Day 25

  Grimsby, England, United Kingdom
Sunday, October 12, 2008

Having fallen asleep a lot earlier last night than the night before, we weren't quite as tired when we were woken at 10.30 when Dean came in to wake us up. Laura had already woken up and left for work by the time we headed down for breakfast. Melanie had gone out to Tesco that morning to buy food for breakfast including coco pops and fruit juices. After we had eaten we returned upstairs to get ready for dad who was coming at 11.30. We quickly got dressed and packed our bags trying to find everything that had been shoved into the corners to make room for all our beds last night. As soon as dad arrived for us we had to say goodbye as Sophie was going to work for the day.
 
When we arrived home Aunty Margaret and Uncle Philip had just arrived over and I put on the DVD of Hollowmen from when I was on that had recently arrived from Australia. We then had to get into our packing, trying to make everything fit in the suitcases. For lunch we had lots of toasted things, fried egg on toast, melted cheese on toast and avocado and sweet chili on toast. Once lunch was over with, Aunty Margaret and Uncle Philip asked if anyone would like to come down to the park for a game of soccer. Celeste, Noah and I decided to go along while dad, mum, Nikita and Bronte were going to head off into town. 
 

Celeste's Super Soccer Skills

We grabbed Noah's large, inflatable soccer ball and headed off to People's part which was about a 10 minute walk from Willingham Street. When we arrived we headed into a greenhouse there where they displayed a range of different plants that you would not normally find around England due to the climate because it was exceptionally warm and humid inside the greenhouse. We then had a look at some of the animals there which included parakeets and chickens. It was then time to get down to business with the soccer match. The first game we decided would be England verses Australia with me stepping in as the neutral goal keeper to even up the numbers. After an exhausting game filled with skill and talent, Aunty Margaret kicked the winning goal for England, bringing the score from 5-all to a 6-5 win.
 
Before we started up our next match we played a game of penalty shoot-off. I couldn't believe how terribly bad I was, especially compared to Aunty Margaret who scored a goal every single time. After 3 shots each, I had missed all 3, Celeste had scored 1 goal, Noah 2 and Aunty Margaret 3.

Uncle Philip

We then got down to business and started a new game - girls verses boys. Aunty Margaret and Uncle Philip took goalie positions while Celeste and I versed Noah on the field. While you may not think this is a fair match up, Noah ended up winning the game hands down. We packed up our goal posts, Noah's shoes and our drink bottles, before heading on the walk home. Aunty Margaret took us past the house she had grown up in on the way home. Just as we pulled up at the traffic lights to cross over into Willingham Street, mum, dad, Nikita and Bronte pulled up in the car beside us. The race was on but the car beat us by a mile.
 
It was then time for us to return to packing and searching the whole house to make sure everything was packed. A short while later we were visited by Damon who dropped passed to show us his wedding video since we were unable to attend. We all squished into the sitting room with most of us on the floor to watch the video of the wedding and reception on the laptop. After we had watched the DVD, Damon helped us to find a place to order pizza for dinner as we weren't going to be able to head out for dinner tonight with all the packing we had to do. We put the order in and then said goodbye to Damon as he needed to head off to work. As we waved him out the door we were greeted by Leo, Elaine and Jacob who had come past to say goodbye. We pulled as many chairs as we could into the sitting room and not long after the doorbell rang again, this time it was Sophie, Dean, Melanie and Laura who had also come past to say goodbye.
 
Our pizza turned up much sooner tonight then it had the first night we ordered which was a relief because we were all quite hungry. We had a choice of cheese and tomato, meat feast and capsicum and corn as well as chips and garlic bread. We plopped ourselves down anywhere we could find to eat and with the amount of people we had in the house, most of us ended up sitting on the floor. Once everyone had eaten we cleared up the plates and the kids headed upstairs to use the laptop. The first person we had to say goodbye to was Laura who was heading off to the movies with friends. After hugs we waved goodbye and tears began to form in most people's eyes knowing that this was it. We had a lot of fun on our last night together, running a muck throughout the house, which wasn't overly appreciated by the adults, laughing and reminiscing.
 

The kids

As the night got later and later it got closer and closer to the time when we had to say our final goodbyes. First to leave were Leo, Elaine and Jacob after many, many hugs and tears. Getting Sophie out the door, however, was another story. Countless amounts of hugs and tears resulted in Sophie almost being dragged into the car. We waved as the cars drove off down the street and then returned inside to say goodbye to Aunty Margaret and Uncle Philip who were the last to leave. By this stage, my eyes were really hurting from crying so much and it is unbelievable how close I have become to all my family in such a short space of time and how incredibly much I will miss them when I have left and headed back to Australia. After kisses and hugs, they hopped into their car and waved goodnight, but what could have been the best news possible for us was that their car didn't start. Unfortunately though, it didn't last long and after 30 seconds we were waving goodbye as the last family members drove off from Willingham Street.
 
We returned back inside for showers and to completely finish packing. Bronte and Nikita packed their overnight bags and headed off with dad to spend the night out, Bronte at Aunty Pat's and Nikita at Aunty Shelia's. Mum, dad and I then searched through every drawer, under every couch, behind every door and inside every cupboard to make sure that we had packed everything and left nothing behind. We set our alarms for early the next morning and eventually headed off to bed at 11.30pm after finally almost packing all the suitcases.