Back in the UK

Hmm, well it's only been about 4 months since the last post.
I apologise for that, it is down to a number of reasons; one is that it is quite a faff dealing with blogging via VPN with a horribly slow internet connection and partly because we were just so busy!

Anyway, the long awaited day finally dawned, the big trip back to the UK...

 

We had a great journey back although Adrian was the only one to sleep; James, Laura and  chose to OD on films!

 

We stayed the first night at a Swindon hotel and Adrian collected our 'wheels' for the month.

 



The following morning (thanks jetlag, everyone awake at 4am!), we dropped Adrian off at work and James, Laura and I went to pick up some food and other essentials. We started in Aldi of course, then Asda. Having picked up all the critical items; wine, Yorkshire tea, milk, Tunnocks caramel wafers, Heinz tomato soup, hummus, sliced cold meats and cheese and English bread amongst others, we went to the holiday cottage in Hook, just by Lydiard Park. It is just what we need for the next four weeks.

As luck would have it, that Friday was an Inset Day so we were able to get straight over to Upper Minety and visit Laura's best friend Lola at another friend's house and start dishing out the many gifts we carried back.
On the way back to Hook we drove past our house...

We reinstated Friday Pizza Night and managed to get James and Laura to eat some before they fell asleep in it. They were in bed by 8pm and we made it to 10pm, just!

The next day was the first day of the Cotswold Show so we spent nearly the whole day there having a lot of fun and bumping into many friends. We then popped into another friend's house before coming home and again just about managed to feed the children before they fell asleep!

Interesting product...

 

On Sunday we had another shopping day, mostly for Adrian. He picked up a bike so he can cycle to work to allow us to have the car as much as possible and then when I could feel the children and I were flagging and just wanted to go to bed, we went bowling to try to keep us awake. It worked well and we managed to last the afternoon. A quick bowl of soup for James and Laura and then I went to fetch kebabs for Adrian and I from our old takeaway. Imagine my delight when the Turkish owner greeted me joyfully and almost got our (slightly unusual) order right after a year of not seeing us. She was so delighted I had travelled past another takeaway to hers that she insisted on making a gift of our order and refused any payment. Slightly embarrassing, but such a lovely gesture. (Sammy's Cricklade for local readers...highly recommended and totally deserving of some free advertising!!)

 

On Monday James and Laura went into school to reconnect with their friends. They asked to bring their BISS uniform to wear and had a great day handing out keepsakes and being the centre of attention!

James, Laura, Lola and Isaac at the Minety school gate.

It is strange to be back. Initially I felt like we didn't belong here and it was odd that every sign around us was in English and I had no trouble communicating. Now it is strange because it very quickly feels like we never went away and I have dreamt the past year in China and everything that has happened was just a figment of my imagination...it is like we live in parallel worlds which, I suppose to some extent, we do...

 

I hope, while we are here, to finish off the many drafted posts I had started but not finished. I am going to investigate blog providers that will be more easily accessible from China and may move the blog in due course.