To pick up the story right where Matt left off, our train left Manchester at a little after two in the afternoon. The journey to Milton Keynes is swift, and it was one of the posh big Virgin trains, but we were yet again beset by screaming infants for the length of the ride.
We arrived in Milton Keynes around 5 where Mum collected us and brought us back to Olney. It was a lovely sunny afternoon so we had aperitifs outside. The house and garden have undergone a few transformations since we were there last – all part of the preparations for renting it out. The garden pond has gone and an oversized tree is in the process of being cut down. The woodburner wont be staying, so the log shed’s disappeared as well. Out front, uncle Dean has just finished rebuilding the brick wall.
That evening, Nan came over for her regular Monday meal. Mum served up a tasty goat’s cheese and spinach tart with rocket and potatoes. This was followed by strawberries and ice cream. Nan stayed for a little while afterwards and we all chatted, but we weren’t long to bed after she left.
We had a leisurely Tuesday morning at home and after lunch, we headed to Market Harborough to finally meet Elvie. She was awake when we arrived, and ready for a feed. Once she’d had this, she fell asleep again, and we took it in turns to hold her. When it came to Mum’s turn again, she promptly woke, filled her nappy and threw up on her. Dave soon got her cleared up and she came down for another feed.
Elvie had to go back to hospital a day or so after coming home as she’d lost a lot of weight. It turned out she was dehydrated and hadn’t been feeding enough. Well I am glad to confirm she’s putting all the lost weight back on and is feeding with gusto. In fact, she’s on a regime of a feed every 3 hours, day and night. The parents are both very tired, it goes without saying…
Tuesday was actually Dave’s last day of paternity leave and it was obvious that going back to work was the last thing he wanted to do. To say he’s besotted is a huge understatement. Amy wasn’t looking forward to being left on her own either, but luckily her parents are just down the road so she has help if she needs it.
Afterwards, we returned to Olney for a chilled evening in. We discussed Mum’s work situation over dinner : she found out recently that a junior colleague (who hasn’t been there early as long as she has) got a raise, whereas Mum did not. Having been there so long, she’s taken on lots of additional responsibilities over the years, none of which have led to a pay rise. We game-planned how she should approach it, then all headed off to bed.
The next morning Mum was back at work. In her absence, Matt and I called in to see Nan one more time and then met Anna, who was looking after her parent’s place while they are away. We all went to the Bull pub on the market square for lunch. The Bull’s been there for years and years but was never that great a pub. Fortunately for Olney, it partly burned down about 18 months ago and has been reborn as a very trendy bar with a new beer garden and a menu of decent pub grub. After lunch in the beer garden, we went back to Anna’s parents place for a drink or two more in their garden.
Anna & Bev have good news : they’ve finally completed on their house on the Isle of Wight and Bev has even been living there for a few months. Anna should by now have joined her and the two of them have quite a lot of work ahead of them. It’s a spectacular property – Grade II listed – but gigantic too.
We left Anna’s around 5pm, leaving her to watch the football, and came home. We half-watched the England – Croatia game that evening, and I was relieved to see England knocked out as I was dreading the idea of a France v England final. Afterwards we played some cards and then bade Mum goodnight and goodbye. The following morning, a cab collected us from Olney straight to Stansted. This may seem extravagant but it was actually lots cheaper than the series of trains and tubes we would otherwise have had to pay for.
Our flight ended up being delayed by around 45 minutes – most likely due to the the Orange Man-Child, whose arrival earlier messed up the other arrivals. We even saw Air Force One on the tarmac. Bryan and Carol met us at Limoges the other end. They’d not seen the flight was delayed, so had been hanging around a while unfortunately. We finally got home around 8 pm, greeted by two elated cats, and had an early night.
We had a quiet Friday of work and various other chores, and on Saturday I gave the front and back lawns a badly overdue mowing. That evening we were invited to Benoit & Virginie’s for dinner. We’d assumed this was because they’d be missing Eva (currently taking a tattooist certification course in Toulouse) but Eva was there waiting for us when we arrived. Apparently she’d caved in to some intense parental pressure and had come home for the Bastille Day weekend. Both of Benoit’s sisters were in attendance too, as well as Gerard, Benoit’s brother-in-law who we’d not seen for ages. He had a stroke about a year ago and has been recuperating slowly ever since.
After a copious meal of round courgettes filled with a veal and breadcrumb stuffing, we played some cards outside until the small hours and then came home to bed. Yet another big storm was threatened that night but in the end we were spared any hail or wind and just had a decent amount of rain. It’s warming up again now, but it’s still unsettled.
We were hungover on Sunday, and therefore very relieved when Christian rang to cancel band practise. Free from any commitments, we instead took it easy all day. Matt put the football on in the afternoon – it was the final after all – and so we caught France’s impressive 4-2 victory. We’d like to report that the streets of Mazeroux exploded into a noisy riot of celebrations the moment that France won, but that would be a lie… Anyway, Félicitations, la France : Champions du monde !