The Archers (Part II of our Trip Home)...

I have come to the conclusion that Ambridge actually exists, The Archers isn't just a radio play that some of us grew up listening to at breakfast on a Sunday morning. It's quite obviously based on the village where my mum lives, and where we spent the second half of our trip home.

Thankfully, second-home ownership hasn't eaten away at village life here. The community spirit is alive and kicking, and everyone gets involved in everything (and everyone knows everyone else, which can of course be both a blessing and a curse!) When we arrived, preparations were in place for Easter, and a hardcore crew of flower arrangers spent hours expertly decorating the church for Easter Sunday. Within a few hours, it rivalled Westminster Abbey for the big wedding (minus the indoor trees, but then it does have that pretty special one just outside which wins hands down in my opinion!). That evening we were just sitting down to eat when a frantic phonecall came through to say that one of the displays had toppled over! You would have thought that the actual church spire had toppled off such was the tone of urgency! The designers of said arrangement duly set off to rectify the situation. Upon their return, a new message was waiting for them. This time a long and lengthy request for a dozen eggs, to be left on the caller's doorstep on their return from holiday (on which they are not going for another three weeks)! Honestly, the drama of it all (in a rural parallel universe kind of way)was quite exhausting!

Add to this vision of rural life Small Boy's egg cartel, a little egg stall where he spent a very happy morning channelling his inner barrow-boy, yelling "sweet eggs for sale" to passing villagers! He sold the lot at lightening speed which was either because he was doing a supremely good job as vendor, or the neighbours just wanted to shut him up! The chickens then had to suffer an afternoon of mild disturbance as both S and his big sister checked them constantly to see if there were any even fresher eggs to sell!

A couple of days later as we left the village, our rental car radio was tuned to Radio 4, and I swear as we drove out of the village and headed back towards London, the first words we heard were "and it's goodbye to Ambridge" (although I am not sure they were talking about the Archers)! Yes perhaps, but just for now...!

(checking for another type of egg on Easter Sunday)...

Marathons & Mistaken Identities...

We flew home before Easter in order to watch my little sister run the London Marathon on the 17th April. My dad was to meet us at the airport, and the children were super excited to see him. I spotted him first, waiting for us in a cafe. I pointed him out to the kids, and they ran over to meet him. At the last minute he took a shortcut to meet us, but my son kept on running. I wondered where on earth he was going at first, until I spotted the man at the counter... I suppose he did slightly resemble my dad, but by then S had grabbed hold of his hand anyway,and was shouting "Grandad, Grandad" excitedly. Doppelganger Grandad then turned around, and the look of horror on S's face as the realisation hit that this wasn't who he had actually expected it to be kicked in, and was both slightly amusing and heartbreaking at the same time. Real Grandad however, who had watched the whole thing unfold, found it hilarious (as did my daughter)! As we left the scene (trying to console a furious small boy), it was hard to explain that nobody was actually laughing at him, it was more the situation! I guess the resemblance was the most amusing thing... both wore the same kind of clothes, they had the same hair (or rather lack of it), they each held a folded newspaper (something my dad always has when he meets us), so I guess you could completely understand his mistake. All except for one tiny little thing...he was at least half my Dad's height! Real Grandad and miniature Doppelganger Granded (who was a lovely, if somewhat bemused man), both agreed that it must have been the hair that had caused the confusion...

This turned out not to be the only calamity for poor S during our trip home. On the Saturday we had some shopping to do for my sister's forthcoming wedding... First stop John Lewis. We accomplished the first task, and jumped on the escalator to the floor above. R alighted at the top without any issues. S holding my hand, tried to get off, but suddenly hit the floor with a bang... I then realised that part of his shoe lace had got sucked into the side of the escalator, and the poor little chap was stuck fast. It's funny how in situations like this, all refinement goes out the window (not that I had much in the first place), and before I knew it, I was lying on the floor of the shop in amongst a crowd of onlookers (with one elderly lady screaming "press the emergency button, press the emergency button" at the top of her voice, whilst standing directly in front of it!!), desperately untangling a panicking four year old. It was over in seconds, but it felt like we were there for at least an hour. He was very stoic about it once he had recovered, but funnily enough, he agreed with his sister's suggestion of getting the lift back down again instead!!

On the Sunday we ventured into central London to cheer on my Little Sis, who after all her hard work for Cancer Research last year, had been offered a place to run the gruelling 26 mile course this year. There was such a fantastic atmosphere, on the most beautiful, hot and sunny day, which of course meant that the running conditions were diabolical. After watching thousands of crazily dressed dedicated runners file passed, we spotted her and were able to spur her on. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to complete the course after collapsing from dehydration at Mile 17. They wouldn't let her carry on anymore (even though she had desperately wanted to), and it was so sad to see how disappointed she was. I have to say that I don't think she had anything to feel bad about, but she felt like she had let everyone down. Personally, I think that in those conditions I would have struggled to run 200 metres, let alone 17 miles!! Ever the fighter (she's as stubborn as her big sister, bless her!!), she came away saying, there's always next year, and we will be back to watch should she chose to do it....

Part two of our trip home to follow later...

Sunnyside up...

I started writing this at five o.clock this afternoon, when I suddenly noticed it was still light and sunny - spring is definitely in the air, and there are snowdrops in the garden too!!

We got back from the UK earlier, which is in a far more advanced state of spring, albeit noticeably colder than usual! We started off our trip home at my Mum's house, where after a quick welly boot shop for R, she immediately set out to see the "girls" and collect the eggs - there's nothing like a fresh egg for tea!
Then on to investigate the slightly frozen frogspawn in the village pond. Friday meant a trip to my grandparent's house (complete with a real fish and chip lunch - manna from heaven!), a well-needed haircut in the afternoon (thank you Uncle Chris!), and then time to catch up with my sister. Saturday we went back up to London for an important shopping trip for the Big Wedding in June, then on to my Dad's where we caught up with my other sister and gave my uber cute nephew his early birthday presents. Whilst Denmark celebrated Fastelavn yesterday, we rounded up our trip home with a big English sunday roast - perfect!

Today has been quite a long day. We watched the the sun rise at 6am this morning driving to Gatwick, as R and I began to make our way back to Copenhagen - it was beautiful, and made me smile even though I felt a little sad. I hate goodbyes at the best of times, especially protracted ones, and luckily my Dad's not great at them either. It was a case of stop the car, open the door, cases out, a quick hug and before we knew it waving him off into the distance! My emotions always manage to get the better of me as the plane takes off though, and pathetically I usually shed a little tear! It's a strange mixture of feelings, happiness at the time spent with people (but slight guilt about the fact I wasn't able to spend that much time with them this time), and happiness at the thought of going "home" (and seeing the boys who were left behind on this occasion, you should see the state of the house!), but also sadness at what we no longer have close by (family, friends and those wonderful wonderful supermarkets!), and total guilt about the people I didn't have time to see at all this time - sorry, don't hate me! I don't think R noticed my "watery eyes", (or if she did she wasn't that bothered) but I heard her say "bye bye, I love you" to the fields and buildings as they gradually got smaller and smaller beneath us (which naturally resulted in a couple more secret tears from me!)...

I will leave you with a picture of something else I also class as perfect, another type of egg that I managed to smuggle back in my case intact! It is highly doubtful they will last until Easter!

My Green & Pleasant Land...

A rather belated post as we had a somewhat extended last minute break in the UK, due to a certain Icelandic volcano shutting down the airspace for a good few days! We flew into London just before the shut down happened, so with much of my family living quite near Heathrow, it felt a bit "Flash Forward" with no planes flying over at all...I lived in that area for 12 years and don't think I can ever remember being able to hear the birds sing quite so loudly for so long!

My dad was at the airport to pick us all up this time, and the kids were thrilled to see him and also that they were going to be travelling in his "Mystery Machine" (camper van!), little did we know at the time that he might almost have brought us back to Denmark in the Mystery Machine!! That evening my sisters and brother in law came over and we had a great meal together, cooked by my lovely "step-mother". R & S finally got to meet their baby cousin, and covered him with lots of slobbery kisses and bear-hugs. I am not sure he really appreciated all the attention, but it was very sweet to watch! He has grown so much in three weeks (obviously!) I love the fact that he almost looks the same size as S in the photograph... Thursday was my dad's birthday, so the children woke him up very early by jumping on him and singing happy birthday repeatedly until he got up! After a day of a drastic haircut for S, and shoe shopping for the pair of them (both a fraction of the price than in DK!), we went out for dinner to celebrate at a Chinese restaurant (I know I have mentioned this before but how nice it was to have really spicy food!). S spent the entire meal asking "if the chocolate cake was coming now", which kind of spoilt the birthday cake surprise a bit, but never mind! Friday evening we got to spend some time with my brother and sister in law, before it was time to go to my Mum's house early on the Saturday afternoon. By this point, it was becoming clearer to us that we wouldn't be flying for a few days. We felt incredibly lucky compared to a lot of stranded people though, we were all together after all and staying with family. The fact that my mum lives in an especially beautiful area meant it really wasn't that much of a hardship. It's even more beautiful at this time of year, and it really brought it home to me how stunning England can be. When we are there we try and go for as many walks as we can and this time even got to see a barn owl that we inadvertently disturbed whilst we were investigating an ancient timber framed barn. It was amazing! Having had a slight obsession for Labyrinth as a child, I found myself secretly hoping it would turn into David Bowie... I had to take some photos of the bluebell woods, that aren't quite out yet, but very nearly.
The wood anemones were out though, shame my current camera doesn't do them any justice! It's so true that you really do take things for granted when they are on your doorstep! I am not saying that Denmark isn't pretty, it's just a different shade of green, and just a teeny weeny bit flatter... The weather was also warm and beautiful and at times we might have sniggered at our (ever eager to capture what might be the summer)fellow countrymen in their shorts and flip-flops...

We had another birthday celebration on the Sunday, this time a joint one for my mum and my grandmother. Spending time with my family whilst we were over was perfect. I just feel sad that we due to circumstances beyond our control we weren't able to see any friends on this visit. The whole reason for the visit was to see the baby and spend time with my sister, and celebrate the birthdays of course, and I always find it very difficult dividing time equally between family and friends when we are only home for a couple of days. This time any plans to see people were kind of hijacked by what was happening with our travel plans, one minute we were going to be around for longer than expected and the next minute we were frantically packing and going to the airport...At least we are back again in August so will hopefully make up for that...

Anyway, back to this epic blog entry... That Monday was my lovely Mum's birthday. We had quite a quiet day together,
apart from the wheelbarrow races with their Uncles... That evening we went to the local pub to celebrate, where we enjoyed some typical English pub grub ... why did all the pubs across England decide to serve Scampi anyway? This meal also prompted me to sadly reflect that I am now actually old. I only observed this whilst eating as I noticed that I now actually like tartare sauce. I will like Parma Violets next and carry them around in my handbag, I am sure of it.

Our last day was pretty much taken up with will we/won't we/will we won't we be able to get home and frantically cancelling meetings and appointments for the Wednesday. I have to give the Dane's their due, something that would be met with "sorry I can't help you" in a "computer says no" voice in the UK, was dealt with "yes, of course, we understand. Leave it with us and we will deal with it for you"...

So now we are back. Heathrow's terminal five was surreal. I expected it to be so over-crowded, it was half empty! I felt sorry for the people so obviously stranded who had been there for a while. I felt almost fraudulent going straight to baggage drop and then through security without a cancellation appearing on the screen for us. The flight was uneventful, but you could see the strange light brown smoggy fug below that had caused all the trouble in the first place. I have to say though, it was kind of nice to be reminded that we aren't ultimately in charge. An eventful trip...