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!

While Ross was up early to return the minivan by 9am, the kids slept in while I did some washing. Ross returned with great coffee and pastries from the cafe in the atrium downstairs.

We had originally booked an Old Trafford tour for this morning, but the club cancelled all tours today in early December as they needed the stadium for a private event (Leo told us yesterday it was for one of the players to film some marketing material!). So as we didn’t have anywhere to be at a certain time, and given Jarrod was in this city in July 2023, he looked up some of the city walking tours on offer and created his own for us.

We started in a park near our hotel, where there was a statue of Alan Turing, the father of computer science (did Jarrod design this tour for us or for him?)

From there we went to the Central Library which included an extensive music library (where we lost Abi and Jarrod for a little while!).

We passed many worker bees along the way. Manchester was my city to research (clearly I didn’t research the traffic or roads very well!), and worker bees are representative of the workers in the burgeoning cotton and textiles industry during the Industrial Revolution. The bees are on public monuments, buildings, in advertising and souvenirs.

Around the corner from a souvenir shop we found a chain restaurant/bar in the UK is the “Slug & Lettuce”. We discovered they had an 8 pound lunch deal so stopped there to feed the troops before we continued exploring.

We joined a free tour at Manchester Cathedral which lasted 20 minutes and was very informative. There is a memorial outside the cathedral for the 22 people who died as a result of the terrorist attack at the Ariana Grande concert in 2017.

We then walked around to the National Football Museum. We had hoped to visit the Chetham School of Music and Library on the way as it was on the corner opposite, but it was closed.

The man at the counter told us we could save money by booking online, so we stood in the foyer while Jarrod did that. Then the woman at the counter asked for proof from those who had booked in as students. Tom and Abi had concession cards ready, Belle could get up her student email address, but Sam had nothing with him. So the lady asked me to provide proof (by which point I was wishing we had just paid the extra 2 pound for adult price!). As I went to log in to the school portal to find something, anything, so we could enter the museum, this picture was on the landing page, and was enough proof for the employee to let us in 😂

After a couple of hours in the museum, we went in search of an English pub for dinner. We chose the Sawyers Arms, but half the menu items (the ones we wanted to eat) were sold out, so we moved two doors down to the House of Dene for a pub meal and then headed back to the hotel for an early night as we are catching a train early in the morning.

Note: Tim and Zac flew out today and will meet us tomorrow. They sent me pictures from the airport so I wouldn’t panic about them missing their flight 😊

Postscript: So much for our early night! The kids picked up something for dessert at Tesco Express on the way back to the hotel and came back to our room for supper and a chat. I checked Facebook at some point and discovered this post!

The boys only left home 12 hours ago, and the dog sitter was inside the house, but Mille found a way to escape and tried to go looking for us! 😩 Luckily I have wonderful friends and neighbours who have not only saved Millie and got her off the road and returned her home, but have also done an extensive review of potential escape points around our property 🤦‍♀️

The minivan we hired for our Newcastle touring day couldn’t be returned on a Sunday, so I had the bright idea of keeping it for an extra day and returning it in Manchester on Monday morning – the cost of the extra day was not much more than the train tickets from Newcastle to Manchester, and those train tickets were one of the few things we hadn’t pre booked before we left home.

So it seemed providential! Google maps told me the trip to Manchester was 2.5 hours on a Sunday morning (instead of 3 hours by train). It also meant we could pick up Jarrod from the Smees rather than asking them to get Jarrod to us, and I didn’t have to walk my suitcase up hundreds of stairs to the train station as originally planned.

Giddy with such a successful decision, we said goodbye to the Smees and Liam once more as we picked up Jarrod at 8am, and started down the highway to Manchester, our next destination. Also high on our perfect planning, Jarrod and I booked an 11.20am tour of Old Trafford (which was a bucket list item for Sam and me) because arriving in Manchester at 10.30am would give us time for coffee before the tour began, and then we could continue on with the other surprise we had planned for the day.

Well…….something road paved something good intentions……pride goes before a fall…..

Two collisions on the highway in front of us slowed traffic down considerably. Jarrod was watching the traffic ahead, thankfully, and was able to advise us from the back seat to detour along local roads, which saved us some time, but also had its own traffic issues as other cars had the same idea and advice. As the morning and the trip wore on, I watched our time buffer not only disappear, but so did our tour time – we didn’t arrive at Old Trafford until 12pm!! A 2.5 hour trip that became a 4 hour trip!!

We decided to have a quick look there mainly so Sam could see it, while we spoke to someone about a possible refund in person. Instead, the staff were so lovely, and allocated a tour guide called Leo to give us our own private tour! Tours usually have 40-50 in a group, but Leo showed the 7 of us around in a condensed tour. He apologised for having to leave out aspects like letting us walk through the tunnel and not being able to show us the press rooms, but he took us everywhere else the tour goes like the change rooms, Sir Alex Ferguson Stand and gave us plenty of photo opportunities.

I had to cut poor Leo short though, because we had booked tickets to the local derby before we left home and hadn’t yet told the kids. They became suspicious about what was happening next when we were in such a hurry to move on and nothing else had been mentioned as being booked for the day. Leo apologised that we didn’t have time to explore the museum (which was included in our ticket price) but we told him we will be back! Sam and I would still like to see a Man U game there one day (the older boys and Ross did so on our last family Europe trip).

We did not plan to be in Manchester at the same time as the local derby (in fact, we couldn’t plan around any games because the EPL schedule wasn’t released until after we booked our trip), but we realised in early December that Man City was playing Man United today at Etihad Stadium, and with Tom being a Man City supporter and the Joneses all Man U supporters we thought we should make it a priority while here! It was impossible to get tickets though so we booked the cheapest hospitality package available, and had to be at a local restaurant offsite for lunch at 1.30pm before the 4.30pm kick-off.

We returned to the minivan hurriedly and then told the kids what we had planned. They were very excited to attend the local derby! Tom had even been looking at the resale sites to see if we could snag last minute tickets on the long drive, and Belle’s friends had been talking about the game extensively at home.

Manchester is just not a drivable city though (apparently it is very walkable) and we had trouble finding our way on their ring roads and then finding somewhere to park the bus to go to the game. We left it and all our luggage in a shopping centre at Lime Park, and Jarrod and Tom ordered two Ubers to get us to the Vermillion restaurant for lunch.

Lunch was an all-you-can-eat Indian buffet (but only one drink voucher each) with a magician wandering table to table. Once everyone was full we walked up to the stadium to find our seats. Jarrod was hoping to head to a Starbucks across the road for coffee first, as we hadn’t had a coffee all day, but it was just a little out of reach time-wise. So the kids bought a match day scarf (Sam had been disappointed at Old Trafford when he asked could he buy one and didn’t understand why we said a sharp no, but it was because we knew he could get one at the game site), and we headed to our seats.

Man City were ahead 1 – 0 until the 88th minute when Man U equalised, and then scored again a minute later. Sad for Tom, but great to witness a Man United 2 – 1 win for the rest of us! While it was a great experience, it was also a bit disappointing. Fans were leaving as soon as the equaliser was scored, there was a lot of booing of the opposition, and when the final whistle was blown, NO-ONE clapped except us! Everyone just started streaming out of the stadium, whinging about the result and decisions made on their way. The Man U supporters had to wait 30 mins before they could leave, which is apparently common at EPL games. I feel the behaviour of fans was the antithesis to several parenting lessons I have tried to impart over the years!

Jarrod and Ross started the 40 minute walk to pick up the car (because Ubers were expensive and the traffic jam caused by everyone leaving meant walking was quicker). Sam asked if we could go around to where the players exit, but we didn’t see anyone, so we headed across the road to the McDonalds which was our pick up spot. Police were there breaking up a fight so we quickly moved on to the Starbucks to wait, and Ross and Jarrod pulled up minutes later.

We then went to check in to our accommodation. It is a beautiful place made up of three old historic buildings surrounding an atrium. Our room is in a separate building to the kids’ room so I am unable to nag about shower times or getting enough sleep! How will they cope?! After the day we’ve had, neither Ross nor I have the energy to nag anyway – we went to our room and had to lie down with our feet elevated as we both have a damaged swollen ankle each from all the walking we’ve been doing 🤭

Note: today’s diary entry is long and late. I was too exhausted last night to write, and this morning it has been a cathartic trauma dump of a stressful day! 😂

Ross walked up to Newcastle train station to pick up a minivan at 9am we booked yesterday, so John could take us on a tour further afield than the city.

We followed John and Judy in their Toyota Yaris up to Warkworth Castle, and wandered down to the shops before we then drove on to Alnwick.

There was an historic single lane arch to get into Alnwick village, where some carollers from the local church were singing and Christmas markets were trading. We walked over to Greggs for lunch of sausage rolls and pasties, coffee and “yum yums” (cylindrical-shaped Krispy Kreme tasting donuts). From there we looked at Alnwick Castle – closed until Spring unfortunately, but it is where scenes from the first two Harry Potter movies were filmed.

We then ventured further up the coast to Bamburgh Castle, walking along the beach to the castle entrance. Judy had offered to pack a towel in case Sam decided to go swimming, but thankfully forgot to bring one because Sam would have definitely dived into the North Sea if he was sure of being able to dry off afterwards!

John then led us around Bamburgh and treated us to dinner at Lewis’ fish and chips shop. We all enjoyed our fish and chips (except Sam who broke with tradition to have a chicken burger and chips). It was officially the earliest we have ever eaten dinner though as we ordered at 3.33pm! And when we left the restaurant an hour later, night had fallen and the Christmas lights lit up the shops.

The drive down to the Smees’ home was about 1.5 hours, where we stopped for a cup of tea and supper, and sang songs around their piano (played by Jarrod).

Tears were shed as we said our goodbyes to John, Judy and Liam. We have had a beautiful two days reconnecting with them. I always say it takes a village to raise children, and a board of advisers to raise me, and we are very grateful for the support they gave us through some trying times many years ago and the fact we can catch up years later and just enjoy the hospitality and making travel memories together.

Jarrod was first out this morning, and returned with his school friend Liam who is living in Clapham and caught a train to Newcastle to spend the weekend with us.

We then added to our number again, meeting our family friends and Newcastle locals, John and Judy Smee across the road from our apartment at the Copthorne Hotel for coffee.

John then led us on a walking tour around the city, stopping to show us the important and historical sites along the way, like the Castle Keep, Newcastle Cathedral, Christmas Village Markets, Newcastle University, Hancock Museum and other sites.

We stopped for a quick lunch at Five Guys at 2pm, but told the kids not to eat too much as John had booked a restaurant for dinner, but we could only get in at 4.30pm. Apparently something like 54,000 people descend on the city this weekend each year for Christmas parties at the 250 different venues around the city. There is also a Newcastle United home game tomorrow.

John is a volunteer with the Street Pastors UK organisation and is rostered on each month to deal with situations that arise in the city centre – for example, last weekend he was quayside at 4am dealing with a domestic violence victim who had escaped and needed assistance. One of his fellow Street Pastor team leaders called Simon owns an Italian restaurant called Lui’s down by the water, and he was happy to host the ten of us for dinner at 4.30pm – and it was genuinely one of the best Italian meals we’ve ever had!

Jarrod and Liam then headed back to stay with the Smees, while Abi and Tom wandered down to Tesco and Ross and I did another load of washing and were in bed asleep by 9pm!

Note: I was introduced to packing cubes before our last trip to Europe nine years ago, and it was life-changing. Earlier this year I discovered Lucent Globe environmentally friendly laundry detergent sheets. LIFE-changing. So easy to take overseas, clothes smell good and clean…I wonder if they need an influencer? 😉

Our Emirates flight left Hong Kong at 12.35am for Dubai, a 9 hour flight. Abi and I determined to sleep as much as possible and didn’t turn on the technology or open our books. Belle wasn’t quite as disciplined and didn’t get as much sleep as us.

Our 1.5 hour layover in Dubai ended up adding another hour sitting on the tarmac in the plane as our departure was delayed “due to paperwork”. It meant more time for in-flight movies, and was better being on the air-conditioned plane than in the warmer terminal. As we descended into Newcastle 7.5 hours later though and found it was 4 degrees, we almost missed the heat of Dubai! Almost….

Our accommodation check-in was scheduled for 4pm but we arrived in Newcastle at 1pm so requested earlier access, and sat at Starbucks at Newcastle airport while waiting for confirmation. While it’s only 13 hours’ difference on the clock between our HK departure and arrival here, we have actually been travelling 21 hours.

A 25 minute taxi ride later we found ourselves Quayside in the centre of Newcastle. The girls and I were able to shower, do some washing and then we headed out to explore the waterfront. The pubs look very English and inviting, but all had only male patrons, so we dined at the Hard Rock Cafe. We were there during happy hour so thought we should get our first wine of the trip – although we don’t intend to try to match the boys on their beer tour at all!

So many people were out and about, it was interesting grabbing snippets of their conversations – I feel like I’m in a Ted Lasso episode!

We then went to Tesco for some groceries and back to the apartment to await the boys’ arrival. Our meals had been so big we had boxed up the fries, and the boys tucked into them as they caught us up on their trip so far. Luke and Cooper have met the rest of their family in London, and we will see them next week.

Nine years ago today we arrived in HK on our way to Europe, and I messaged an old school friend who lived there to see if we could catch up. She was in Koh Samui at the time, so we couldn’t, but nine years later we are in the city at the same time.

We made the most of the late checkout time of 11am by sleeping in until 8am. I think Abi and I were both asleep before 10pm last night – it didn’t even bother us that Belle stayed up to watch Disney shows on the tv in our room. We packed and left our luggage with staff and took the free shuttle back to Disneyland. The train station is right at the entrance, and takes you one stop to Sunny Bay station, where you connect with other lines. Disneyland (probably not surprisingly) has one of the cleanest, most detailed platforms I’ve ever seen.

Alice was waiting for us at Hong Kong station and treated us to lunch at the American Club. Alice and I went to preschool together, and then our whole thirteen years of schooling, making her one of my longest known friends.

After lunch, Alice gave us some suggestions and directions and we walked down to and along Hong Kong Harbour. This was Abi’s city to research and we had to stop and assess how much we could fit in to the afternoon, so we stopped at Starbucks for a coffee and discussion.

We decided to skip seeing the Big Buddha on Lantau Island and instead head to Victoria Peak. We caught a public bus up, which was cheap ($2.50 each) but a long (45mins) bumpy trip! Once we looked around, we took the Peak Tram back down (8 mins). The Peak has some of the most expensive real estate in HK, but the fact there was only one lane up and down the side of a mountain, and bottlenecks in the traffic, gave me anxiety!

The Peak Tram was near the Zoological and Botanical Gardens, so we wandered through there before walking through the business district to get back into the train system. It appeared that Central Station was closest, but once we bought our tickets there, there was a LONG walk underground that brought us back to Hong Kong station – reminiscent of all the underground miles we had to walk in the Tokyo train system.

We made our way back to Disneyland to collect our luggage and head to the airport. Being there well before we needed to, the girls had time to explore some shops (where they bought me some Disneyland socks to say thankyou for our HK trip), and Belle even tried seaweed-seasoned McDonalds fries.

My left foot has remembered it is damaged so my ankle has swollen up and I am having trouble walking on it (and it is day 3 of 40 days 😩), so I appreciated the chance to elevate it (and ice it with McDonald’s ice 😂) while we waited for our 12.35am flight.

Our day started with breakfast in the Enchanted Forest cafe downstairs in the hotel at 8.15am. We didn’t book anything extra like a character meet & greet – even Belle feels too old now for that! But Mickey and Pluto roamed around the tables and were keen for photo opportunities. We then took a free shuttle bus to the park ready for its opening at 10am.

We started in “The World of Frozen” as it is the newest land and worked our way through all the other lands as well. All rides were only a 5, 10 or 20 minute wait. Abi kept a list of the rides we did in order (17), and we had time to choose our favourites to do again in the late afternoon – although by then the ride times were 20 – 40 minutes waits!

At 7pm we had trouble finding somewhere to sit and have dinner and queues for food were very long, and people were starting to claim areas to sit and wait for the 9pm fireworks (😳). We decided to pick one more favourite ride to re-do then intending to eat and leave before the crowds.

As the girls walked up to the entrance of their favourite rollercoaster for their last ride of the day, a young woman approached them and offered them her fast pass which was going to go to waste because she couldn’t use it. Instead of another 20minute wait to get on the ride, they walked straight through and rejoined me 6 minutes later!

The only restaurant with an available table on Main Street was The Corner Cafe. They had a set menu, but allowed the three of us to share the one meal. So after crab cake, margarita pizza and a Mickey waffle with icecream for dessert (which I struggled with only because it was served before the main), we headed back to the shuttle bus and were back in our hotel room ready for bed by the time the fireworks show would have begun.

It was Abi’s, Belle’s and my turn today – we were supposed to leave at 8am for an 11.15am flight to Hong Kong, but the flight was delayed three times (two of which we were still at home at least).

Isaac (and Millie!) dropped us to the airport, but I convinced him not to stay and therefore pay exorbitant parking fees…..which was a sensible idea until we had no one to take a photo of us before we went through Customs!

Check in and bag drop was DIY which was a bit stressful. I feel I have packed what I need but I haven’t packed well – knowing how many planes and trains are ahead of us, and having to pack a lot of layers, I have squashed a LOT into one suitcase and not taken a carry on. This is a decision I may appreciate often and regret more than once!

Belle was drug checked as we went through security (she is used to being “randomly” chosen), but needed an adult to be with her for the testing. Abi offered to as I was behind them in the security line, but the officer thought they were 16 year old twins and waited for me. Insult or compliment to Abi?!

We had a leisurely lunch at Sydney Airport and a look around the duty free shops, and I also had time to join the long line and get the GST refunded on my new watch. Our flight finally took off at 3.45pm and we used the time to catch up on movies we’ve been meaning to watch. I cried during Inside Out 2, enjoyed the Sydney backdrop in The Fall Guy, and dozed through IF, while the girls watched Harry Potter next to me and Abi reminded herself that Love Actually is problematic actually.

The flight was very smooth and our arrival at Hong Kong airport efficient. We caught a taxi to the Disneyland Resort because we were all too tired, which sadly used up the total small amount of HKD I had brought but immediately made me appreciate the decision to bring only one bag because the taxi charged 6HKD per bag.

We have finally climbed into our beds (which have little Mickey symbols all over the quilts) and it is 11.45pm – meaning it is 2.45am at home and we have been up and at it since 6.30am. Now to sleep so we can maximise our time at Disneyland tomorrow!

Group 1 left Sydney at 3.50pm on Friday. Ross, Jarrod, Sam, Tom, Luke and Cooper took 3 flights to reach Prague where they have checked in to their Airbnb and started their tour. They were arriving at 9.30am and hoping to be fresh and awake enough to hit the ground running.

Cooper had returned from his schoolies trip to Fiji the night before, so slept through much more of the flights than the others. Sam turned 18 while at the airport, and Jarrod sent us a photo of him in Abu Dhabi at 11.59pm on 6th December, saying it signified the end of his 31 hour birthday!

We have heard from them that they have arrived safely in Prague and are all excited for the reality of the many months of planning to begin. As for details of their days that are diary-worthy, I guess I will have to pester them to fill in the blanks later on!.

As part of our preparations, everyone chose a destination to research, and we met the weekend before departure to share a PowerPoint presentation on each location. Our plan is to repeat this when we return and present an updated PowerPoint of what we did in each place. “The cousins” (as Jess, Cooper and Oli are affectionately known) couldn’t believe that Aunty Nik was giving them a homework assignment for a holiday, but rose to the occasion excellently – Oli even had a section on coffee ordering in Rome just for me!