Sorting Out

We got in 6am this morning. 6am. Unloaded the boys, got the duvet on the bed, collapsed and fell asleep. Bean, it turns out, DIDN'T GO BACK TO SLEEP after our 4am Beaconsfield pitstop, so when Bear wanted to get up at 7.30am Bean grumbled and went back to sleep with Steve.

Bear and I tried to tidy up in the kitchen. Discovered the frying pan and wok that I'd almost destroyed the week before we moved up to Manchester - and that I couldn't cook my breakfast. Gave him something to nibble on. Waited and waited and washed up and put things away until Bean and Steve emerged. We gave up on eating in the house and went to a cafe instead!

Suitably refreshed and refuelled with caffeine we hit the house. Got loads done, bagged and labelled lots of stuff. I feel better about packing already having made that start. Steve took the kids to run a couple of errands in the car leaving me to pack in peace, and in the afternoon we went across the road to stumble around St Matt's annual family fun day which was really quite lovely. Bean was made up because his friends Ede and Rosie were there (Rosie apparently cried on the way to the fun day because she thought Bean wasn't going to be there, so I imagine she was made up to find him there after all!); and Bear hooked up with Zeki and Oliver, the younger siblings of the original terrific trio.

When the drizzle finally threatened to turn into actual rain we headed back to the house to load up, find all the bits and pieces we wanted to bring back to Manchester, and set off. We'd hoped to set off before tea, and the idea was to make it to Beaconsfield again before eating but Bean threw up as we were loading the car, then threw up again once he was in the car so after one change of clothes and two mop-up operations he announced he was going to sleep and bam that was it, fast asleep. Shattered. I was a little worried that Bear wouldn't cope without his travel buddy to sing with but he was asleep before long as well. We made it to Pease Pottage before my own hunger monster needed taming when we realised we'd actually forgotten to have lunch... Bean woke and said he wanted chips, Bear woke and wanted a booby cuddle, I wanted meat but had to make do with picking apart a wrap. The chips helped Bean feel better apparently. Bear really wanted to run around but wasn't allowed to. We had to get moving, so off we went. I have very little recollection of the rest of the journey except that I didn't get a great deal of caffeine because every time Steve bought coffee he got me decaf because I was attempting to sleep (not that sleep happened because Bear was grumpy) and then when he stopped and I took over and I bought coffee it took two services before it was cool enough to drink at which point Bear woke up and grumped again so I gave the caffeine to Steve to get us through to Manchester. We got in well past midnight and went straight to bed. Unload in the morning...

Glad we went though, got a lot done. Feel like we've really paid for the effort though. Won't be doing that again in a hurry.