A mixed bag trip with scary moments

Our current trip to The Netherlands and England has been a mixed bag this time, with many wonderful memories made but also some unpleasant and scary moments. 

To begin at the beginning, we left Brisbane in early March. It had been a busy time shortly before we left. Among other things, we had fantastic guests – Sue and John from our buddy boat friends from Catabella – who we had travelled with through Turkey, Greece and Montenegro; a lovely birthday celebration for Tilly, the daughter of our friends Cathy and Peter and our daughter Hannah’s bestie; some more improvements to our new home “amongst the gum trees” and making meals to freeze for Ben and Sarah while we were away and not on hand to help out.

It was obviously a huge wrench leaving our tiny twin grand daughters and their dedicated parents behind but of course, we were so excited to be reunited with our oldest (by six months) granddaughter and her parents in The Netherlands. 

So off we flew – travelling via Shanghai for the first time and having a night in a hotel on the way which we don’t normally do but really enjoyed. 

It was amazing to see the  little family waiting for us in Schiphol Airport and our granddaughter was excited to see us which was so lovely!

We had a very special first week together during which time we visited a goat farm where we not only saw lots of young goats but also some adorable piglets, horses, peacocks and other animals. 

We also went on some lovely walks enjoying the early spring weather and delighting in seeing all the new shoots beginning to emerge and the early flowering magnolias almost in full bloom.  

On other days we took our granddaughter to the local library, to a soft play gym and a local garden centre with a soft play area, all of which she absolutely loved. 

Unfortunately a few days after these activities and just nine days into our visit, the poor little thing had the biggest vomiting episode you could imagine. By the time her mother Hannah had arrived home from work she was very sick and unable to keep anything down. A call to the doctor followed and the usual advice was given – regular paracetamol and keeping up with plenty of fluids. 

The following day she was even worse and was even vomiting in her sleep. It really was very scary to see her so unwell and then become so floppy and unresponsive.

Hannah and Pieter took her to the emergency doctor for assessment and after a long wait in the out patients department at the local hospital, she was finally admitted.  

By this time the poor little mite was in a very bad way and had to have a nasal gastric tube inserted in order to get some fluids and nutrients into her. Swabs taken from her mouth revealed that she was suffering from type A Influenza and a separate virus that caused the gastroenteritis.

In the meantime, I had also caught the gastro bug and had vomited profusely but not to the same extent as our precious granddaughter.

Fortunately, after three days and two nights she had recovered enough to come home from hospital , even though she was still very low in energy and still suffering from terrible diarrhoea. 

We were very relieved that she seemed to have turned the corner but it was still extremely worrying to see her so subdued, utterly exhausted and unable to face food. 

By this time although we were hopeful that she was getting better we were really concerned that she wouldn’t be well enough to travel to England in just over a week’s time. 

We had all been so excited about this long anticipated weekend booked in a beautiful country manor house in East Sussex to celebrate my sister Sarah’s 80th birthday so it would have been absolutely devastating if Hannah, Pieter and she had to miss out on the big celebration!

This would have been the first time many of our family members had met our little granddaughter besides which, we had been looking forward for the longest time to spending a few days with thirty plus members of our family.

Thank goodness she improved each day and by the time the following week came round she was well enough to fly although still a little weak and having lost quite a bit of weight!

Jonathan and I left a couple of days earlier as we were travelling in our camper van. We drove to Calais in France where we stayed the night and caught the ferry to Dover the next day. 

Unfortunately I had begun to develop flu-like symptoms and by the time we arrived at my other sister Julia’s house, a couple of day’s later, I felt really terrible. 

It was so fortunate that we had the van as I was able to self-isolate in there to avoid spreading the virus to her and her granddaughter (also called Hannah) who was visiting from Japan. 

We were very worried that I wouldn’t be able to go to Sarah’s wonderful house party. For a start,  I was very concerned about giving the bug to other family members but also I was also feeling pretty awful and wasn’t sure I’d have the energy to join in the festivities. 

Fortunately, I felt a bit better by the Friday – the day the house party was going to begin. As it had been five days since the onset of my symptoms I hoped that I wouldn’t still be infectious but I wore a mask and didn’t hug anyone so it turned out that everyone escaped catching the flu but one of the family unfortunately ended up with a tummy bug which might or might not have been caught from us. 

We arrived safely in the late afternoon at gorgeous Peke’s Manor, a fifteenth century Grade lll listed house with oak beam ceilings and panelled rooms.

With five bedrooms on the first floor and three on the second, another bedroom in an annexe with further sleeping nooks and a separate three bed room cottage, plus Jonathan and I in the camper van, there was plenty of room for everyone to sleep except for the handful of people who were just coming for the day on the Sunday.

What a great weekend it was – but more of that in my next blog!