Goodbye to the Vikings

Monday's weather meant no boating again – the rain came in shifts but the wind was constant, and I'm not sure I could even have got Erin Mae out of her berth. So we did other exercisy things with the boys instead. However, we were determined to do at least some boating before they flew back home, so it was up and out early on Tuesday, to spend the morning taking Erin Mae down to the Bridge 68 winding hole and back.

It was two locks and a few miles each way, and they got into it with a will. Both of them steered, and there was a definite improvement from last year.

They met the local wildlife and Sam learned to hold a bow line while I brought the stern in.

Four hours out and about, and downpours for only the middle two. That was when they went back to making their iPhone videos inside, leaving their grandparents to get wet.

Then it was time to get them to Manchester airport for the evening flight to Oslo. We booked them in, ate sandwiches and played Goldfish with the Animal Snap cards. They were finally ushered away at 7 p.m., and we were asked to stay in the airport until the flight had taken off. So we had a coffee, kept an eye on the departures board, and left just after 7.45 when the flight finally disappeared from it. At 10 p.m., checking her phone, my best beloved found she'd had a voicemail from SAS at 8.30 saying there was an issue with the flight and would we please go back up to the check-in desk. By now, of course, we were in Stafford doing some late shopping at Asda and filling the car with diesel! We tried returning the call, to no avail, so rang the boys' father in Oslo, who had also received messages about the flight being delayed. In the end, they did get home OK, but I think it was 2 a.m. local time before they got to bed.

So ended a very happy 10 days with (and, hopefully, for) Sam and Theo. Now that it's over, I suddenly have time, space and energy to write a blog post.