The Ex-pat community in Shanghai appears to evaporate during the Summer school holidays. Once we realized that Isabelle & Oliver’s friends would all be in their various home countries for 2 months, and that I had a huge amount of travel for work during July, we decided that the UK might be a better place to be for an extended time.
On July 9th Owen, Isabelle and Oliver flew to London for 5 weeks of British living. The plan included me meeting them at the beginning of the August for a week of sanity before returning to China.
Owen, Isabelle and Oliver started at Grandma and Grandad’s. While there they surprised Owen’s Grannie at her 95th birthday celebration – she was thrilled! It was off to Auntie Kim for a few days before heading to Owen’s Mum and Stepdad’s house in Wales. A lovely week was spent there with several days at the beach.
Fun at the Beach in Wales! Fantastic boat built by Daddy.
Auntie Kim joined them in Wales too for more fun at the beach and with family. They were lucky with the weather and had some gorgeous sunshine:
Chilling at the beach in Wales
On the way back to Grandma and Grandad’s, they stopped off at Peter & Emma’s. Isabelle and Oliver love playing with their cousins, Maeve and Oscar, especially because when the weather is so good and they could enjoy huge ice-creams.
The boys getting mucky
The girls getting sticky
Once back at G&G’s, it was days out at the park, feeding the ducks and shopping – some normal British things to do in the summer. They visited good friends John & Andrea and their kids and also Sandra & Mark and their kids, but other than that it was time to relax a little.
I missed them all dreadfully. I have not been apart from my children for that long before and I do not want to do it again.
osiochina 