Half term diary

Me and Jack

Tristram with his nephew and namesake

Jack Rockwell Johnson on the day of his blessing

For a while now something i have wanted to do is travel around the country and just visit everyone i know, so over half term that's what we decided to do. We went in a clockwise direction, so started off by visiting the north east. Darlington was our first stop. It was so good to be in the north east for the big derby match, which we won of course, and the fact that i got to watch it almost live was a real bonus. It was really good to spend time with my parents, walk around town and visit my old ward. There are a couple of people who i would've liked to see that i didn't get to, although not through lack of trying. Next we moved on to Billingham and Middlesbrough, where Tristram got to spend time with two of his closest friends from growing up, his dad and his entire step family, who are all really nice. We spent our evenings there playing pool and going to the Billingham ward Trunk n Treat, which is always fun. On Wednesday we made our way south. It was a frustrating day, as one wrong decision on the journey led to a more than three hour delay and a detour through Chesterfield, but at least we got to see the famous spire. After eight hours of travelling we finally arrived at Giles and Beth's house, where we got to see our new nephew Jack for the first time, he was so lovely too. Over the next three days we went on walks, played on the trampoline a lot, played with our nieces, watched films, got ready for Halloween and the blessing and generally just had a good, relaxing time. Friday night was the Farnborough ward Halloween party, which was a lot of fun. The most interesting activity was the eating game which involved the team having to eat a packet of crackers and a tub of icecream between them, and for those who wanted to earn bonus points there were also raw eggs and spoonfuls of maggots to be eaten. There was also a quiz, sweet making and various other activities, and there were very good costumes too. On Saturday afternoon the rest of the family started to arrive, so we decided to give them some space and went to the Toomeys house for the night, which was fun. We talked a lot, had a good meal and I got to see them whole family at various points throughout the night, some of them for the first time in three years, but watching match of the day with the boys was quite an experience. A good one though. On Sunday we got to witness the blessing of Jack which was really nice, and great to see Tritram involved. Afterwards we went back to the house for some food and a birthday party for one of our other neices Carmella who was celebrating her 4th birthday on the same day. It's so sweet seeing all the little cousins together, they're all so cute and love each other so much, it' great. Over all it was a really good week and I'm so glad I got to see and spend time with so many different friends and family, especially those we don't get to see very often, and it was the cheapest kind of holiday to have!