By Isabelle | Our very short getaway to Gloucester

Hi aunties and uncles!  It's me writing again.  My mommy received some lovely messages since the last I wrote and she thinks I should write another post.  I'll try my best to write more but as you know, I'm quite busy attending nursery and going to aunt Vanessa's place.  Only have weekends free!

Adventure in Gloucester

Two weekends ago, my mommy told me that we were going to travel a long distance to visit aunt Gabby, uncle Ben and Bella jie-jie.  I heard from mommy they have now moved out of London and is in a faraway place called Gloucester ("Glos-ter"), about 3h away.  I haven't been to any road trip within the UK and so I didn't quite know how it would feel like, sitting in the car for so long.  When mommy picked me up at 6pm from aunt Vanessa's place that Friday night, we rushed home and daddy fed me dinner.  Then mommy rushed about the house packing a little luggage for us.  It turns out daddy decided to set off late Friday night to beat the traffic.  Finally about 830pm which was past my bedtime btw, they carried me in my PJs, and put me in my car seat.  My eyes were big and worried; I was not quite sure I'm liking this.

Daddy drove the first part of the journey and mommy sat behind with me and even held my hand.  I think they were laughing at how big and worried my eyes were.  I mean, this is definitely outside of my bedtime routine!  The roads were dark and a bit scary.  I didn't feel safe closing my eyes at all.  I was on the edge of my car seat!  After about an hour, I heard the adults mention McDonalds.  Daddy stopped by this huge building and we all went out of the car for a while.  There were people walking about and this place looks like a food court.  Soon daddy bought the fries and apple pie - these two items on the menu are always their favs.  It was close to 10pm by then, and not only was I wide awake, I was busy chomping down French fries with them too.  Wow what an adventure already!

Mommy took over the wheel from then on and the journey was really long.  I'm not sure when I finally fell asleep.  By the time we arrived at aunt Gabby and uncle Ben's place, it was close to midnight.  I was awaken by daddy who tried to carry me out of the car seat.  This whole place looked so unfamiliar.  And who are these two unfamilar adults who were smiling at me?  I was very disoriented and started to cry.  Loudly.  Finally the adults settled down and I was lying in bed between mommy and daddy.  Mmm.. I feel safe enough to sleep finally.  One thing though, I don't really like sharing my bed with anyone else.  I need my space.  I toss and turn, sit up and lie down to find my comfy position.  Many times it involves kicking too.  I think they both didn't sleep well that night.  As usual, I woke up promptly at 730am and kept bouncing on mommy to wake her up.  Daddy was still soundly asleep and didn't even move no matter how much noise I was making.  Finally mommy decided to bring me out of the room to let daddy sleep more.

That was when I saw aunt Gabby again and this time Bella jie-jie was awake and looked at me wondering who I was.  Both moms did some introductions and soon uncle Ben came in too, and asked how we slept last night.  "Great, thanks!"  (Of course it came out in my baby language).  This house they live in is a beautiful bungalow (ie single storey house) and they have a beautiful garden too.  I love Bella's slide right in the middle of it.

On the slide

I love Bella Jie-jie's room esp her toy kitchen!

I heard the adults discussing about visiting a farm nearby in the Cotswolds.  It was a beautiful and sunny day.  We played in the garden while they finished up breakfast.  And then off we went!  To Cotwolds Farm Park, about 30min away.

Getting ready to leave the house

This place is huge!  So many animals!  We walked around and saw sheep, chickens, goats, pigs, cows... all the farm animals you can think of.  There were some kids play areas too, and wow I even drove a baby tractor which was so fun!  We also went into the lambing barn, where many ewes were in the process of giving birth, or had just given birth and were recovering with their little babies.  Daddy got a bit bored waiting and so brought me to the play area to check it out.

I'll share some pictures below and you see what I mean by how fun this place was!

Lunch was meh

Milking the fake cow 

Who can go faster?

Serious tractor driver

In the lambing shed

We stayed there for a few hours and had lunch there before leaving about 3pm.  By then I was exhausted as I skipped my morning nap and so I fell asleep in the car.  It was funny.  Both daddies were tired too and also went back to nap.  The two moms were sat chatting while Bella jie-jie was busy playing by herself.  I felt so much better after I woke up.  By this time, I wasn't shy anymore and played with Bella.

For dinner we went to a local pub called the Cheese Rollers Inn, and I had my own baked pasta.  I heard uncle Ben asking daddy if we want to stay for another night but sadly as daddy had work to do at home, he had to say no.  Which meant that we set off for London after that late dinner.  We left about 1030pm can you believe it?  Even the waitress was surprised and told daddy to drive safely please.


A fun fact for you!  According to uncle Ben who grew up in Gloucester, this area is famous for their sausages and cheese.  In fact, every Spring there is a Gloucester Spring cheese rolling event.  This activity dates all the way back to the 1800s.  Contestants run after a big piece of cheese down a very steep hill.  No surprise on what the prize is - that piece of 8lb Gloucester cheese!  The pub we ate at that night was called the Cheese Rollers Inn, and apparently people pop by for a drink after the cheese rolling event.  You can read more here:
https://www.soglos.com/sport-outdoor/27837/Gloucestershire-Cheese-Rolling


We arrived back home about 1am that Sunday morning.  Mommy carried me to my bed and mmm it felt so familiar with my smell and all, I just continued sleeping till daybreak.  In my outside clothes oops.

And this is our little short adventure to Gloucester!  I hope we can go back again and stay longer the next time!