Leaving Home

So the time has come around for us to depart Wales. It was harder to wrap things up than we expected. The kids were not thrilled to be leaving school and their friends and there were schools that I regret leaving (some I was glad to see the back of as well). Then there were the friends we had made who it was time to say goodbye too. This is where it got really hard. Especially with no idea if we will see them again. I guess we are all going to have to be diligent with our emails and letter writing as well as regularly checking Facebook.

Before we could leave Wales for good there were a couple of things we needed to get done. Firstly we had to make a weekend trip to Eardisley in Herefordshire. This is not a common destination for tourists but it did have one attraction we needed to visit - my Great Uncle Paul - he’s a fantastic man who I didn’t know before we came to Wales and it has been one of the great pleasures of this trip having the chance to get to know him. We had previously seen him twice on our travels but this time was going to be at his place and with good reason. He was performing in the village pantomime, I had seen my first panto two weeks earlier at Duffryn School but Prue, Joseph and Maddy had never experienced one. The performance of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves was superb and very professionally done. We all agreed it was a great performance to have seen and would love to see another in the future. The next day we returned to Usk where the kids experienced the surprise of a lifetime as we sat in a welsh pub for a quiet drink. As Joseph prepared to head to the bar (coke only), who should appear - their father over for work. If it is possible for 14 year olds to have heart attacks I’m sure Joseph came close. Maddy on the other hand was still being treated for shock a few hours later. That meant we had another guest to join us at Jan and Gren’s for Christmas champagne the next night. It was a lovely way to wrap up our time with these two great friends. We did see them before we left, but this was an important night for us all.

With the house packed and me having wrapped up my teaching in Wales with my final day at my favourite school, Milton Junior (the staff were so welcoming and the kids were great), it was time to head down the M4 to London. Luckily Kim had a big car so with luggage piled high we were able to share this trip together. We spent the night in Walton on Thames where we dropped off some luggage and met up with Michelle and her kids before saying our goodbyes to Kim the next morning as we headed off for the next leg of our trip, the Final Month.