Just to finish off the holiday update...it seems so long ago now...after a fab time with Chris and Chantal, we headed to my Mum and Dad's place in Brownhills, which is just north of Birmingham. They have a big old house with an enormous garden containing fruit trees, vegetable plots, polly-tunnels, huge sheds, chickens, geese and all other such strange and adventurous things for Sid and Seb to get amazed and excited about.The thing they got most excited about though was Mum and Dad's caravan - had they had the chance they would have spent the whole holiday in there and if truth were told they'd be there to this day!!
When we got there we made our running plans official and promptly headed off towards Chasewater (the lake where I learnt to sail in my younger years) - Shilpa and Dad did a 5k loop of the lake and I ran from home, around the reservoir and back again - 10k.
We did loads of running around Chasewater and also a national forestry reserve called Cannock Chase which was gorgeous. I even extended a Chasewater run to a 20k jaunt around my old stomping grounds - very nostalgic!
We managed to fit an amazing amount into our trip to the "ancestors", not least were two magnificent pub lunches (one by a canal with locks and longboats - see photos), and a fabulous fine-dining Indian Dinner (although the boys reaped havoc in all of these venues - I'm not sure the conservative English are used to kids being at smart restaurants and throwing wobblies - not sure Mum and Dad were either but they were very nice about it). We also managed a Chinese takeaway one day and a few pints of Bank's Mild (my favourite) one evening before dinner.
On top of that Mum had bought what seemed to be the entire contents of Tesco's to make sure that Shilpa and I and more particularly Seb and Sid had whatever was their hearts desire to eat - I think Mum and Dad are going to be eating veggie food for a long time to come.
I even got in two games of golf on a local pitch and putt course with Dad (Dave Clenton, a very dear family friend joined us for one of the games - thanks for the awful jokes Dave - they'll keep me going for a while). Ice-cream afterwards too - just like when I was a lad. On another day we went to Drayton Manor Park (containing Thomasland of course) where we met Michael (see photo), Aneke and their kids (Michael and I grew up together and our families have been friends long before either of us were born). An obligatory day shopping was also had at the Bull Ring Shopping Centre in Birmingham.
All too soon the holiday came to an end and Dad drove us down to Heathrow Airport, I'd decided to take my windsurfer back with me too, so he kindly waited around until we'd successfully checked that in (if they hadn't allowed it then it would have had to go back to Brownhills) - [I'm waiting for a suitably windy day now to go and blow out the cobwebs]. Dad then had to drive all the way back by himself as there was no room for Mum to come too - Thanks for that Dad.
In fact this was a theme of our holiday family and friends really going the full 9 yards to look after us and make our holiday truly fantastic.
Mum and Dad it was just so lovely to have spent that time with you and we can't thank you enough for all the things that you had done in advance, and did while we were there, to make our stay so perfect - THANKS, THANKS, THANKS.
Finally, finally, I had hoped to finish my 300k target before I left the UK and I ran twice most days but with an amazing and action packed trip I ended up 29k short of my target. Not to worry I still had Saturday evening once we'd landed and Sunday morning to complete the three week target. Shilpa and I ran when we got home which was really refreshing and then I slogged around a 25k the next morning – oo-aaggh-ouch - MADE IT - 302k/3wks.
Not only that but Shilpa had also completed in excess of 100k during the 3 weeks which is a great achievement for her too (and she continues pushing the limits still futher - watch this space).
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