The weather Gods continue to shine on us. After 4 crisp clear days in London, the wind and rain set in on Monday. Trains were cancelled, flights from London were questionable and there was plenty of concern that the locals wouldn’t make it home for Christmas. In Brisbane I believe the news was saturated with stories of horrific flooding and major loss of power – thankfully that wasn’t anywhere nearby.
For us, the timing couldn’t have been better! This was always going to be a day in the car as we headed North to Derby, so at least we didn’t waste any sunshine on it.
Once we got out of London, traffic was clear and I think the trip took under 4 hours. It was very exciting to see the signs to Nottingham, Derby and the Centre-of-the-Universe, aka Ilkeston according to those that live there.
As we got closer, it was surprising how familiar things were, and I suspect Andrew could have made it to Heanor without the Sat Nav. It was nice to find Heanor just as I remembered it – the only obvious changes in the past 10 years are the new McDonalds and KFC but I’m not sure if that’s classed as progress.
The rest of the day was spent with the true highlights of our trip… family. We’re so lucky that they all live close, so by the end of the day we’d touched base with many of them – so great to see Gran, Kate & Jeff, Evie, Andree & Richard, Peter, Lucy & Paul. These are the things you really miss when you live on the other side of the world.
We’re staying with Evie in a little village called ‘South Wingfield’ – a very pretty spot in the Derby countryside. They don’t build them like this in Brisbane!
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