We visited the Hampshire Tilley’s last weekend – the main object of the trip was to see the girls annual ballet show, but obviously, with assistance of Bridget and Megan, we fitted in a lot more.
We both took the day off on Friday, to arrive in Chandlers Ford in time to meet the girls out of school. It was my job to drop the dogs off with our dog-sitting friends, and as I left Chantal remarked that we needed to buy some flowers for Lucy, and so on the way back home I stopped at the local village Co-op where there was a fine display of carnations for sale. Chantal was not answering either her phone or the house phone for advice on colours and so I chose the two heathiest bunches. They did not meet quality assurance approval by The Management – wrong flowers, wrong colours and just not good enough, and so when we headed south, it was via the Co-op where Chantal persuaded the lad at the check-out to give us a refund, and he had had to summons the manager to explain, in front of a lengthening queue, that the customer had been told by his wife that he had changed his mind, or words to that effect. So embarrassing.
We had an uneventful journey, stopping in Eastleigh to buy more flowers, and had time for sandwiches and a cup of tea with Lucy before we all walked to the schools to meet the girls.
Megan’s schools was the first stop, where the children stayed with the teacher until they had spotted their mum or Dad. Megan scanned the large group of waiting parents and suddenly grinned and shouted “There!” pointing to us, and being allowed to run to us to give Grannie a big hug. Next stop was Bridget’s school, where once again children were looking out for parents, and this time it was my turn for a big hug after Bridget spotted us and sprinted across the playground.
The next visit was to the school lost property office, and then to Bridget’s classroom in a fruitless search for a lost cardigan, although it was nice to see where Bridget spends her school day, and to briefly meet her (very young!) teacher. Megan was not impressed by this distraction, announcing “Hurry up – I’ve got some resting to do!”. Megan’s idea of “resting”, when we got home, did not, actually, involve resting. It involved the trampoline, grandpa and a skipping rope. I soon demonstrated my poor skipping skills, especially while bouncing on a trampoline, and we continued with the more traditional bouncing-as-high-as-possible, until I pleaded for rest, and eventually insisted on it.
By now Bridget had finished creating invitations for her forthcoming birthday event, on the computer in the study, and joined us outside, where the girls decided that Grannie and Grandpa’s faces were in need of improvement (in my case they were probably right), with the aid of face-paints . Megan painted rainbows onto grannie, before changing her mind and starting a more abstract design, and eventually settling on turning Grannie into a cat (at least that is what I think it was). Bridget was more consistent, spending time creating a Dalmatian, applying a thick layer of black and white paint over my wrinkles.
The girls were somewhat excited, which made arranging tidying up before bedtime, and settling them down with a bed time story a little challenging, and Grandpa had to be quite firm and fierce at times…. I was ready to sit down and relax over our evening meal once the girls were in bed.
On Saturday we took the girls out for the day. I had been told we had been going to “Pepper Pig” theme park, and I had visons of a relaxing day watching the girls on children’s rides, while I enjoyed sitting in the warm sunshine. I was conned. The girls refer to Paultons Theme Park, about half an hour from Chandlers Ford, as “Pepper Pig” because this was the part of the park that they originally visited. They are now tall enough for the big rides, and so instead of a nice relaxing day, I was swung out of my seat on the pirate ship, dropped from a height on the Jumping Bean, catapulted down gradients and around sharp bends on the roller coaster, and got spun around while rising and falling, both forwards and backwards, on The Dragon (which made me distinctly queasy), as well as a few more gentle rides.
I quite enjoy roller coasters, or the pirate ship, but am not a fan of anything that spins, and so was not too disappointed when Megan proved too short for The Edge, a sort of giant spinning roller coaster. Megan, on the other hand, was very disappointed, having convinced herself that this would be the first visit when she would be tall enough, and it really wasn’t fair that Bridget had an extra ride. When Bridget and Grannie decided on a second ride, Megan and I headed for the Cobra roller coaster, which we had both enjoyed before (when Grannie sat behind us shouting “This is horrible, this is horrible…..”).
We picnicked under the shade of a tree, and went on most rides at least twice, if not three times, postponing the log-flume until late in the day. We got very wet. It was a hot day, and the girls, who had bought swimming costumes, spent almost an hour in the water park, a play area of cooling fountains and water sprays.
We had time for one last ride before the park closed. Bridget chose The Edge again, and so Megan and I headed back to the Pirate Ship, quite a walk, arriving just in time for the last ride of the day.
Sunday was the day of the girls Ballet School show in Southampton. Lucy applied the make-up at home, and they left mid-morning. Chris served the rest of is a fried brunch, and we followed Lucy and the girls an hour or so later, with Keith who had travelled down earlier. The show was in a theatre at Southampton University, and everyone at the dance school attended by the girls took part – about 200 in all, aged four to sixteen, with brief contributions by adults. The performance was a musical, “Batteries Not Included”, basically Toy Story with dancing, music and songs. It was brilliant, with all sorts of dancing, including tap and modern dance, as well as ballet. Lucy had booked front row seats – perfect. We were joined by Bernadette and Dave, Lucy’s parents, and of course by Lucy once she had got the girls ready for the show.
Megan made her appearance at the end of the first half of the show,and Bridget in the second half. Megan was a cup cake at a birthday party, and Bridget was an ice cream or so Grannie tells me – I thought she was a helper to one of the main characters. I think that I was so busy watching her dance that I didn’t see what she was. Megan appeared first, and by chance was dancing almost directly in front of us. She quickly spotted us, and smiled, but it didn’t distract her from her performance. Bridget’s position was a little to the side, but I think that she noticed us. I wondered whether I would recognise my granddaughters – they looked so different and grown up with their hair tied back and wearing make-up. I needn’t have worried – I spotted each straight away. I am convinced that the scenes with Megan and Bridget elicited the loudest applause – it certainly did from where we were sitting.
Afterwards the girls joined the rest of us for a picnic on a grassy area outside of the theatre, and we had a chance to catch up with Bernadette and Dave. Lucy and the girls had to leave us to prepare for the next performance, and we all left for Chandlers Ford a short time later and thanks to the coincidental World Cup final we had a quick and quiet journey home. Photos in “our recent photos”.
Technically we live in Oaktree House, but sadly the tree had to go.
We now have a thriving Oakstump at the front of the house.
