What a weekend

4 days in Newcastle, what a lovely time we had. Although it did rain quite a bit we had fun. I was rather tired by Monday afternoon and slept like a baby in my own bed but had fun on the way. The adventure started on Monday morning when mum kindly dropped us at North Greenwich tube for our 2 tubes, 1 train and 1 taxi journey to our hotel in Jesmond, Newcastle. Four hours of travel is quite something with 2 kids, a bump and a frustrated husband. I only booked 2 seats on the train as children are free and I just thought I was being practical saving money. We were very lucky that 4 people had reserved seats next to us but didn't bother turning up, so we nabbed them, well who would mess with a baby throwing food everywhere and a toddler singing twinkle twinkle little star for hours at a time! At first the elderly couple next to us smiled sweetly at our little darlings singing and playing but after 2 1/2 hours they actually packed up 10 minutes before the train stopped and stood by the doors....bless.

We were beaten to the hotel by one of our friend Trevor, who took the room next to us, poor guy, didn't realise what he had let himself into to. Not only did he have our two little darlings one side of this cardboard room, the other side he had the Butterworth’s with their little 2 year old girl Milly, who loves running around in circles. Trevor didn't get much sleep all weekend, well that wasn't what he expected anyway!.

The lads went out on Friday night, returning at 5am after consuming lots of lager and kebab pizza (don't ask). I was still half awake when they returned as we were staying in the nosiest hotel in the world. It was Paddies day, there was football and rugby on in Newcastle and Jesmond is famous for its stags, hens and students. We just happened to be staying on the main stretch, surrounded in bars, clubs and restaurants. Well I wasn’t to know when I booked 11 of us into the hotel for the weekend....whoops....and it wasn’t cheap either.

Saturday was fun, I went to Lisa’s parent’s house to meet the Vicar for a rehearsal for the next day..... forgot to mention, we were on a christening weekend and I was the god mother to little Katie’ Louise. The Vicar was cool, told us a few bars to go to in town (one was a topless one!!) He also accepted the invite of a few pints of Guinness after the christening at Kingston rugby club! After the Vicar left I found myself being whisked off to a beauty parlor for a quick spray tan....well I had to join in with the locals and fit in with everyone else. The only problem was I did rub the thick liquid that was sprayed all over my body and even though I washed my hands within hours they turned a nice shade of orange. Thank god I didn’t have to wash the sheets either, left that up to the hotel staff to sort out! Well at least we got our moneys worth.

Megan got her own way and we visited the beach of Whitney Bay, the winds were almost gale force, the rain was horizontal and the chill factor was ....well horrid. Megan still managed to run off into the sea and get her pink tights and white trainers full of sand and water. She had a paddy because she wanted to take her clothes off and she managed to tread in dogs poo before we forced her into her pram and back on the tram to meet up with my parents who drove up from London to join us for the christening.

I had a little scare getting off the metro, at first I thought I felt the first signs of labor but put it down to the old pelvis moving into place or the baby dropping, what ever it was it wasn’t very pleasant and caused me to sit down for a while, whilst Clinton had this fear on his face thinking that his 3rd born was going to pop out in Newcastle on a train!

Three rugby matches later, Clinton got back to the hotel to take over baby sitting duties whist I hit the Toon with the girls. I did feel a little over dressed in the party town of Newcastle, most of the locals were in belts shirts and backless tops, no coats, hats or scarf’s, I even saw a few flip flops in the freezing rain, quite amusing but personally I don’t find blue pimples very attractive, hey hoy, they do enjoy themselves in Newcastle. We had a top time on Saturday night, I enjoyed a few diet cokes!! and lots of Chinese food and entertainment from my mates Lisa, Farah and Marion.

By Sunday morning I looked like I had just spent a few weeks in the Caribbean, Clinton was rather shocked at how brown I was. As it was practically snowing outside so I decided to take a bath to chill my tan down a bit, I think it had the right effect eventually! We had a bit of a rush getting onto the coach but with my French polished nails, a top fake tan and glossy lips I was all set up for the special day!

It was a great day, quite a long one but everything went well. The short service was followed by a party in Kingston Rugby club. Even though the Falcons weren’t training as expected we still had a smashing time. The kids wore themselves out, Mum and Dad offered to take Megan home to London in the car so we only had little Erin to pack the next day. Again my folks made our lives and all the other commuters lives a lot more pleasant on the way home.

The hormones did kick in when I said goodbye to my oldest daughter on Sunday night. I blame it on the pregnancy but when they left for their long drive back to London I had this sudden nutty feeling that I would never see her again. How odd is that! Something that has only developed since I have had children. If I don’t have the control over a situation I don't feel comfortable at all, very odd in deed. However Mum and Dad called us at 10.45 that evening to let us know they were home safe and sound, at least I was able to sleep soundly on Sunday night.

Well Monday was the end of our lovely weekend, after a walk around the Toon we jumped on the 15.55 back to Kings cross and were picked up by the lovely Esme at North Greenwich, where our journey began three days ago, what a weekend!.