Sat, Mar 22nd

What a start to the day. Dawn woke me up to tell me that Tiny had already kept her awake for a while and that she wouldn't settle down. So, because Dawn had already endured several sleepless nights recently, I got up and tried to settle Tiny down to sleep in the living room. Dawn joined me at 5am. Thankfully she had been able to get back to sleep. But, not me. Tiny just couldn't settle.

Then if that wasn't bad enough, our plans for today nearly changed before we left the front door. Outside there were sub zero temperatures accompanied by both snow and sleet. When we got in the car and actually headed towards the A1o and London, the snow started to get heavy too. The rest of the day became a mixture of glorious blue skies with interjections of icy sleet and snow. One thing that was not changeable was the temperature. It hardly got above freezing all day and it was coupled with a non stop icy wind.

Anyway, we'd planned to take Dad to the RAF Museum at Hendon and left it up to him whether he still wanted to go. When we arrived at his flat he was ready and eager to get going, dressed up as always in shirt and tie. Needless to say, his RAF tie.

As for the museum, it was worth the trip. Best of all - it was free for us to walk among the many planes and replica planes dating back the best part of one hundred years from the pioneer days when fabric and wooden rods were all that held man in the sky to Chinooks used in the Falklands and Iraq. There were fighter planes like the Spitfires and Hurricanes from the Battle of Britain, and a Lancaster bomber that flew many raids over Germany (just like Dad had in 1944). There were even American planes like the Mustang with the teeth painted on the nose behind the propeller.

Best of all was seeing how much Dad enjoyed it. Several times he wandered off on his own to take photos. He seemed to really enjoy seeing the planes. We even had a chat with a survivor of 46 raids who proudly boasted that his Lancaster arrived back after each sortie with all four engines in one piece.

On the way back to Dad's, we stopped at The Gatehouse for a little lunch and chat. It was nice to get out for a change with Dad. Hopefully once the weather warms up a little we'll be able to do it more and more this summer.