Premier Inn offer a good night guarantee but I can't say I slept well at all. I lay awake worrying about Sophie getting home and then I woke at 5.30am to music coming from somewhere - it sounded like a disco! I opened the window in my room and managed to get back to sleep until someone started throwing rubbish into the skips opposite...and then the trains started! Hmmm!
When my alarm went off at 7.15am I felt muzzy headed and very tired. Hoping that a brisk shower would wake me up, I discovered that I didn't have any hot water! I persevered and after what seemed like an age, I did have some hot water, but it certainly wasn't boiling!
We did have a very good breakfast, though, which more than made up for the disturbed night's sleep. I never sleep well away from home anyway, and after a couple of coffees I felt much better. I enjoyed granola with lots of fruit and then a full English which set me up for the day! The sun was shining and the traffic on the M2 was very light so we made good time back to Dartford. We met my uncle at the flat and then made our way into the town to the library to register Nan's death.
While Mum, Dad and my uncle were in with the registrar I browsed the Local History section of the library looking for interesting books about Dartford and the surrounding villages, and hoping to get little bits of information for research on my family tree. There were several people using the computers in that section and one of them was very strange indeed - he looked like a tramp and wore a battered pink straw hat. He was looking at some very dodgy websites, all about anarchy, and in light of the terrible events in Woolwich yesterday, with the sickening murder of a soldier, it made me feel very uneasy indeed. I only hope that he was a harmless eccentric...
After the registration, we headed back to the flat to try and get Nan's sofa and chairs into the back of the Mondeo to take to the local tip. I did feel sorry for my Dad and my uncle as it was hard job and neither of them are young anymore, both being in their 70s! They made four trips to the skip with the furniture that nobody wanted and then I went on my own with eight black bags of bedding and towels that Nan had collected over the years and hadn't ever cleared out. It was heartbreaking to see her things ending up in a huge container but what else could we do with her stuff? We already had a huge pile of things to take back home with us and we weren't really sure that it was going to all fit in the car!
We were finally finished by 4pm and it was very sad to see the flat looking so empty and forlorn. It's made me realise that memories and experiences are far more important than "stuff" and I'm going to make sure that I do as much as I can before I die rather than waste money on rubbish.
We filled the Mondeo up completely with all Nan's stuff and headed thankfully home. My Mum was much better than I thought she would be (I did think she would be very emotional and upset) and it was lovely to have some of Nan's special things with us such as photos and some precious bits of jewellery.
We had a slow journey home and it was bliss to see Keith and the children again and have a very large Vodka and tonic with a roast dinner!
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