Droitwich

As we had breakfast today a round of sausage rolls were popped in the oven to cook and we prepared a picnic lunch for ourselves.

Tilly was left in charge for the day as we caught the train into Worcester and headed towards New Road Cricket Ground, the home of Worcestershire County Cricket Club.

The two of us arrived and found our way to the Family Stand, a well signed and obvious rendez vous for a family gathering, just as the five minute bell rang out across the ground.

Mick is partial to cricket, I don’t mind it but rarely attend, this in fact only being my second big match. The sun stayed hidden for much of the day, but did it’s best to keep the temperature at a comfortable level. The two hours of play before lunchtime saw several Worcestershire wickets fall to Essex, I’d knitted quite a few petals for some poppies and our Saturday newspaper remained unread.

Perfectly timed arrival from the London Leckenbys who’d driven up from London. It being lunchtime meant we could all greet each other without getting in the way of the more serious viewers of the match (my family can be a bit noisy). Kath joined us before play started again and was followed by John, Marion and Christine. The nine of us enjoyed the afternoons play, conversation, paper reading, knitting and the atmosphere. We got to see Clarke score 105 before he was bowled out. When we left Worcester had all been bowled out and Essex had started to bat again.

Andrew gave us a lift back to Droitwich so that the last five months of post could be delivered along with a few secret things to the boat whilst Mick looked the other way. Our post was quite a big pile, only a couple of things for me, the rest for Mick. An awful lot of correspondence from pension people, he must be getting old!

Spruced up, quite smartly for boaters, we then headed to Galleria at Bullocks. Anne and Alasdair who’d driven down from Scotland today were already there and about to start on cocktails. Gradually everyone arrived and we took over a large table in the restaurant. It’s the first time all our siblings have been together in one room, luckily they all got on very well, we knew they would.

Much food and wine was consumed, all very nice. The atmosphere just right for the evening.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 hour of engine all day, 96%, £4 to Worcester, 1st ball and out, 1st cricket match for Josh, 9 for cricket, 1 large box, 2 smaller boxes of secret things, 1 prize box, 2 boaters scrubbed up well, 12 for meal, 0 mushrooms visible in the mushroom risotto, 1 perfectly cooked steak, 9 chocolate brownies, 8 at least bottles of wine, 1 apple juice, 1 lovely evening with all of one generation together.