Finally we got to see our son !

On Saturday we drove all the way down to Colchester to see no.1.son for the first time since we left him there at the beginning of Oct.  I'm sure if any of you have done or are doing the same as us - seeing our children "off" into grownup-land you'll know what a mix of emotions it is?
On the one hand we're glad to see the back of them! joke!! but equally we want them to stay home with us for ever and ever .. anyway we were pleased and reassured to find our son had NOT faded away into a malnourished skeleton! was managing to keep up and understand his studies! and best of all - sadly for me?! I am proud to announce he can operate the launderette facilities AND sort his washing out all by himself!!  ok, I admit hugging him and planting big kiss on his cheek and announcing "GOOD BOY! WELL DONE!" is a bit on the mumsy side, but well, thats what MUMS do best? afterall? embarrass their children with over fussing on domestic matters.

Anyway its about a 4hr drive for us and I took along my knitting! you can see too that I'm wearing my recently completed "Tender" so I was all set for a lovely journey down ..

We'd taken a pile of food and useful stuff and ate our lunch with our son before heading off to nearby Colchester to have a look around .. now! I promise! I had NO IDEA that we'd drive straight into a carpark on the first street right round the corner from a branch of FRANKLINS .. but! I'm not sure who spotted it first all I remember is a mix of shriek - excitment! (me) groaning (no.2 son) sigh of defeat and despair (dh) and a brave attempt by no.1.son to give mum 5mins! and he must have missed us as he duly complied with taking far more photo's of ME outside the shop than I took of HIM and, it has to be said, at least his shots were mostly in focus whereas mine appear to have come out severely jaundiced ..
Anyway I had to pop in and look around, this shop has two floors and the yarn was upstairs and I could have spent loads more time and money but luckily for the family I was quite restrained and came out soon with a bag of two balls of wool ..

After all that excitement we took our family for meal.  Not at the pub we'd looked up and planned - they had a private party that evening, but luckily we'd gone past somewhere that looked nice and we ate around 6pm dropped our son back at his Uni and set off for home around 8pm ..

half way home dh announced he was in need of a break so we stopped off for coffee and petrol and I don't know if it was the excitment and relief of seeing our son and/or the caffiene/petrol but we completely got the giggles over some tale I was regaling our no.2.son with who unfortunately mistimed swallowing a mouthful of his drink with choking down a laugh and forgot - apparently - HOW to breath! and found he couldn't breath OR swallow and turned quite pale before looking somewhat blue!  We think he had a strange form of panic attack because his hands went all tingly and his face numb and he was still laughing but couldn't "do" anything with it to stop it! In the end I ordered dh to take him to the loo.  this is another of my usual "mums" advice if its all going wrong, just go to the toilet! lol!! anyway after several mins of him clutching at his head and insisting he COULDN'T breath or swallow and dh was looking nervous at the prospect of the staff dialing for an ambulance we finally managed to walk him out into the fresh air after dh took him once more to the loos to splash cold water on his face! 
I think we were all a bit over excited!

We are looking forward now to bringing our son home in December for Christmas - won't be long now ..