This weekend I made the trip down to Liverpool and back so that I could visit Fliss and Elisha for the weekend.
It was weird arriving at the house to see it in darkness, with a skip full of debris from the fence repairs in the driveway. Puzzled, I let myself in and discovered the place empty because Fliss had gone out for some reason – hopefully to get food!
Minutes later that turned out to be correct, as I spied her and Elisha crossing the road with pizza and other items in hand. I went to open the door to surprise Elisha, but she fell a few feet from it and wasn’t quite as pleased to see me as she might have been.
Still, she did keep saying “Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!” and gave me lots of hugs, so it was clear she hadn’t forgotten me after a fortnight apart. 🙂
We settled down to eat the large Hawaiian cheesy bites pizza that Fliss had collected from Pizza Hut, with Elisha pottering around doing her thing whilst we relaxed on the couch. It felt very good to be home after four hours on the trains, I can tell you, and after Elisha went to bed we watched some TV before calling it an early night as I was practically falling asleep.
In the morning we were up quite early, or at least Fliss was. I had a bit of a lie in before being tagged into the ring when Fliss came back to bed. Despite not being fully recovered from a tiring week, I didn’t mind getting up to watch kids TV with Elisha; it was my first episode of Lazy Town in a few weeks – and one I hadn’t seen, too! 😉
Later I suggested we get a train into town for a browse around the shops, so we did just that. First stop was the expensive shopping center The Met Quarter, so that I could use a credit note I had for Firetrap in there. I didn’t really see anything I wanted to pay the crazy prices for, but in the end I settled on a nice shirt.
After that we had lunch in the posh Wetherspoons nearby, but it wasn’t the kind of place where Elisha could wander around and she was getting a bit frustrated with being cooped up and, unfortunately, there’s nowhere suitable for that kind of thing in the city. However, Elisha soon solved the problem by falling asleep after lunch and was out for the count while we traipsed around the shops.
We were reluctant to call it a day when we got back up near to the station, and ended up in the Head of Steam pub that’s attached to it, where kids are welcome up until seven o’clock. Elisha was kept occupied by a mini aqua-draw kit we’d bought her while Fliss and I enjoyed a couple of pints.
As Graeme and Lisa had said they’d pop round, when he sent a text asking if we were available it was perfect timing for getting the five-to-seven train home, with them arriving soon after. There followed an entertaining evening of Francis and Elisha chasing each other around the house, causing much devastation to innocent items like control panels. 😉
After Graeme, Lisa and Francis had left we were really flagging, so I put Elisha to bed and we watched some TV, before calling it a night around 11pm. Shopping really takes it out of me. That and beer.
Sunday ended up being a designated lazy day. In the early afternoon, Fliss messed around on the computer and I watched the IndyCar race while Elisha pottered about, playing with her aqua-draw or messing around with her buggy. In the end she fell asleep in that while I watched the race, but would later wake up full of energy.
This was probably a good thing, as I wouldn’t have made it out of my dressing gown if Elisha hadn’t wanted me to play with her on her bike out in the garden. With the fence being replaced since I’d left it was a bit odd being all enclosed again, but it’s still a nice big garden – I’ll miss that if the next house doesn’t match up.
Sunday evening didn’t amount to much, really – the lack of sleep caught up with me and I went back to bed for a couple of hours. I was woken courtesy of Elisha’s new game, which consists of shouting “WAKE UP!” if you lie back and close your eyes. It’s a good laugh if you’re not actually asleep, but if you are it can be kind of jarring.
With Elisha bathed and put to bed (where I went through her words book with her and she’s getting really good, now), we didn’t have much energy left. Realising I had to be up early anyway, we had another early-ish night.
Before I knew it I was up and on the train heading into Liverpool, and from there up to Wigan for my connection to Glasgow. For whatever reason I couldn’t get to sleep the whole way, despite the train being empty and quiet.
Right now I’m back at my mum’s place waiting for Crazy Uncle John to come and get me so I can borrow his car to get to the airport at 4am for my flight to Brussels. I am seriously shattered, so hopefully Crazy Uncle John turns up soon and I can get yet another early night.
