day six - that's all, folks!

... and that's it, we're on our way home. I'm writing this from gate at Gatwick Airport.

Today's excursion to Thorpe Park was awesome. The children had a blast and the adults got a little downtime, which was very much appreciated. There's really not much to say about it, to be honest.

Today was also the first day where we really didn't have any major traffic issues, and if anything, we were at Gatwick a little too early. Having said that, the praise for the behaviour of the children has been unanimous, unstinting and from a wide selection of independent observers.
"This lot are really well-behaved"; "you are a credit to yourselves" "these are really well-behaved" are just three quotes from today.

I think you should be proud, as should the children. There have been no major issues whatsoever, they have been without fail where they were supposed to be when they were supposed to be there, and have accepted uncomplainingly serious delays during the week. The lateness thing: at Thorpe Park, we'd arranged to meet and two minutes beforehand, the children were running to be on time! The strongest reminders all week have been for them to remember their seat belts in the bus...

Looking forward to the first cold beer in a week when I'm home in a few hours!

I'll be adding pictures when I've processed a couple; I have shots of several people on the rides at the park, but I'm not sure how much of that you really want to see!

At this point, I'd also like to extend our thanks to those who have enabled this trip to happen in the first place. Heather - you're a star! Thank you very much for your tireless commentary on our destinations and perennial good humour, despite our many, many issues with traffic delaying us.
Gordon and Keith - thanks for putting up with the inane beeps and general high-pitched chatter from the back of the bus.
The families and the rest of the putting-up organisation in Abingdon: I have heard nothing but good feedback about host families, and lots of thoughts on how things are different here, which is a very good thing. Thank you.

Then there's the other parents; Anne and Eeva - this has run so smoothly also because we've taken time out to do this. And I hope you've enjoyed visiting the land of my birth!

Additional gratitude should also be extended to Pekka and Pauliina for driving this over so many months and enabling it to take place at all. Thanks!

Signing off,

 - Bret