We met up with Pamela and we headed down to the Wednesday market where Lou bought some makeup from an amazingly cheap stall. We were running late so we raced home and packed all our gear into the car and sped off to Lichfield for our rendezvous with Uncle Peter. We had decided that we would get there earlier so we could look around Lichfield cathedral first and we arrived with a good half an hour to spare.
We walked through the narrow Vicar’s Close to the beautifully quiet rectangular garden surrounded by Tudor style houses that have been warped by time. We continued through another alleyway to a secluded herb garden at the back of the house of Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather of evolution (or Charles Darwin, whichever you prefer). We walked back to the cathedral and had a quick walk around the inside before Uncle Peter arrived and met us inside. We also checked up on our old friend Bishop Selwyn who was still there.
We all had a coffee across the road before heading down into the old streets of Lichfield. There was a market on nearby so there were a lot of people wandering around. Lou nipped down to the Boots chemist and bought some Mediset for Will and then John and Peter headed off to Peter’s car while Pamela, Lou, Will and I walked back towards John’s car. On the way we passed the Garden of Remembrance where the ashes of Pamela, Peter and Dad’s Mother had been scattered.
We swapped our gear over and sadly bid farewell to Pamela and John. We let Will run around on the grass a bit before we hopped in the car bound for Derby. Will fell asleep in the car not far away from Darley Abbey so when we arrived at Peter and Lynn’s house we transferred Will and his carseat to the dining room where he could get more sleep.
As Will slept, Lorna, Craig, Layla and Seth (the Coles) arrived followed shortly after by Rob and Lucy. Imagine Will’s surprise when he woke up in a new house with all these new faces! He did very well actually and it wasn’t long before Layla was showing him around and he was ‘sharing’ toys with Seth who is going through a hitting phase albeit very soft. Everyone stayed for dinner and we chatted for a while before the Coles went home. Craig was quite anxious about starting his new job back in uniform, this time as a police sergeant! We were treated to an impromptu dance recital from Layla which Will decided to join in on.
I had suggested that we go out for a movie one night and Rob agreed saying that tonight was a 2 for 1 night at the local cinema. They had seen Transformers (unfortunately because I couldn’t wait to see it) so we settled upon the latest in the Die Hard series; Die Hard 4.0. We were running a bit late but Rob’s expert driving made sure that we didn’t miss the start of the film. The movie was an entertaining piece of high octane action and explosions – completely unbelievable but that’s what we’ve come to know and love about Die Hard movies. Rob and Lucy dropped us back at Pete and Lynn’s before heading home themselves.