We met in the atrium at 8am (and amazingly, everyone made it on time!) and walked our suitcases the 15 minute walk to Manchester Piccadilly train station. The first train was a 3 hour trip to Bristol where we stopped for lunch.

The length of the trip was long enough to rest after a very bad night’s sleep. I had people messaging me at 3.30am because Millie had escaped from home again! Our poor, stressed dog sitter followed our instructions and locked her inside while she went shopping for groceries, and came home to find Millie had bashed her locked dog door off its hinges! 😬

Our security camera footage showed us that Millie went and sat on the front doormat for an hour watching the street waiting for us to appear before she went further afield and another neighbour picked her up. We are very thankful for the firies on Ross’ crew who came to shore up the potential escape routes, and friends like Caroline who took the dog to her secure location overnight to give the dog sitter a rest 😂

Ross and I minded everyone’s luggage at a Wetherspoons pub near the station and sent the kids off exploring Bristol. They found a shopping centre across the bridge over the lock, and ate lunch and explored the area before meeting up with us again.

We then returned to the station for our next, 40 minute, train trip to Trowbridge, where Ross and Jarrod bought us coffee and we waited for the others to arrive. Luke’s family picked up a minivan and then picked up Tim and Zac from Heathrow Airport before gathering us from Trowbridge. Our group of 7 has now become a group of 14!

From Trowbridge it was a 10 minute drive to West Ashton where we are staying in an historic castle called Longs Park Castle.

After exploring our accommodation, Ross and Luke went in search of a supermarket and pizza for dinner while the rest of us settled in. We then sat up to await HSC results! Cooper did exceptionally well as we expected, and Sam has either done exactly enough or will just fall achingly short of his first preference – we will have to wait until next Monday when the first round uni offers come out to know!