NB - A New Chapter - 11. ANC Chapter 11

The following day, the twins and Xander just wanted to relax, so I let them do that, reminding them, that we were having dinner with Mrs Cooper tonight, before she flies to Budapest to start her river cruise holiday. I went to the office to do some business work, as I had been getting some messages from the company accountant, wanting to have a meeting with me.

Arriving back in the late afternoon, I had enough time to relax for just under two hours, before having to shower and get ready for dinner, letting the twins and Xander know that it was time for them to get ready for dinner too. The evening was very enjoyable, and it was good to see Mrs Cooper happy. “Do you by any chance have a layout of your new home that I can see, before I get there, so I know what I am walking into?” Mrs Cooper asked me.

“I do actually, I printed out the layout this afternoon, so you can study it while on holidays” I responded, as I fished out the two sheets of paper with the plans of the new house, from my inside jacket pocket, and handed them to Mrs Cooper. “Four levels I see, oh and one is the basement, almost a square shape, so I am presuming it is a Georgian style house?” Mrs Cooper commented.

“Yes, that is right, with a basement, ground and two upper floors, all the family will be on the first floor, and yourself and other staff on the next floor up, as you can see, your suite takes up most of the Western side of the upper floor, with views of the back garden and the Thames River. Xander and I will have the two front bedrooms on the first floor, and the twins will have the two back bedrooms with the shared bathroom, leaving one room free for guests.

There are two bedrooms that share one bathroom, and two others that share the other bathroom, for staff, if we need that many staff, we thought that you take on more of a supervisor role, and let the others do most of the work, maybe with you just doing the breakfasts for us. The twins suggested maybe a part time gardener, plus a fulltime cook and a cleaner” I suggested.

“Let’s just wait till I make an assessment of the house and grounds, and we will see what you need, shall we” Mrs Cooper said to me, “I will leave it in your capable hands, oh and we bought the house with all the existing furniture included, I have folder with photos of the house and grounds, so if anything is missing, let me know, and I will get onto the real estate agent about it” I replied.

“There is one thing I wanted to talk to you about, Mr Wagner” Mrs Cooper began, and I could see from her expression that she was a little nervous, which I was a little surprised to see.

“I had a call from my oldest son, Marcus, two days ago, he has been looking after his two sons, my only grandsons, on his own, since his wife left him, to continue a hidden relationship with another woman three years ago, and he is having some problems with them, and he has asked if I can have them for a few months, to try and get them to settle a little” Mrs Copper announced.

This was something that I had not expected, but I tried not to show the surprise in my face. “I see, I am sorry to hear that your son is having difficulties at home, how old are your grandsons?” I replied with a smile, “Well, Wyatt is 17 and Xavier is 15, so they are nearly all grown up, my son is a successful barrister, so he is always very busy, and the boys have been attending a private school, since they each turned 12 years old, so they are well mannered and well spoken.

Both have been doing exceptionally well in their classes, and in sports, plus Wyatt speaks Italian, and Xavier speaks German, both having continued language classes at school” Mrs Cooper informed us, and I smiled as a plan started to form in my mind.

“Mrs Cooper, how about if we employ the boys as part time house staff, and when the new school year starts in the UK in August, that the boys be enrolled in a private school, to complete their education, that way, they can earn some money before school starts, and also on weekends and school holidays” I suggested.

“Oh Sebastian, I don’t know where I would be if you were not my guardian angel, thank you” Mrs Cooper said to me, and I blushed at the compliment, which the twins and Xander noticed and they laughed.“How about they have the two bedrooms, and the shared bathroom nearest to you, and that can be your family area.

We can put some chairs, rugs and book case in that open area, so it is a small private lounge room, and they can use your access stairs” I suggested, and Mrs Cooper nodded her head in agreement, at the suggestion, as she studied the area, we were talking about on the layout plans.

“If you make the study into a library, then maybe we can use the breakfast room, as a staff lounge and dining area?” Mrs Cooper suggested, “Yes, that sounds acceptable, and I was planning to make it into a library anyway, since it already has one wall of bookshelves, from floor to ceiling, I presume, your Grandson’s have passports?” I replied, and Mrs Copper said they did.

After finishing dinner, and saying good night to Mrs Cooper, we headed back to the apartment, to get a good night’s rest, and early the next morning, I was up early, to make sure that Mrs Cooper had the folder with all the house photos and other information, before she caught her flight.

I decided that we should go to Sweden a couple days early, so once I had arrived back at the apartment, I woke up the lads, and told them the change of plans, and instructed them to start packing their cruise bags right away, while I organise flights and accommodation.

I managed to get a late afternoon flight to Stockholm, arriving there at 1800 hours local time, and 2 two-bedroom suites at one of the best hotels in the city, with harbour views, and I was informed that it is a 30-minute ferry ride or 25-minute car drive to the Cruise ship terminal, and a 25-minute drive to the Bromma Airport.

Once we had settled into our suites, we headed down to the hotel restaurant, as it was nearly 7.30 in the evening, and we ordered a sizable meal for all of us. “So, brother, what is the route that Kyle and his friends taking to get here on the weekend” Louis asked me, after the waiter had left. “A very interesting one, leaving at 9.30 am Saturday their time, they have a 7-hour flight from Perth to Bangkok, Thailand, with a 9 ½ hour stopover, before they do the final leg of the journey to Stockholm, which is a 9 ¾ hour flight, arriving at 7 am Sunday morning our time” I replied.

“Wow that is a long trip, why via Thailand?” Xander asked me, “Well, it was that route or else via Abu Dhabi and Munich, or via Kula Lumpurand Istanbul, Turkey, both with short stop overs, so I chose the more interesting flight, the one stop flight via Bangkok, since three of them have not been out of Australia before” I replied. “I bet you have a different route for their trip home” Joachim commented smiling.

“Good guess brother, yes, I have decided to let them take the long route home, so they can see some sights on the way, so they fly from Amsterdam in Netherlands, to Johannesburg, South Africa, which is a 11-hour flight, arriving at 9.20pm, then they have 2 days to look around, before they board a flight home, at 9pm Monday, arriving at 12.30 pm on the Tuesday, Perth time” I replied. “Won’t they be late getting back to University?” Xander asked, “Yes buddy, by just over a day, but I think they won’t mind since they are getting to see more of the world” I answered.

“Ok, so we have 4 full days, till the others arrive, what are we going to do in that time?” Joachim asked me, “See the sights of course, I have nothing organised, so you decide where we go, just not anywhere that we will be visiting on the cruise” I replied. “What about a train trip to the north of Sweden?” Xander asked.

I looked at my cousin, then to my brothers, who looked shocked at first then smiled and nodded in agreement, and I raised my hand to get a waiter’s attention. “Yes sir, how may I help you?” the waiter asked when he arrived, “Can you have the concierge or a hotel staff member come here to our table as soon as possible please” I asked in English, “yes, sir, right away” the waiter replied and he dashed away.

Less than five minutes later the hotel concierge arrived, “Mr Wagner, how may I assist you this evening?” he asked, “we have a favour to ask you please, we would like to try out a Swedish train journey to the far north of the country, possibly tomorrow if it can be arranged, please” I replied, “I will see what I can do, so that is for 3 adults and one child, will that be first class?” the concierge replied, “Yes to both questions thank you” I answered and he dashed off to do what he can to assist with our request.

Just as we were eating our deserts, about an hour later, the concierge reappeared with a big smile on his face, “Sirs, you are in luck, I have secured for you 4 first class sleeper tickets, for two cabins, each with their own bathroom, and includes breakfast in the tickets, departing Stockholm central station at 1810 hours tomorrow afternoon, arriving at Narvik, on the Northwest Coast of Norway at 1300 hours the next day.

I have arranged the return journey leaving Narvik at 1515 hours on Friday, arriving back in Stockholm at 0950 hours the next morning, giving you 26 hours to explore Narvik, and I have booked two twin rooms, at the best hotel in Narvik for you all, which I have added to your hotel bill” the concierge announced to us, as he handed me an itinerary of the trip, with all the necessary information we needed.

“That is perfect, as it means we will be back in Stockholm, 21 hours before Kyle and his friends arrive, and we get to see a lot of Sweden and a small part of Norway, while we are gone, thanks for the wonderful idea Xander” I said.

Once we had finished dinner, we headed to our suites, and headed to bed, since we have most of tomorrow to explore some of the city, before we board our train tomorrow afternoon. After breakfast the next day, we did a guided city tour, and we saw lots of very interesting places, with the architecture of a lot of the old buildings being very grand, we also visited a number of garden parks and museums.

The weekend away in Sweden and Norway was spectacular, and I was so glad that the train trip was suggested, and we spent the whole day just relaxing, and we had a light meal for dinner, before heading to bed early, since we have to be at the airport to greet our friends from Australia, when their plane lands on Sunday morning.

We arrived at the airport the next morning at 7.45am, allowing time for our friends to be processed through customs, but the information board on arrival, informed us that the plane was delayed by 4 ½ hours. Taking note of the flight number and the rescheduled arrival time, we headed back to the car, and we returned to the city, to have a more substantial breakfast, as all of slept in, and we only had time for a cup of tea and juice, and a slice of toast each.

I checked the flight status every half an hour, and the flight was delayed by another two hours, which made me start to get worried, that they wouldn’t make it to the boarding of the ship tomorrow morning. When we arrived back at the airport just before 1pm, the information board, informed us that the plane had just landed, so we headed towards the arrivals hall.

When I finally spotted Kyle appear, he looked very tired and weary, which didn’t look good. Then another lad appeared, looking just as tired, and he followed Kyle, until they spotted us in the crowd, and came rushing up to us. “Oh bro, I am so happy to see you, that trip was absolutely a killer” Kyle said to me as he wrapped me in a hug, “It’s good to see you again mate, what caused all of the delays?” I asked as Kyle released me and stepped back a little.

“This is Jake Palmer by the way, anyway just as the flight left Bangkok, a guy in the centre row, sitting next to Ben and Simon, started to get violent, and he ended up punching and knocking Simon out unconscious, Ben leaned over to cover Simon to protect him from anymore wild punches, and both were knocked around a fair bit, by the time the man was subdued.

The plane turned back to Bangkok airport, where the man was arrested and the guys were taken to hospital for medical treatment, we were all offloaded and questioned by the police, before we were allowed to reboard the plane and leave again, about six hours later” Jake announced. “Wow, that is terrible, lads go and help Kyle to collect their luggage, while I chat to Jake for a moment, to see if we can get an update from their friends” I said to my brothers.

Xander was going to follow them, but I managed to grab his arm, before he could move to far away, and quickly he understood, that I wanted him close by in such a big unfamiliar place. Stepping away from the crowd, where it isn’t so noisy, I asked Jake to give one of his friends a call, to see if they answer the phone, and to put it on loud speaker. “Hello, Ben speaking” came a voice after three rings.

“Hi Ben, it’s Jake here, I am here with Mr Wagner and his cousin in Stockholm, they have just been told about what happened in Bangkok” Jake said, “Hey mate, and Mr Wagner, we are both fine, but they want to keep us in hospital for a few more days, we both have a fair amount of bruising, I have a fair bit on my arms and back, and Simon has bruising to his face, chin and chest” Ben responded.

“Ben, this is Sebastian Wagner speaking, and I would you like to call me by my first name, when you are both discharged from hospital, I want you to go to the Australian Embassy, I will have replacement plane tickets for you, so you can meet the ship in St Petersburg, Russia” I said to Ben, “Wow, this is incredible, thank you so much for looking after us, and taking us on this trip, I guess we will see you in three days’ time then” Ben replied.

I let Ben and Jake talk for a while alone, while I lead the way back to the limo waiting for us outside. “Well with two of your friends missing for a few days, you both get to have a hotel room, and a ship cabin on your own for two days, and I will make flight arrangements, as soon as we get back to the hotel” I announced to Kyle and Jake, who appeared pleased that their two friends will still be joining us.

Back at my suite, I firstly called the Australian Embassy in Bangkok, and told them of the situation, which they appeared to already know, and I informed them that I would be paying for their flights from Bangkok to St Petersburg, and I asked for their assistance to get the two Australian lads out of the hospital and transported to the Airport on Tuesday morning, for their 10am flight to Moscow, and onto St Petersburg, to catch the cruise ship.

Once this was arranged, I contacted my travel agent in Bern, and had him make the changes for flights, for Ben and Simon, so they can join us on the flight.