The Best Laid Schemes O' Mice And Men...

The Best Laid Schemes O' Mice And Men...

Robert Burns' poem, To A Mouse, contains the lines: "The best laid schemes o' Mice and Men gang aft agley.."

And so do our best laid plans for little trips away, a wee break from the fortitude we have displayed now for so many long months! 

With the original date for restrictions to be lifted cited as 21 June, I did some research into steam trains, and came up with the Ffestiniog Steam Railway - somewhere we had not visited before, and the Great Little Trains of Wales were definitely calling! This was to have been part of a short break up north: spend the first day chuffing on the Railway, and then drive up to the hotel in Preston Brook, near Chester, where we have stayed many times before. The plan was to visit Mum's grave in Kirkdale Cemetery in Liverpool, and maybe also look round the shops in Liverpool; we had the possibility of visiting dear relatives in Chester, and friends not far from Liverpool, and also scouting round old places where we lived on the Wirral, when Wendy was small - Prenton and Raby Mere, and finding the mere where her dad used to sail Orion, our radio-controlled model boat. We haven't sailed her for years, but we have photographs of the boat on the water, and it would be nice to see the mere again.

We also had plans to see what was happening to Shell Stanlow, the oil refinery that featured large in our lives when we lived on the Wirral; every time we drove to Glossop to pick up Grandma to bring her home for a while, we would pass by Shell Stanlow and be fascinated by the number of flames we could count, as surplus gas was burned off. 

What the plans for Shell Stanlow in the future are, we do not know; with the new regulations and emissions and decisions on reducing gas and oil use, it will probably be taken out of commission, but having made such a big impression on us for nearly 50 years, we like to take every opportunity to see it again, whilst we still can. 

And then the next virus variant hit: The Indian/Delta virus started to sweep the northwest, including Chester, Liverpool, Manchester - all the places we would be in, or very near, and the Government announced an extension of restrictions, for a further four weeks, until 19 July.  

Have I said before, we are sensible? Of course I have; even though we are all doubly vaccinated, we decided to wait until the signs are more propitious. So, although this was a disappointment, we decided it wasn't so much a cancellation, as a postponement. 

Happily, when I originally booked the hotel, I paid a flexi supplement, so the date could be changed without penalty to one that suited us better; I was also very impressed with the Ffestiniog Railway, who immediately offered me a full refund. I said, we still definitely wanted to visit the Railway, and was very happy to accept a voucher to be used at a later date, which I felt also showed clearly, we wanted to support the Railway, and this way they were assured we would be coming along as soon as possible.

So there it is: We still have our dreams, which are set in concrete: but our timing and plans are set in jelly!  It's still a case of "Watch this space!"