Traveling North

Who is the 3 week old baby in this photo? read on the find out

After our excellent adventure in Florence we are heading to Nottingham for the week to visit Win's nieces (her sister Sonia's 4 daughters) and Aunty Alma (Win's mother's sister). We are staying with Mina & Ian.

A little hiccough, became a blessing, the SatNav that I requested from Hertz, did not work, which I discovered before I left the Hertz agency - Phew. The Hertz guy was less than helpful, however we got an atlas (map) so we could navigate out of London towards Nottingham on the M1. The plan was to then buy a SatNav somewhere along the way. Not too many electronic shops on the M1 I realised.

The Atlas Hertz provided only covered London, so we bought one at a servo on the way for all of the UK, only problem it didn't have minor streets. So we went into Nottingham a bit blind, however Win was magnificent, and navigated us to within about 2 minutes of Mina's house.

Got to Mina's, and Diane was also there, this was indeed a pleasant surprise, as we had only expected to see Mina this evening. Also there was Mina's grandson Chayce.

Mina's sister Marina called in to catch up with us with her 2 boys Oliver & Elliott, and her toy boy (Marina's words) husband Matt. Great to catch up with Marina and as with Mina and Diane, she has not changed at all.

The next day we went to buy a SatNav, Diane works at Tesco's so we can get her 10% staff discount (oh and Diane can get points). Looked at a few (Tomtom & Garmin) and chose one on special reduced by £20. So the Garmin SatNav that I selected cost £71, as against the rental from Hertz for a week of £65. Happy as ....

Later in the day we met up with Liana, her daughter Makenzi, and her new son of three weeks Griffin. So Win was able to get her baby fix ;-)

Wednesday we drove up to Bolton in Manchester to visit Aunty Alma. She had prepared a great spread for us, which reminded me of Win's Mum, there was so much food, that there was no way we were going hungry. We had a great day chatting and catching up and learning more of the the family history. We also were able to talk with Paul, Alma's son, who dropped in after work, this was also an unexpected bonus.

Thursday, another opportunity to meet and go out with Liana, Makenzi & little Griffin who dropped by Mina & Ian's house, so we went for a walk around the local park.


That evening headed into Nottingham to have a couple of drinks at the oldest licensed pub in the UK "Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem". This is a must for me, I did have a few beers in this pub back in 1987 when I was last over here.

And I did have a pint of the Olde Trip Ale, one is enough I find. We then headed off for an excellent Indian meal close by "The Trip"

Friday time to head off to Wimbledon via Stonehenge.

Notes on Win's relations in this post
Win had a half sister, Sonia who continued to live in Nottingham UK. Sonia (husband John) had four daughters who are of course Win's nieces.
Mina, Diane, Liana & Marina
Most of whom have adult/teenage children
Win also has an Aunt (Aunty Alma) who is her Mum's sister