Saturday in Abergavenny

Posted on 2012/11/19 21:26:09 (November 2012).

[Saturday 17th November 2012]
Although quite a lot of my family had been to London to meet Erika, Vera doesn't really feel up to those sorts of long journeys any more, and so the South Wales contingent were yet to meet her. We'd wanted to go much earlier but had found the thought of the journey - with Erika - pretty daunting ourselves. It wasn't just a case of managing the logistics of getting on and off trains with all the additional luggage babies necessitate, but in addition she still needs to feed every two hours, and until recently had often been quite gripey between feeds. The thought of all the looks from a tightly packed carriage of fellow passengers as we tried to calm a screaming baby had definitely put us off until now. However, our trial run as far as Reading two weeks ago had gone pretty well, the gripe situation is much better than it was, and overall we're just a lot more confident and relaxed about being in charge of a baby in public. So we decided now was the time to make the trip, and have Erika meet the rest of my family.

The journey had all been pretty well planned - I'd ended up phoning First Great Western to book specific seats, near the disabled loo, where there was a bit more space (and I'd assumed it would be easier if we needed to change a nappy onboard). We'd gone back and forth on whether or not to take the buggy, but in the end decided to just go with the baby bjorn and her car seat, and that all worked out really well. We got a taxi to Paddington, the taxi driver (who had three kids of his own) was a very nice man, and shared with us some of his parenting wisdom. The train journey from London to Newport was fine really - it was pretty full, and we only had two booked seats, so as Erika occupied one in her car seat, me and Chie had to take turns to sit in the other one - but there were some of those little fold down seats nearby that we used instead. Erika only really got a bit grumbly when we changed trains at Newport station - which, if you've ever been to Newport station, you can probably sympathise with.

Robin met us at the station, and we then had a quiet but lovely afternoon and evening at Vera and Robin's house, with plenty of time for Erika to get to know her great uncle and great grandmother.

I'm very pleased to report that Vera, who turned 93 in August, is still in fine form - Robin popped out to do a bit of shopping just before dinner, and as he was leaving suggested to Vera, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, that if she wanted to lend a hand she could peel some sprouts. Vera replied wryly that she wouldn't be able to do that as she was busy looking after the baby.

Post a comment