30 April 2018
We were aiming to leave the house around 10:00, so we had plenty of time to cruise up to Folkestone for Le Shuttle at 16:20, but the best laid plans…. It all started badly when I broke a tooth on Sunday night, trying to retrieve some paper that had stuck in the shredder (yes, really, what was I thinking?!). I turned up at my dentist’s surgery in Exeter at 08:30, desperately hoping she could fix it. Typically, they had had a power cut, and she had four back-to-back patients first thing. However, I cannot believe that she managed to squeeze me in, and by 09:45, I was heading home again, with a happy smile!
Ian had done a great job of starting to pack up the van, but there was still lots to do. Cornelia was in her Christmas dress (WTF?!) with her pyjamas underneath. At least, she’d had breakfast…. Anyway, I managed to get our stuff packed and out to Bluebell for Ian to stack. We had a last hour-long sweep around the house, trying to make it look half-decent for Emma, our housesitter, who was moving in later that day, and finally we were on our way. Just over two hours behind schedule…
Even with Ian driving, we couldn’t make up that lost time, and arrived at Folkestone after our allocated check-in time, so we were put on the next available train, which unfortunately happened to be 20:50. We thought we could wait it out quite easily, so settled into some chairs and ordered some supper. We found a kids’ play area, so Cornelia was happy enough, until I accidentally whacked her in the face with a toy I was putting away – split her little nose open on the bridge – and she was understandably upset. But she’s a brave toddler, and recovered surprisingly quickly, reassuring me that “I’m okay now, Mummy, I don’t think it hurts anymore.”
ANYWAY, Ian went to check the departures again, only to discover that our train was going to be delayed by three hours, meaning we wouldn’t arrive in Calais until 1am. We decided pretty quickly to book into the Holiday Inn around the corner, and bought new tickets for Tuesday. We whizzed off to the hotel, and settled down for the night, once Cornelia had exhausted herself bouncing from her sofa bed onto our bed!
1 May 2018
YES! I pinch-punched Ian at about 3am… That’s every month this year so far, which makes a nice change to the last fourteen years! Bugsy slept until nearly 08:00. so we both had time for a relaxing shower before we all went off for breakfast. A bargain really – £69 for the three of us, including breakfast. Cornelia noted that the bathroom door, which closed in two directions, so that it acted as a separate door for the loo, looked like a “kissing door”. What an intelligent observation! Love it when she comes out with things like that.
It was a five minute drive to the Eurotunnel entrance and we were loaded onto the train without any problems, and thirty-five minutes later, we were in French France at last!
Cornelia's adventures around the world 