Thursday 3 October 2013

On the Road...

Had a good trip yesterday, Number One Son is back at Uni and settled in.

The trip up saw us passing through some really heavy rain - so heavy that we missed the turn off from the M1 (up the middle of England) onto the M6 (West Coast).  We did not notice for a while, but then quickly plotted a new route  that took us back on track.  Not a big deal, we were still heading in roughly the right direction!

But listening to the radio we soon found that this had been a lucky break - there had been a crash on the M6, and nothing was moving - our accidental route missed this completely!

The journey with my little brother driving was the usual constant chit chat on every subject going, lingering on some of the passengers that he has to deal with in his taxi driving job - the real gems of friends me makes to those who drive him to dispair.  I guess we all meet them, but not everyone gets stuck in a car with them!

I was able to fill him in on some of our holiday stories and also give him an outline of my Zombie novel - he was really taken with it and I might actually persuade him to read it when it is finished!

Once at the Uni, we set off to find out where my son would be living - getting the keys was easier than I expected, and we soon had his stuff unloaded into his new 4th floor room.  He seemed happy with the view and aspect (facing north, so less glare on his PC screens!) and being higher up he would be less vulnerable to noise from those who were heading home from the bars.

Then we realised that we were hungry, so we hit the town for a pub lunch (I had ribs, fries and onion rings - pretty good, to be honest!) and a final chat before we abandoned my son for the next 3 months.  The return journey was problem free and we were back home by 6.30pm.  Mrs RC had already been chatting with Number One Son on Skype and he had already unpacked everything and was getting ready for an evening playing online games with his friends.  Gotta love the internet for this sort of thing.  Once upon a time, when someone went away to Uni that was more or less it - you lost touch with them for years and if you ever met up with them again they were totally different to the person you knew - now there is no excuse for losing touch...

9 comments:

terri said...

What luck that your accidental detour led you away from bad traffic! Glad to hear you got your boy all settled in. Second year is definitely a little easier, isn't it? And I agree about the internet. Makes it so much easier to stay in touch.

ShadowRun300 said...

Internet and cell phones make saying goodbye SO much easier. I can't imagine having said goodbye to my kids years ago before all this technology. What's nice, is I think they like it too.
Quite the lucky accidental detour you had! You might have missed a great lunch otherwise!

Riot Kitty said...

I can only imagine the kind of patience your brother has in that job.

Rock Chef said...

Terri - Yes, this time has been a lot easier for us all - he feels totally at home in Lancaster, and that makes us happy.

ShadowRun300 - Yes, he likes to be able to give us regular updates on events, even down to what he had for dinner.

Riot Kitty - His patience is limited with some people, especially local "celebrities" - he pretends that he does not know who they are and is rude when they expect special treatment :-)

agg79 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
agg79 said...

It is definitely easier to remain in touch with home than we went to school. The only contact we had was either the weekly phone call to home or the occasional letter.

You were lucky on your trip. That kind of delay would have made the day a lot longer.

Rock Chef said...

Agg79 - Yes, I had friends who might as well have fallen off the planet when they went to Uni.

Abby said...

I'm glad you got your son all settled, and already skyped home. It is nice - all this communication we have nowadays!

CiCi said...

Someone was watching over you on the trip to the Uni, and you made good time and safely. Sounds like your son was pleased with his room and Mrs RC could see his room and the progress he made unpacking his stuff. I know you and Mrs RC will be checking with him regularly and will be seeing him in a few months.