I hate bloody comic relief, I hate red sodding noses, Lenny Henry and Ben Elton I could happily slap. However this year they have actually come up with something non annoying and very cool. A Charlie and Lola Comic Relief book!! Bug is now an expert on Fairtrade and wants to buy everything that African farmers produce 
Buy it from Amazon here
I’m such a sucker for stories like this. Tigers and orangutans being friends, of course the tigers will want to eat them soon - but how cute are the pictures?
Well we’ve been back nearly a week now, and I’ve finally had time to sit down and write about our trip. Stansted is just such a hole of an airport, it need extending and developing soon. Maybe it’s the open plan layout of the building but it just felt that the whole place was heaving with people. A good example of how badly the place is layed out was the ladies toilets all 6 cubicals in the departures lounge - amazing!
The contrast between Stansted and the newly opened Cork airport was just depressing. Cork once a shack on the runway when I was a kid, is now all glass and wood - like some of the nicer US airports. Also they have the *best* motorways in Ireland curtesty of the EU, the one between Cork and Dublin and we saw a whole 4 cars on it! Why on earth can’t they get money from the EU to upgrade the A14?!?!?!?!
Anyway enough of being mean about Stansted, we had a great time in Ireland. Bug was brilliant on the flight, she just loved flying. It was magical to see the enjoyment on her face at takeoff, we are now confident that we can finally do a transatlantic flight with her - yea!!!!
Ballyvolane House was just gorgeous, we worked out that the room we were in was the size of our house - I wish I was joking it was massive!! At some point I’ll get the photos off my phone and post them. But the room was painted the most lovely shade of grey, which worked really well with light coming in from the massive windows. But they had laid out a single bed for Bug along side our bed, which was sweet.
If you have ever stayed in a hotel room you know what a nightmare it is with kids, but at Ballyvolane, having kids themselves they had thought of everything. There was a tray with homemade chocolate cookies and the very best homemade blackcurrent cordial I have ever tasted - poor Bug didn’t get much of either after PG and I discovered them.
But the main purpose of the trip was to visit my Nan, she’s 94 going on 18 and it was just lovely to watch her and Bug meet for the first time. Essentially they are the same person with 90 years between them, they even look alike to the point of scary I’ll post the pictures later, but they were very cute together.
I hate saying goodbye to my Nan, it always feels like the last time I’ll see her and I try to remember as much as I can about her. But I have had the luxury of knowing her as an adult, which is more than I did with my other Nan, which I really regret.
However it was nice to get home, away from the mad Irish drivers, we nearly got killed by a maniac in a tractor who decided it would be a good idea to drive over our car - thankfully PG reversed out of the way at the last minute!
However Bug has now developed chickenpox, but she’s ok - spotty and hot but otherwise good.
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