM.
The other big benefit of a trip to the UK and Newcastle was that I could actually go into a travel agent and book our family holiday for August. Sandie and I made a forlorn attempt to do it together earlier in the week but we quickly realized that it was quickly becoming a certain cause for divorce, so I offered to do it myself at the weekend (obviously Sandie gave me a long list of strict criteria to which I had to adhere – everything from suitable flight times and interconnecting rooms to baby crèches and airport transfer times). Thankfully I stumbled across a very patient young girl in Thomson’s holidays on Saturday afternoon, and 90 minutes later we’d cracked it with Ryanair flights from Bilbao to Gran Cranaria, a Tuesday to Tuesday check in, and a guaranteed sea view. Sandie received the information, was allowed to lodge any key objections before a 12 hour cooling off period for overnight cogitation. Then this morning the deed was done! Finally, a family holiday for a week in August in a Spanish speaking country. Now let’s just pray for warmth and sunshine!
The other big benefit of a trip to the UK and Newcastle was that I could actually go into a travel agent and book our family holiday for August. Sandie and I made a forlorn attempt to do it together earlier in the week but we quickly realized that it was quickly becoming a certain cause for divorce, so I offered to do it myself at the weekend (obviously Sandie gave me a long list of strict criteria to which I had to adhere – everything from suitable flight times and interconnecting rooms to baby crèches and airport transfer times). Thankfully I stumbled across a very patient young girl in Thomson’s holidays on Saturday afternoon, and 90 minutes later we’d cracked it with Ryanair flights from Bilbao to Gran Cranaria, a Tuesday to Tuesday check in, and a guaranteed sea view. Sandie received the information, was allowed to lodge any key objections before a 12 hour cooling off period for overnight cogitation. Then this morning the deed was done! Finally, a family holiday for a week in August in a Spanish speaking country. Now let’s just pray for warmth and sunshine!
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