We've had a busy weekend

I know I've been pretty quiet for a few days, the reason being is I've not actually been here, I took J. to his grandma's for the weekend, some R&R time for me, and for him too. Away from the strain of it all.

The other kids need a break from time to time as much as I do.

We had a lovely time, we wandered round a couple of shops on the Saturday, looking for new shoes for J. appears we may get a couple of weeks wear out of his current ones, so we then went to Wilkinson's and stocked up on paper and pens.

Then we went to have lunch in a fish and chip shop, the food was wonderful, even better for not having had to cook it myself, J. can be a picky eater, he doesn't like potato's very much, isn't that keen on meat either, but polished his plate, and finished with ice-cream and a big smile.

When we'd eaten, we got in the car and drove to Ludborough to the Lincolnshire Wolds Railway
My dad is heavily involved as is my nephew, when we got there they were laying track. But it was nice up there, and J. enoyed wandering round the steam trains, and would like to go every weekend.

Unfortunatly it's too far from where we live.......sometimes I think it would be nice to move back up that way to be nearer my family.........but then I spent most of my childhood not being able to wait to get out of there. So I'm realistic enough to know I would never settle, and DH certainly wouldn't.

We did look into moving a few years back, when I was pregnant with the youngest, put our house on the market, sold it and found a fabulous 4 bedroom house with potential, just down the road from my Mum. Had the whole selling process not taken so long I probably would have moved, but the details on the house we were buying took so long, and it got so close to little one's due-date that I got cold feet, call it hormones call it what you wish, but I couldn't go through with it. So we backed out.

Looking back, I loved the house, if only we could afford something like that here, but I'm not sure any of us would really have settled, DH would have stayed here, until he could get a transfer, and policing round there is very different. From what I hear from my Mum the whole area is going down-hill and fast. It's violent, lots of trouble on a Saturday night etc, jobs are in short supply, there is very little for the young ones to do, unless you count the beach, which is ok, until they get too old for sandcastle's.

Ok so I may sound like a right snob, but to be honest I think the kids probably have a better future, 30 miles outside of London, than 200 miles away. It isn't perfect around here, I'm not pretending it is, and there are some less than nice people who live around here, but it is very different here than in my home town, and given a choice between the two........I think we'll stick to here.

It is lovely to go back and visit, and we love spending time up there in the summer, far more for the kids to do with the beach etc, but I lay awake at night up there. My Mum has been burgled more times than I care to think about, I've had car windows put in up there, they didn't take anything, just put the window in. At least here I can sleep at night without worrying.