Road trip

Today was a day of firsts for Tom: First long trip in the car (300 miles or so), first night away from home, first trip to
the seaside...

We were on the road by 7.30 and managed to get all the way to Hayling Island in under 3 hours, only having to stop once to give His Lordship a break. First stop was Tom's Great-Great-Auntie Joy, after whose late husband Tom acquired his middle name. We had a lovely time there, and even took Tom for a stroll down to the beach for his first taste of the seaside. It was a glorious day and the beach was more or less empty. He was apparently a bit unsure of the sea, but he's usually slightly reticent with new things. We were very impressed that Joy, at the age of 85, is heading to Kenya later this month to revisit some of the places she and Leslie lived in the 1950s. Good on her. I hope I'm still travelling far and wide at that age.

After lunch at a pub full of grumpy sour-faced people, we headed east along to the south coast

to visit Tom's great-grandmother, aged 92. She was absolutely thrilled and a little teary when she saw Tom. It got me going as well, very touching. Given that she slipped into a coma just before Tom was born, today's visit had extra significance as we thought they might never meet. She's a tough old lady, though, and announced that she "wasn't ready to go yet" when she emerged from the coma.

We then managed the final leg of the journey up to London, again without any hold-ups. Nik and I were absolutely shattered when we arrived; we're just not used to long drives any more. Tom had his bath and bottle as usual, and then settled down for a long sleep. We had lamb shanks and red wine, which really hit the spot. Thence to bed for what we hoped would also be a long sleep.