Getting ready!

Sophie was off to Birmingham this morning, to visit an exhibition, so Keith drove her down to the train station at about 7am while I took her car to work. My own car was going into the garage at Broughton to have the rear shock absorbers replaced so Dave (Keith's drinking buddy) was picking him up and taking him home. I just hoped that it would be ready by the evening otherwise we would be in trouble tomorrow!

Work was fine and it didn't seem as busy as Tuesday, thank goodness. I'd been receiving texts from Keith to say that Mike had been called for an interview with a landscaping firm but hadn't realised Keith didn't have the car today, so they'd had a row when he refused to call and re-arrange it... Why I needed to know that when I was at work, I don't know, but of course all I did was worry.

Sophie also kept in touch and said that she was able to finish earlier than she'd hoped and would be back in Northampton at about 3.30pm, perfect for me as I could go straight from work and pick her up.

It was great to finish at 3pm and dash off down to Northampton, where I had about a fifteen minute wait. Sophie emerged from the station with a suitcase and a bag full of goodies, including several pens, which we badly need at the moment!

We drove home and Keith said the car was ready so that was great. He agreed to go to Tesco and get dinner for tonight as well as some picnic items for tomorrow, while Sophie and I went to the post office to send out an eBay parcel. Rather than pre-pay for the postage, I just paid for it in the shop and it was remarkably easy and straightforward! We popped to see Mum and Dad before going home and they wished us "Bon Voyage"!

Back home I packed and made sure we had everything and Keith came home bearing bags of rolls, cooked meats and picnic foods which he prepared before dinner. We had a very early start in the morning and I Googled the directions to the apartment and opened an email from Jerome who said we had to text Natalie an hour before arriving in Wimereux so she could welcome us... I was rather hoping for a code to a key box, but there you go!

As tomorrow is Sophie's birthday and we didn't want to take her cards and presents to France, she opened them before dinner and was delighted with everything she received. It felt like today was her birthday!

Needless to say we all had an early night as tomorrow the alarm is set for 4.30am!