Grits to Crumpets: Weekend Recap

We had a quick trip to Hastings again this weekend to visit Alex's sister Eva and the girls. This time of year gets so busy and so we looked at the calendar and decided we better go now or else it could be several months before we make it back. (AKA: Alex wants to go sailing every weekend after that) We set out on Friday evening after work with plans to get to Hastings around 7:30 or 8:00 just in time for a beer or two and some chit chat, but traffic had a different plan for us. About and hour into our trip, just as we were reaching the outskirts of London we saw the ominous traffic announcement: M11 Closed. The main artery from the north was closed due to an overturned cooking oil trailer, go figure. We thought we might be able to get around it so we set the GPS to an alternate route, but so did everyone else who was being diverted off the highway during Friday evening traffic in a busy London suburb (it was a nightmare) so we finally gave up at a giant round about after we went around it once trying to figure out the route and as we went around again, we just took the exit towards back home. We zipped home and splurged on a Chinese meal in Bury.
We got up the next morning and set out again with no problems and no spilled cooking oil on the highway. It was a good day and we just relaxed, took a little walk and had plenty of conversation. My sister in law hosts foreign exchange students, so there were 2 extra members of the family this time, the kids had a good time playing, I mean "hanging out".