Winter Tour 2011/12 - A bunch of pirates?

24 hours flight, 24 hours driving, 1 birthday party, 3 different beds and a brokn car!!!!!

It seems more than a week since we arrived back in the UK. the flight was not as bad as expected despite a 5 hour stop-over in Addis Ababa and we spent a pleasant weekend recovering in Chesham and meeting friends from our church. And then more travelling.

Briefly:

- we had Sunday lunch with our son, David with his wife Sarah and her parents in Smallford, Herts

- we spent 6 nights in Plymouth with our other son, Staphen, wife Lara and grandson Jonah where we celebrated Jonah's 4th birthday, and witnessed Stephen dressing up as a pirate for a Halloween day at the Infant School he is teacher training at

- we have arrived in Newcastle under Lyme to see our youngest daughter Pamela and meet friends from Malcolm's work here.

The one drama is that within 5 miles of leaving Plymouth the brakes on our car seized up with clouds of smoke coming from our front wheel (despite a new brake caliper being fitted 23 months ago) so a 5 hour journey became 10 hours - thank goodness for Recovery services. The silver lining was that because of a major accident on the M5 no-one could tow as on to Newcastle so we have been given a courtesy car.

After couple off days here, Birmingaham, Amersham (to get brakes repaired) and Milto Keynes!!!