Weekend at Lizzy's

Last weekend I visited my best friend Lizzy who lives about 80miles away. Lizzy used to live in my village though and our mum's were very close friends so as I was growing up, Lizzy was always there. She's quite a bit older than me, so got married 9 years ago and then moved away with her husband, H. They've lived as far as 180miles away, but now live only an hour and a half's drive away. And they have an adorable 3 and a half year old daughter, M. I try to see them as often as I can, but because I don't drive and there isn't a direct train to the city where they live, I have to rely on mum or dad for lifts either the whole way there or to a train station that's on the right line.

On Saturday morning mum drove me to their house and we arrived there just before 11.30am. H was out at work. Mum stayed for lunch and we gave M some books and some play cutlery that we'd bought for her. Mum also took some photos of us and drew round M's feet so she can knit her some socks, before leaving. M is sooooo cute. She's really bright and want's to join in with all the adult conversations! She loves books, so I had to read loads to her while I was there, including the four new ones we'd given her several times each! And she challenged me to read her a Topsy and Tim book from the back to the front or upside down, lol :P And she's always asking 'why'. We went to their local library to find a DVD for us all to watch and eventually settled on Madagascar, which I like and M loved :D She was very funny with asking 'why' constantly and she also questioned everything in her picture books. And M is also constantly full of energy and kept asking me to chase her round the house. I had fun, but soon felt exhausted! We ate tea together (and I ate loads :D) when H returned from work and then I read M a story before she went to bed.

H is very very quiet and doesn't talk much at all. So once M had gone to bed, he disappeared upstairs to watch boxing by himself I think. So me and Lizzy chatted and played a very fast, but fun, card game called Ligretto. And of course we watched the X Factor and the Xtra Factor together :D No-one else in my family watches the X Factor, so I usually watch it alone in my bedroom. So it was great to watch it with Lizzy on Saturday :D She really made me laugh with her funny descriptions of some of the contestants, even the ones she liked. Do you know What-A-Mess, a dog featured in a series of picture books? Lizzy thought that Stacey looks a bit like What-A-Mess, do you agree?! Rachel was Lizzy's favourite, but she went out the previous week, so last weekend Lizzy's favourite was Stacey and my favourite was Joe. And while we were watching the TV we heard loads of fireworks outside, but M slept through them all :) I wasn't nocturnal that night, so I fell asleep at about 11.30pm after listening to my iPod for a little while.

I woke a few times during the night, but I suspect that was just because I was in a new place. And I got up at 8am, but M had already been awake for over an hour! We had breakfast (well, H was still in bed) and I then played with M and got her dressed while Lizzy did a bit of work. Lizzy and M then went to church and I just relaxed and watched the music channels on TV. I was planning to head home on the train that afternoon, but I had 2 options depending on how I felt. If I didn't feel too good, then Lizzy was going to run me to the station about midday to catch a train and then get the car back in time for H to take it to work. If I felt good then I was going to stay at their house into the afternoon and then order a taxi to the station. I felt exhausted though, so we had a really really quick lunch when Lizzy and M returned from church and then headed off to the station. We set off from their house at 12pm and my train was due to go at 12.15pm. It was about a 10min journey to the station, so we were cutting it fine. Then we got stuck at traffic lights right outside the station! I just made it though and had time to say goodbye to Lizzy and M before boarding my train. The train took an hour and 20mins and so I met Dad off the train at about 1.45pm. He then drove home and I got in at about 2.15pm.

I had a great, but tiring, weekend. When I got home I missed Lizzy and M, but it was nice to be home again