On the road again

All things do indeed come to pass.

Elijah is 10 week old today and while he may still be feeding every 2 hours - indeed hourly last night - it has all become a little more familiar so that this is now life as we know it.  And a travelling life of late.  Within a week Elijah has experienced his first flight, train journey, taxi ride and cross-channel ferry crossing, oh and motorway driving! 

We are on our UK road trip, enjoying a proper break from the Island before I return to the office job after my maternity leave.  Packing was interesting, having to consider all the baby clothes and stuff that are now a part of our lives, especially as I could not be sure how long we would be without access to a washing machine!!Still it is, we hope, the first of many touring trips, and we have been keen to start travelling with Elijah while he is still a baby.

We took the ferry to Weymouth arriving about 9pm, so we stopped for the night in Weymouth and enjoyed some much needed hotel time out - I do love staying in comfortable hotel rooms where you can just chill, even better if they have a swimming pool, which this one did so we were in our element - Ewan even more so as the breakfast was above usual standards!

On Saturday we headed down to Plymouth to visit Ewan's best friend, Nigel, his partner, Vicky, and two of his children, Ferg and Millie.  We had such a lovely time, the boys going out on the Saturday night leaving Vicky and I talking all things spiritual, for we share a passion for the spiritual and healing side to life - we went on a Yoga and meditation retreat together last year.  Over the weekend we chatted at length, especially about the law of attraction and how we can all tap into this to create and manifest the world we would like to live in and how it can support us in the process.

On Sunday we enjoyed a lazy morning and with so many hands happy to hold Elijah I was able to enjoy my own yoga practice for longer than normal. In the afternoon we headed out to Rame Head on the Rame Peninsula in Cornwall, which houses a 14th century chapel, which is built on ley lines. An incredible spot, an area of outstanding natural beauty no less, and it really is stunning as we watched a couple of weather fronts, storms out to sea then - a wonderful place to embrace and be blown away (quite literally too!) by the elements. 

Elijah really was showered with love and attention from the whole Powell family all weekend so we were a little concerned how he would react to life with Mummy and Daddy on our own once again so we thought we would shower him in crystal energy by stopping off at Glastonbury before continuing up to our destination in Cheltenham.

Wow, I do love it when your chatter turns into reality so that the law of attraction came alive, perhaps not surprising when visiting a place like Glastonbury with its wonderful Tor and Abbey, let alone the marvellous crystal energy in town. I have never known so many crystal shops in such a short space, let alone all the groovy little cafes!

So this is how it goes...we stopped at a café for breakfast on the basis of its name - the Ten Monkeys, due to the fact that we call Elijah, Monkey!  Next door to this café was a crystal shop selling crystal angels, which I had been keen to purchase for a friend who has recently had a baby.  The lady in the shop quite coincidentally (or not as these things happen) commented on Elijah and how life gets easier with a baby when they are 12 weeks - a conversation Ewan and I had had that morning - before answering our question about where to park to walk up the Tor.

So we drove to the suggested carpark, which happened to be the car park for the factory and headquarters of "Draper", an independently owned company founded in 1937, specialising in hand crafted English sheepskin.  Another coincidence - or not - as I had been discussing handcrafted sheepskin boots with Vicky over weekend and the fact I was on the look out for some and had tried to put "it out there" in the realm of the law of attraction.  And here we are, at a factory manufacturing exactly what I was looking for and even better, you could buy them from the factory shop cheaper than you could by post or internet!

We walked up the Tor, how stunning is it up there, another very precious place with marvellous views and energy - The Tor is mentioned in Celtic mythology, particularly in myths linked to King Arthur.  and has a number of other enduring mythological and spiritual associations..  As I do when I visit these places, asking permission to enter and then having a feel of the energy of the stone forming the building, yes there is definitely something special about that place and I can't help wondering if sun rise on the solstice would be stunning from here.

Back in the town centre we visited "Rainbow End", a Vegetarian cafe recommended by Vicky.  Very lovely indeed, I wish we had one of these back home in Guernsey.  The ethos of the town reminds me of Byronshire in Australia, another hippie place, with all the yummy and healthy foods in the chilled out little cafes and that back to land, independent and crystal and healing type attitude.

In any event just as we were preparing to leave a lady on the table next to us commented on the cuteness of Elijah (we are biased, he does indeed seem cute to us, especially as he was dressed in his duffle coat and new hand-knitted woollen hat and baby sheepskin booties courtesy of Vicki and Nige) before telling us not to have Elijah vaccinated because the vaccines are full of poison which will harm him and referring us to research to support this.   Random as it was, I know it was a law of attraction moment (possibly due to its randomness) as I have been questioning vaccines the last few weeks and here was a random lady randomly talking to us about it. 

We left Glastonbury after this, enough for one day in the magical world of how things come to play, and headed up to Cheltenham in the late afternoon sun setting light.  I have never been to Cheltenham and wasn’t quite sure what to expect but what a marvellous place indeed with all the wonderful regency buildings and space, very middle class, the shops on the high street prove this.

We are staying in a serviced apartment, perfect with a baby, not that it all went to plan initially.  We couldn’t find the place to begin with, call number one to the management company.  We arrived and unpacked the car and I put Elijah in a vest so he could enjoy a good kick around in a warm place, only for him to have a massive poo and for it to seep onto me.  Lovely!!  We couldn’t work the TV so call number two to the management company!

We went out for a walk to the shop and when we returned home we tried to put the buggy back into the car only to break the lock so that we had to phone AA otherwise we wouldn’t be able to get into the car.  Now we can get into the car, we just can’t lock it, wonderful when you have Guernsey number plates!!  Back in the apartment we discovered that the smoke alarm had run out of battery and was beeping, typical it should be the alarm up in the highest part of the ceiling out of reach, another call to the management company.  I put some washing on only to find water leaks onto the floor a little, another call to the management company! 

The irony is that it is a very lovely apartment, but we were clearly fated!  But this is life isn’t it, the ying with the yang and the challenges that arise when you least expect them – the fact Elijah woke virtually every hour last night for example...

 

Still today dawned bright and clear, a wonderful sun rise as it happens and lucky for me I was able to go to a Yoga class at the Cheltenham Yoga and Pilates centre, dynamic flow too and what a treat (thank you Ian), while Ewan and Elijah walked around town enjoying the morning activity.  After a visit to cafe with yet more compliments from random ladies we ventured to Ross on Wye, where Ewan used to live and work.  A wonderful place and more walking and general wandering, which is the joy of being away – so too the home made cakes in the cafe we visited – this is a trip of cafes if nothing else!!

Of course it is more than that, refreshing to be "travelling" again for it takes you out of the comfort zone and presents new opportunities and challenges.  I feel very blessed.

With much gratitude.

x