206: Bristol 2012 – Day One

Having pretty much counted the days down (for 4 weeks!) to our holiday – it finally arrived!!

We set off about 9am toward Milton Keynes. Chris has a particular route that he takes when driving to Soul Survivor goes via Milton Keynes and then onto Buckingham.

Before leaving Bedford me and Our Sidekick got lunch from The Fountain and three drinks for the journey (I think it also puts Chris’s mind at rest about leaving for a week).

So having got lunch and heading towards MK. We decide that we’ll stop at Asda to get some petrol (It’s one of those strange things. If it’s en route to wherever we’re going even with a detour towards Bletchley for Asda and Ikea it’s still cheaper for the fuel. So given the route we were taking from Bedford to Bristol it made sense to fill up at MK rather than fill up at our local supermarket in Bedford.) We also had to stop off to get some bits for Chris. He’s attempting a gluten free diet as he’s not been feeling 100% and having chatted to the GP it’s the first thing he’s going to try. I keep joking about how he’s going to explode if he eats gluten by mistake lol.

As we pulled into Asda car park, me and Chris somehow started talking about Ikea breakfasts and how a fry up would just properly kick off our holiday – did you use to stop at Little Chef when heading on holiday (or on the way home at the end of the holiday) or was that just my family that did that?

We decided to grab a breakfast if they were still serving (they literally turned off the hot lamps as we were being served!!) I had bacon, sausage, two hash browns, beans and omelette. I also had potato scone. Because of Chris’s diet and Our Sidekick’s preferences we swapped and changed so I ended up with an extra sausage.

We then headed back to the car via Asda, the problem with three people in a store that big is that you can lose each other really easily.

I got a pack of two glues sticks to carry on with Our Sidekick’s journal (in theory this was supposed to be started in October when he moved in with us on a longer basis to record all the good times and the adventures that we’ve had).

Following shopping we got on the road. I ended up doing most of the driving yesterday which was okay but I was exhausted by the time we got to Bristol and the boys all had way to much energy to throw around! We found our hotel, they have enough parking for a drop off slot of about half an hour you then have to move your car to the local multi storey which serves Cabot Circus which is a big shopping centre.

After dropping off our car we went for a wander round the shopping centre – this was at Our Sidekick’s special request when he realised how close we are to the shopping centre (you can see Next and Cafe Rouge from our bedroom window!)

Then again it was a pretty amazing view from the third floor when you get out the elevator.

We took it on turns to choose a store to look around. I chose Paperchase for my first store – it was a concession stand in one of the department stores rather than an actual store of its own but it was still good.

After wandering round the stores for a while we headed back to the room to chill out. I watched part of an episode of Rizzoli and Isles on my phone (and realised that the rest weren’t downloaded it was just the titles! But it’s okay I still have the rest of Midnight in Paris to watch and given the number of restaurants across the way I’m sure I can get on the Internet somewhere if needed).

Following a call from Our Sidekick’s Mum it was all a bit tense. Our Sidekick wasn’t in a good mood, I was tired and just needed some tea and Chris was frazzled from the heat all in all we were all a bit in a grump.

We ended up at GBK for dinner, mainly because we couldn’t decide what we wanted and a lot of the places were either expensive or their best deals were at lunchtime not tea time. They were lovely and accommodating when Chris grilled the waitress about gluten free meals etc. They were happy to serve the burger without a bun or sauce and with extra salad to balance it out and things like that. Our Sidekick wasn’t in the moods for food but was happy to adopt some of my fries when they were offered. Me and Chris both had a Strawberry and Elderflower drink – it was really yummy and summery.

I think it was a little more when it came to initial cost over a glass of diet coke but I think you got more for your money and a refill was £1 rather than the £2.95 (or the same as the original cost) which meant that when Our Sidekick decided he really didn’t like his we swapped and I finished his and then got another Strawberry and Elderflower.

All in all a good first day it was a little tense but it was chilled and close to base so if needed we could chill out.

Onto Day Two…….