It took them a while to get their act together, but my mum and dad came over this weekend.

They arrived here on Friday afternoon for a short visit, and Freya was happy to show off for them, though not enough to go near them. She has a picture of them on the kitchen wall, and speaks to them often on the phone, so it wasn’t a completely unfamiliar situation for her.

Saturday was spent eating lunch at Manna with them. Whilst we love the food, it was a choice of necessity, since their eating habits are quite restrained. Manna, out of all the vegan-friendly restaurants we visit, has some of the more “normal” foods that my parents are accustomed to. Dad gave the food a five out of ten, which is actually a reasonably good score for him, he said.

After food, we tried to find somewhere for Dad to fill up his phone card, using the well-known(?) “pay as you go” system. It must be common in England as it even has its own logo (left), but I’ll be damned if I’ve ever seen it. Sure enough, the guy in the phone shop was equally stumped, and suggested we call Orange.

Phoning Orange we did, when we got home. Clicked my way through menus I did. Asked Dad for his credit card (to register for the top-up-via-phone service) I did. Credit card I did not get, though, being in the camper-van.

Take two: With credit card in hand, my dad talked to the Orange representant, telling him that it was not actually he who had bought the phone, and maybe it was registered under “Spanish” Tony, my father’s ex-work colleague who is Spanish.

It turns out that the phone is registered to another friend, so Dad was unable to carry out the time-saving pay-as-you-go registration that would have enabled him to make life a whole lot easier.

Sunday was spent collecting a dish-washer that Jo had got free from someone she works with, then going to the pub to watch Wolves v Leeds. And we won! We’re third place.

Freya had become a lot nearerer to Grandad before they left earlier today. She had no problem in going and sitting with/on him, and constantly called his name to show him things she was doing. Mum became more relaxed, as well, though due to her inability to have heavy things on her, she couldn’t quite come as near as I think she wanted. I’m sure she was happy to spend time in Freya’s presence, though.