Charlie enjoying the Sea Lion show
I have mixed feelings about Charlies first trip to the UK. On the one hand it was fantastic catching up with Family and friends and of course Charlie revelled in all the extra attention. Whilst we were there we spent time in England and Wales, had three parties and even had a trip to Twycross Zoo.
On the other hand the extra attention made it practically impossible to get Charlie to sleep meaning we had an overtired little boy and daily screaming fits.
Then there was the weather, only in the UK can you have 3 seasons in one day. The morning we set off for the Zoo it was cold and damp and threatened rain, by the time we got there the weather had improved and was like a lovely spring day. Half way through the day it turned into Summer. Whats that all about?.
Being out and about with Charlie was quite different to here. It took a bit of getting used to being able to walk around town without strangers stopping us and looking in the pram or asking personal questions. Another difference was the way the British react to a crying baby in a public place, over here if a baby is crying the Spanish either don’t notice or they try and make the baby laugh, which more often than not makes them cry even more. In the UK people actually give you filthy looks!!
I have one final rant about good old blighty and thats the security checks at the airport. Don’t get me wrong I do think its important to have security checks but I cannot believe how far they go. It took us nearly 10 mins to get through. Charlie had to come out of his baby carrier and I had to take my shoes off, then we had to take everything out of our well stuffed bag because there was some soap in there. After that we had to open the ready made cartons of formula and taste everything any creams/gels that we had in the bag (like sudocrem and teething gel) had to be put on our skin) and all of this was done whilst holding a wriggling 5 month old baby.
OK rant over, I said at the beginning that I had mixed feelings over our trip to the UK but in all honestly spending time with Family and Friends overrides everything so better go and book our flights for the next trip.