If you see me smiling when things go wrong, you know I’ve found someone else to blame it on….. Livonne

So back to arriving in London… View at sunrise from the plane… tick.. Clearing customs with no dramas…. tick… getting an English sim card for my phone…. tick… finding a coffee to have while we got our land legs back after the flight… tick (after a few attempts)….. now just to phone the accomodation we’ve booked to see if we can get in early as we are exhausted…. ummm.. not so tick.

It turns out the accomodation I had booked was on the wrong day. I had it in my mind that it was the 30th I needed to book for because of the time differences, but no, it was the 31st, so we had missed our accomodation. They were going to allow us to have that night anyway but then of course it would put everything else out of whack as we already booked trains tickets and further accomodation, so we decided to go straight on up to Chester to see our friend Ann. While I was checking that I had got all that right, I realised I had booked the next night’s accomodation the day AFTER we needed it. OMG. I honestly have no idea what I did wrong. What a numpty I am. Anyway, the train tickets were right so thankfully I was able to cancel our Liverpool accomodation and we headed up to Chester.

Now here I have to say, the rail system here in the UK is quite confusing. In Australia, we basically have one service. They might be run by different states but we don’t have 147 different companies all going to the one place. Here, you have to decide which train company you will choose and they can be incredibly different in price. We had already booked our train tickets so we just had to find our way from the airport shuttle which took us to Paddington (where we were SUPPOSED to be staying) to Euston station. We found our way to Euston Square which we thought was the same thing. We were mistaken.

From Euston Square, we had to find our way upstairs with no lifts and heavy suitcases and backpacks. We managed most of it when a lovely young man came along and helped us both. There is always goodness around when you need it. We then found our way out of there and down to Euston Station where we sat down for a cuppa while we waited for the train. Again, confusion reigned as the board wasn’t showing our train. We had to go and ask and as we had to change trains at Crewe, we needed to look for the Manchester Piccadilly line instead of Chester (of course) We were so tired, we couldn’t make any sense of anything at that time. With only a few minutes to spare they announced the platform we would be on so we headed up there and got onboard.

It was lovely to watch the countryside go by while we travelled and we had to change trains at Crewe to a Welsh line train. Oh how joyous it was to hear the lilting Welsh accent on the train announcements and all the written announcements were in Welsh and English. I could have listened to it all day. We got to Chester which is a gorgeous little village close to the English/Welsh border with lots of Tudor style buildings. It was originally built in the 1st century as a Roman fortress and has a Roman ampitheatre just outside the city walls. It is the sort of village you want to roam around for ages. There are gorgeous chunks of history everywhere you look.

After our initial confusion with accomodation, Ann had booked us into some accomodation above a pub called The Saddle Inn in Chester and we got there easily by taxi from the station. It was the quintessential little English pub with a rock and roll theme. Our room was the AC/DC room which was appropriate being Aussies. There were other rooms such as Guns and Roses, Metallica, Jimi Hendrix and Kiss room, just to name a few. It was quirky and homely and the rooms were surprisingly big. It was also up a narrow staircase which we had to navigate with our heavy cases. One of the gorgeous staff helped us with them which we desperately needed, being so depleted of sleep. I always forget how much of England accomodation is up narrow staircases.

We went down the road for lunch with Ann and had a feed of English fish and chips which was exactly what I needed. It was so lovely catching up with her. In my years of chatting in a chat room, we met and made solid friends, bonding over a mutual grief of having lost our beautiful red headed daughters but also just enjoying each others company. She shifted to Australia for a while where we got to know each other better, so it was great catching up again after she had shifted home to England.

After we said goodbye to Ann we went back to the hotel to shower and sleep. Oh a shower has never felt so good. I think it was around 4pm when we got into bed and were asleep before our heads hit the pillow. Not long into my sleep I got the worst cramp in my lower leg which was excruiating but thankfully it went quickly and I fell straight back into the land of nod. I woke up at about midnight and a few minutes later, Cecile got a wrong number call which woke her up. So we had a cuppa and I finished yesterday’s blog then after a few hours we laid back down again but neither of us really slept properly, just dozed in and out. Still it was bliss to have been horizontal after the long plane trips the day before.

I hope this hasn’t sounded like a whinge at all. I am so blessed to have been given this opportunity and to have a great friend to share it with. But I always forget how hard that long distance travel is and I am now 8 years older than the last time I did it. It reminds me that I am not getting any younger and that I am not as strong or as agile as I once was. And I definitely can’t do the all nighters I once did with ease. Anyway, after that long blissful sleep, we are almost in sync with the time adjustments and tomorrow head to Liverpool.

Happy blissing out…. Livvy xxx