Kisses and cuddles and welcome home

Hello from Blighty.  We're on day 3 of our holiday back in the UK and so far so good.  The flight over from Dubai was reasonably smooth and we arrived back in Manchester safe and sound around 1:30 pm on Friday.  Needless I was in a panic before we left as my youngest didn't receive his passport back until 6:45 pm the night before we were due to fly.  However, he is now officially a UAE resident again with a full time job (hooray).

We did have a little mishap in Qatar during the transfer when we had some jobsworth who shouted at me and my hubby for crossing a security tape and breaching a security measures.  Honestly, it wasn't a big thing but this guy wanted to make it a big deal to the point that everyone in the queue was watching us.

Anyway, 2 hours later we were back in our home town of Hull (well actually the surronding villages).  First visit was to my mother and father-in-law's house were we also met my sister-in-law, niece and nephew and his girlfriend.  A little later we went to my mum and dad's house our welcome party consisted of James, my sister and another niece.  It was so good to see them all.  James has lost so much weight, but being 6 ft 3 it hasn't done him any harm losing weight.

We then dropped my youngest off at my niece's house as that's his home for the next two weeks.  This time we got the chance to see her two great little boys, whom i love dearly (and also love the fact that they remember us and we get lots of cuddles).

Then it was back to my sister and brother-in-law's house when my step daughter and soon to be son-in-law arrived with lots of wedding talk and excitement about the big day.  My sis-in-law did us a lovely ploughman's lunch and it was great to eat ham and pork pie without feeling guilty.

The next morning we had breakfast in the garden and enjoyed the lovely fresh air.  My hubby had to try on his wedding suit but unfortunately I think he had been a little adventurous with his sizes and the suite has had to go back and another one purchased.

More visits to both lots of parents and to our good friends.  Each time we managed to have a little time in the garden (before it began to spit with rain).  Nothing heavy just the fine rain that gets you wet.

Last night we spent the night with my sister and brother-n-law and went for a meal in a pub in a called the 'Blue Bell' in a small village close by called Cottingham.  It used to be an old man's pub but its under new management and now has a lovely food menu and a nice ambience.  Many years ago I used to be a barmaid in another pub in the village called 'Black Prince' so I used to know quite a lot of people in the village.   So we did a little bit of a pub crawl and popped to another two pubs 'Tiger' and 'Duke of Cumberland' where we did a little bit of people watching (needless to say its a little difficult to do pub crawls in Dubai).

We ended up bumping into a guy who I haven't seen since James was about 3 years old.  We had a bit of a catch up and chatted abut the children (or not as the case may be).  Afterwards we had to wait for a taxi for almost an hour (my god, its a long time since we've had to wait for taxis).    Needless to say, its not as pleasant as waiting for taxis in Dubai (I was freezing).