Home for Christmas

Well hopefully. I have a worst travel record than the captain of The Titanic. BA managed to get the Bermuda flight into Gatwick this morning, a feat I hope it can repeat on Wednesday night.

Once landed on Thursday morning we will drive the relative hop into Kent to pick up my son, that’s if two junctions along the M25 can be considered a hop? We then travel up into Oxfordshire to decamp at my defacto sister-in-law’s until Boxing Day. Snow is expected in the Wallingford area, which is where all my other half’s family (within a 5 mile radius) live.

I have always loved Christmas Eve. Whether it was standing on tip-toes on my parents landing for hours looking up into the sky to spot Santa before being forced to bed, or out drinking with my mates, or wrapping presents for kids, it has always held an real sense of excitement for me. 

Amongst my other half’s family on Christmas Eve, it is customary to mix some funky cocktails at home before joining up with the local torchlight parade, followed by a bit of carol singing and then head to the welcoming sanctuary of the local pub. Country pubs, like a proper chicken madras should always form part of my trips back home. 

Christmas Day we are at my brother-in-laws, yes still defacto. On the plus side is that they have this ruddy huge house, where kids, dogs and cats run riot but that is cancelled out by the fact his wife is nowhere near as good a cook as my other half’s sister.

On Boxing Day we make the long journey down to my parents in East Sussex. The drive will coincide with the Southampton game, if on. Here we will share our 2nd Christmas of gift swapping and eating like we’ve never seen a turkey and pickle sandwich before, although I do hope my Mum has got a Terry’s Chocolate Orange in as I’ve been craving one for weeks.

We are at my parents for a few days, which will be nice although a visit to Portsmouth to see some of my other half’s relatives is a possibility. The day we play Brighton, which is an easy drive from my parents along the A27, we are expected at my brothers, who has just moved into a new place in Shoreditch. Again shocking planning, especially as a good Brighton mate of mine would have got my son and I a ticket.

We’ll looking forward to seeing my brother though and he and his girlfriend will look after us for a night before we head out to the wilds of Essex for the rest of our trip. First stop is Shenfield, where we will spend New Years Eve before another stopover in Gidea Park for New Years Day to see friends who left Bermuda less than a month ago.

New Years Day does represent the best chance I have of seeing the Addicks in the flesh. Colchester is less than an hour by car. Of course if I really wanted to, subject to it all kicking off and living in the dog house over the festive season, I could probably get to all three games but whether it is priorities or a general malaise I give myself a 20% chance of seeing one game, particularly knowing that the weather will be a real hindrance. 

So 10 nights, 5, towns, 5 beds, hundreds of miles. Like a Deep Purple concert without the rock ‘n roll!

Meanwhile our house has been like a doctors surgery this past weekend, with my two girls ill. Hopefully they can get better, the weather behaves and we can get home for Christmas.