Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear

A roller coaster few days.....

Everything was going swimmingly. We had planned everything so that we only had a final few tasks and 10 days to finish them, leaving us plenty of time to g0 to Welshpool to visit Grandma and the Brooksies, relax in St Albans and then go to Silkstone.

On Wednesday, all was going to plan and we headed into London to have a few drinks with friends in Islington. Drunken photos will be posted on the website soon.

But then, the Thursday of doom struck. A computer virus hit our laptop threatening all of the documents which we had carefully scanned and filed for our trip, including copies of letters of invitation etc etc. And yes, we had backed it up, but the back up became infected too. The next 3 days involved approximately 8 hours in PC World (mainly pacing up and down but not acheiving very much); lots and lots of panicking; what felt like a million phone calls and attempts to rescue data; lots of expense; and a bit more panicking. The upshot was that we ended up having to get a completely new laptop yesterday, before getting Jase from SwitchSupport to come to Silkstone to save us by cleaning the virus from all our data.

Our stressful couple of days was somewhat alleviated by a very nice family dinner at St Michael's Mount in St Albans. We said goodbye to Michael's family on Friday evening, but we weren't leaving completely as now (with only two days to go) Michael has to drive back down the M1 tomorrow morning to St Albans to collect a few forgotten items.

Some of Helen's family came over to Silkstone to visit yesterday and worryingly reminded us of just how cramped the van really is...... three small children and it is full. Photos of that to follow on the website soon. Hello to Bradley, Corey and Mason - hope that you have managed to log on as you promised. And big kisses to Auntie Susan too.

Now into final preparations for departure on Tuesday. Feeling a bit better now that we have got some of the final bits and pieces done (fuelled by BJ's Yorkshire puddings tonight).

Note from Helen:
Don't worry, Auntie Jenny, Michael has no more races left now, so maybe I'll get some help with it all for once......