Travel With S.EAI.EAS: London - Day 7 (Staffordshire)

after the terrible journey home we had last night, we were a bit skeptical about taking the car on the road again. this time the journey would be further – 120 miles to Staffordshire and another 90 miles to Manchester. we discussed and put forth many, many options and decided to go to Thomas Land, as its more for the boys and then book a room in a hotel nearby the park so that we can stay as long as we want and don’t have to suffer on the roads again.

so we took off at 10am – again, later than I would have liked. we drove out of London town within 30 minutes and were on the M1. the motorway was clear and smooth, no more flakes, no more heavy snow, no more icy roads, Alhamdulillah. after a few minutes, the boys feel asleep and we could drive without distractions.

about 10 miles off the park, we stopped by an M&S service and fed the boys. we arrived at drayton manor before 1pm and immediately the boys were screaming and shouting – where are we, what are we doing here, are those roller coasters, can we go up there and then its…mummy daddy, there’s Cranky, there’s the troublesome trucks, there’s Jeremy…there’s THOMAS!!

they were just blown away and could not stop screaming out the names of every train they know. when they saw Percy live, they were just in train heaven. then when Thomas finally showed up, it was a heart-stopping moment for the four of them (even for the parents!).

i wanted to take them on the rides but decided to take the on the train with Thomas – ish, wrong choice. the train went over the other side of Thomas Land and there was nothing there, except for some animals and (ok…so this was good) parts of the set used for the tv series. we took the train back to the entrance area and took them around to see all the trains. they absolutely loved it. they actually think the trains were actual trains (bless them). then it was off to the shop for some damages to be done.

then the boys started to get cranky like the tower. akmal wanted his susu, ariff said his feet hurts, asyraf wanted to get on the roller coaster (which he couldn’t because he wasn’t tall enough). amir was the exception. he was having fun, he wasn’t cold, he was on almost all the rides (except 2 – bertie & diesel). with 2 boys screaming and crying we thought its time to end the visit to Thomas Land.

it was pretty early, we left around 430pm. since the weather was good and the roads were still clear, hubby decided to start making our way to Manchester, instead of staying in Birmingham. so off we went for another 2-hour drive. we got to the hotel, premier inn on portland road, at around 7pm. checked in, bathed the boys, had dinner and called it a night by about 10pm.