Saturday, May 03, 2003

 

Day 10. Usk and Oswaldtwistle. Sunday 4 May 2003. Up the Motorway

Today we leave for our expedition up North. From Usk we travel the M4, onto the M5. Heading north to the M6 and we turn off the M6 onto the M65 to Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, the home of Jen, my niece and Pete.

Up early, I packed the wedding suit into its coverall for Ian to transport to Mr. Charles in Cirencester. Then down for breakfast, just tea, toast and marmalade for me with everyone else tucking in to a full Welsh breakfast, where do they put it all, I was still full of Coronation Chicken and Salmon from the Wedding feast yesterday.

I listened to the busy chatter around our table, noticed a sole occupant of a nearby table, and recognized her as a wedding guest of yesterday. I suggested to Pat that she may like to join us, and she was delighted to do so. She was a school staff friend at Vicky's last school in London.

Afterwards I looked in on Anthony sleeping soundly after his attempted trek on foot to Chepstow and a white bleary-eyed face greeted me. I managed to arouse him to suggest a good hot shower would work wonders, which he eventually did. I am not sure if he made breakfast.

We were ready and departed by 11.30a.m. John and Edith with Pat and I travelling together. Gillian and Anthony travelled with Jen and Pete in our Ford Mondeo Ghia rental car.

Eventually we arrived at Jen and Pete's house in Oswaldtwistle which was up on a ridge on the edge of town looking across at the rear to the low hills in the distance. Pete and Jen have 1.5 acres of land with the house stretching down hill to a shallow gully. John ushered me into his favourite room at the back, a sunroom, jungle filled with leafy tomato plants. Pete does not spare the fertilizer.

John and Edith spent a couple of hours with us before heading home to Morecambe. We then had a takeaway dinner of curry and although I was still feeling full managed to eat some. Starting to feel sleepy, I decided to call it an early night and went to bed worn out.

posted by OldEric 9:47 pm