Detours

Back to Thursday then...We had all been invited to Martin's house - he is a friend and colleague of Marianne's. VERY very brave as we were a large group, Marianne's folks, kids and of course my brood too. We left in 2 cars and my garmin was even allowed out to tell us which way she thought was best to go. We left the guesthouse and stopped outside the hotel to wait for M's folks, they never appeared so we turned around and went back to the parking area....gone. As far as we knew all they had was the address of where we were going and possibly a telephone number....oh and most importantly MY CHILDREN!!!! There was nothing else for us to do but make our way to Martin's and hope and pray that the other group did not get lost. Molly (Garmin) did a superb job, Marianne did ignore her a couple of times when she knew a shorter route, but Molly is a very agreeable creature and went with it happily.
We got to Martin and discovered that we were first, no panic yet, M's folks apparently drive slowly. 30 minutes later, irritation and worry, I am wondering how my kids are coping...they have been in a car for 90 minutes with people they CANNOT communicate with. Finally the phone rings and a rapid Dutch conversation ensues which leads me to believe that a) they have a phone number and b) they are hopelessly lost.
I dread the thundercloud that will be above Jess's head when she walks in the door, the daggers that will be shooting forth from her eyes, I even go as far as explaining to everyone that Jess will not be impressed, she HATES being lost, not knowing what is going on AND sitting in the car for 2 hours plus.
I under estimated my daughter....she emerged from the car looking........calm, smiling and a bit tired around the eyes, wow!!! Of course they had realised that they were hopelessly lost, Kirstin had a game going counting the U-turns (6 if you must know) and took to writing them on the seat between them with ehr finger. At least they managed to turn it all into a game! We drank wine ate Chinese food and made sure that M's folks FOLLOWED us home at the end of a wonderful evening.