Weekend of serious playtime.

This weekend i travelled up to Bolton to see _paddington_ and _jander_ along with thier little ones Laura and Amy.

Saturday morning I managed to raise myself at 5am-ish for a 6am start. This was increadibly difficult and i couldn’t really face breakfast at that hour so merely had a couple of biscuits and some orange juice.

I finally dragged myself out th edoor by 5:50am and started the long journey oop’nort’ to Bolton. At first I took it easy doing only 65-70mph but after a while i just let the car get up to 80mph and let it cruise there as it hadn’t been all that happy at the lower speed as it was slightly below its optimum power band in 5th gear.

The weather wasn’t all that great alternating between dull but dry and heavy drizzle. Thankfully, the road never got wet enough that the cars and lorries in front produced spray. Spray on the motorway is just horrid to drive through.

At 7:20 I pulled into Keele services. Not only did I need to go to the loo but I really needed to have a rest. I was definitely getting on the borderline to drive. After the comfort break part I decided that I needed a good waking up so I proceeded to the cafĂ© bit of the services where I partook of a lattĂ© and a “morning starter” cooked breakfast. This plus a five minute nap in the car before I started gave me the energy to continue the journey.

I arrived and Em and Jerry’s house at around a quarter past 9 and was welcomed to tea and good company. Laura was initially shy but soon came out of her shell and Amy was just being cute, as she was most of the weekend.

Later in the day we visited such cultural highlights as Bolton can muster, namely the museum. Which, was smallish, airy and had some ideas of grandure but is was a nice place to visit all the same. Afterwards we picked up pizza and went back to Em & Jerry’s house to eat it. Staying awake, even on my feet was proving difficult at this point. While standing on the stairs inseid the museum I was having unintentional microsleepos while standing up!

The rest of the day is a little hazy but I think it was mostly playing with Laura and Amy with a nice adult-ish conversation after they went to bed.

Sunday started later, thank goodness. Although I had slept more during the night I was nowhere near 100% awake. It was first off to church followed by a wonderful roast lunch and then a trip to an Elizabethan house 5 minutes by car from Em and Jerry’s house where Laura and Em dressed up in costumes. Em and I walked back through surprisingly rural, wooded paths whilst Jerry, Laura and Amy drove back. Laura insisted that Jerry meet us on the road before we got right back to their house.

The rest of the afternoon was spent playing with Laura (a picture from which can be seen on _paddington_‘s journal) before I had to make my way home.

As usual, the M6 was abysmal going south on a Sunday afternoon. Between Knutsford and the new M6 toll road the traffic hardly ever moved faster than 30mph and was regularly 10mph or less. Most of the traffic peeled off onto the new toll road leaving the old M6 pretty clear through the whole of Birmingham.

I finally got home at 8:15pm, did as little house work as possible before going to bed.

This mornign I’m still not fully recovered but I’m sure a couple of early nights can get me back up to speed.