Sunday: Flights and Flying Things

H decided to cook pancakes for brunch this morning, which turned into a slightly loud but fun family meal, with a fair amount of amicable teasing. Yet again, I am counting my blessings that we got to spend lockdown with these girls (and for part of the time, boy). There have been grouchy days and hangry moments (H and I are the main culprits there!), and a teen who isn't currently doing mornings, but overall we have enjoyed each others company and I am grateful that we have young adult and teenage daughters who value their family and are happy to spend time with us.

After the pancakes M and I went for a four mile walk in a different area. We drove to a village a few miles away and walked a circular route to another village and back. On the return section I managed to get some nice photographs of a damselfly (common blue) and two butterflies (small white and small tortoiseshell) so I am adding those here - I'm pleased with them because catching small fluttering things with an iPhone is tricky! It was pleasant walking (apart from a couple of small sections with a few too many brambles and nettles) with some good scenery - I'll post some more pictures over the next day or so. Definitely a walk we will do again.

By the time we got back H and her BF had gone out for a walk of their own, and they then went back to his house for a BBQ. I did some menu planning and updated the grocery order for Tuesday, then spent a bit of time in the garden reading until it got too chilly in the wind. I also did some more travel rearranging. I had intended to take N to Paris for a couple of days during May, and had Eurostar train tickets and a hotel booked, both of which had left me with credits. We were supposed to be going to Italy later in July, and I had been given refunds for cancelled outwards flights, but the return flight still (so far) appears to be running, which means my only option for that was to alter the flights for a future trip with the same airline. We had talked about trying to do a short trip to Disneyland Paris over the winter as a small compensation for missing out on Disney World, and towards the end of last week a plan came together - use the Eurostar and hotel credits for me to take TG out to Paris for a couple of days during half term week in February, then meet H at Disneyland Paris on the Friday and spend the weekend there; the final piece of the jigsaw was to swap the unusable Italy flights for late flights back from Paris to our local airport on Sunday evening. H will not know until she starts her job in September whether or not she will be able to get the Friday off. If she can, there is an early flight that will get her to DLP by mid-morning, if not she will catch up with us on Friday evening.

Then ... the best bit! Staying in the 5* Disneyland Hotel - the iconic but expensive one at the entrance to the park - has been on our bucket list for some time. We priced it and the exact dates we wanted were significantly cheaper than the days either side; so much cheaper that if I deducted the value of the included meal package, it was cheaper for those dates than both the 3* and 4* Disney hotels.  I have read through the arrangements DLP are making for when they reopen in a couple of weeks, and everything seems pretty well set up, with limited numbers, compulsory face masks and social distancing. Hopefully there will be less need for restrictions by February as the situation seems to be reasonably under control in France, but I'm optimistic that even with same precautions we would feel safe and have a good time. So - I booked! And this morning I managed to sort out rearranging the flights, which is as far as I can get for now as Eurostar tickets for the dates we want won't be available for a while yet. 

In the evening M and I watched a documentary about triplets who were adopted separately and then found each other. It turned out they, along with several sets of twins, had been deliberately split up so their development could be monitored for a child development study which ran through the 1960s and 70s. Ethically awful, with all sorts of repercussions, and thankfully not something that would be contemplated now.