Grantly - 5. Grant Chapter 5

Unfortunately, all our classmates would be passing by us as they headed to their seats further back, and we received some very unusual looks from them, which made me a little concerned about this, so I made a decision. Once all the passengers were onboard, I asked the steward if I could briefly speak to our group before we departed, and she agreed to this, so I walked through Premium Economy, stopping at the last aisle there, and faced my classmates.

Speaking in Manx, “Fellow students, I welcome you on this trip to the UK, which is partly sponsored by my father, the language I am speaking is Manx, a Gaelic language spoken only on the Isle of Man, where I was born and spent my first five years, and where you will be visiting in about a week,” I said firstly in Manx then in English, which had the majority of the group stunned.

“Is this true sir?” one of the boys asked the Deputy Principal, who was standing just behind me now. “Yes, to all that Mr Grant has said, although he is known by his proper first name of Sebastian and not Mitchell at his home Island. It is his father who is sponsoring the majority of our time on the Isle of Man, including the day of sailing on the yacht, the steam train ride and paying for our 3 nights of accommodation on the island. You may continue Sebastian,” Mr Jackson added.

“Thank you, Sir. Now the reason why my two friends and I have been travelling Business class since Melbourne, and why the adults are travelling in Premium Economy on this flight, is thanks to my father. I had no say in the matter.

I also will not be returning to Tasmania with you at the end of the trip, instead, I will be returning to my home on the Isle of Man, and I will be attending a college there for the period of your First term, which will be Second term at the Northern School, and I will return to Southern Christian School in time for the commencement of Term Two or Term Three, depending on how things go there,” I announced, before returning to my seat.

“You can ask Sebastian all the questions you want when we arrive in London, but for now, let’s get set for our overseas adventure,” Mr Jackson said, and the group cheered at this comment, and soon after the steward began the pre-flight safety announcements.

About an hour into the flight, soon after we had finished eating our dinner, the head girl and the head boy for our year appeared and turned to face Nicholas and Simon, “Oh oh, we are in trouble,” Nicholas commented, “Not at all, we just want to know how long you two have known about our mystery classmate?” Natasha asked the lads, “Not that long, I kept it a secret from everyone.

They did know that I travelled to Europe every Winter holiday but they had no idea that I am Manx-born and that I lived on a small island in the Irish Sea, until just before the announcement of this trip,” I said to answer their question. “I see, and do you think that it was polite to keep this a secret from everyone,” Bradley asked me with a frown on his face.

“Steady on with the grilling you two. Only me and the Principal knew about Sebastian’s real heritage, as that was the request from his parents, and I didn’t know that he had told his two friends until just the other day, this was done this way for a reason, which will not be explained to anyone unless Sebastian or his parents allow it, do you understand me?” Mr Jackson said to the two head students.

“Yes sir, understood,” Natasha responded for the both of them before they headed back to their seats. An hour later, I asked the steward for a favour, and after consulting her colleague, I was given the go-ahead, as I stood and headed towards the centre of the plane, stopping at Bradley’s seat.

“Up you get, we are changing seats for a few hours, I am in 7A, Natasha, you will get your turn a little later,” I announced. “For real?” Bradley asked in shock, “Yep, for real, unless you don’t want to, then I will offer the seat to Natasha,” I replied smiling.

Bradley tried to jump up, forgetting that he had his seatbelt on still, which made us chuckle, and I watched as he happily moved forward towards my seat. “That is very generous of you Sebastian,” Natasha said to me as I took Bradley’s seat, next to hers. “Not a problem, just wait till you get your turn in a few hours,” I replied, as I settled into the uncomfortable economy seat.

Fifteen minutes later, Nicholas appeared and he didn’t look too happy. “Oh man, does he snore real bad! Your turn Natasha, you can take my seat, I am in 7C, and Ms Parks has taken over Simon’s seat,” Nicholas announced, as Natasha unbuckled her seat and headed forward, while Nicholas sat next to me.

I was partially asleep when I heard a person clear their voice, and I opened my eyes to see the steward standing there, with Bradley standing behind her. “No more seat swapping please Master Sebastian, we have had complaints about loud snoring,” she said to me, and I saw Bradley blushing, as Natasha appeared behind him.

“Thanks, mate, I slept so well while up there, shame it has to end,” Bradley said to me, Nicholas and I stood to let them take their seats before we returned to our seats, and Simon had also returned to his seat. “Three hours in those seats was plenty for me,” Simon commented, and Nicholas nodded in agreement. I just smiled at this comment, as I glanced at my watch and saw that we had only changed seats for just under three hours, and we were only 5½ hours into our flight.

I woke up when someone gave me a gentle nudge, “Wake up Mr Sleepy, time for breakfast,” Nicholas said to me, and I saw the steward with her meal trolley approaching, and I glanced at my watch, and saw that I had been asleep for a good eight hours, so we only have less than four hours of flight left.

Just moments after receiving our breakfast, there was an announcement. “Ladies and Gentlemen, due to a technical issue, we will be diverting to Rome, and we will be landing there in twenty minutes. Cabin crew please finish serving breakfast then prepare for landing.” Shortly after the announcement, we felt the plane starting to descend, as we quickly ate our breakfast, and returned our trays.

The landing was uneventful with an awesome view of the city, and as we taxied towards the terminal, there was another announcement. “Ladies and Gentlemen, we have made arrangements for you to stay in the transit lounge until arrangements can be made to transport you all to London, thank you for your patience and understanding on this matter.”

We had to go through passport control before we could settle in the transit lounge, and thankfully I had my laptop computer, as well as my iPad with me to keep me entertained, but firstly I had to call Dad to tell him what was happening. Once we had settled in the transit lounge, I pulled out my mobile and called my dad.

“Hi, it’s me. The plane had to divert to Rome due to technical issues, we landed about half an hour ago, and we are all in the airport transit lounge waiting to hear when we will be continuing onto Heathrow,” I said to Dad in Manx when he answered the call. “Do you want me to charter a business jet for you, so you don’t have to wait around for hours and hours?” Dad responded.

“I think it would be best if I stay with the rest of my classmates and teachers, and after the first flight, when you had me and the lads moved to Business class, I decided to explain why we were there, starting with speaking in Manx, and after translating to English, everyone except those in the know was shocked. I was grilled by the two head students for a short while until Mr Jackson intervened.

I even let the two head students have a short time experiencing sitting in business class until the head boy ruined it with his loud snoring, and the senior steward put an end to it,” I said to my Dad, who laughed at this. After a bit more of a chat, we ended the call, after letting Dad know that I would call him just before we take off again.

That ended up being about seven very long hours later, and by then we were all very tired and grumpy. It was decided that Dad would fly to London and collect my extra luggage, from the place we were staying, and he would take it all with him back home, while I remained with my classmates, staying at the Astoria Hostel near Hyde Park, in Kensington.

For the next three days, we toured all over London, with Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gardens, and the Prince Albert Statue all less than one street block away from where we were staying, and the Natural History Museum, Kensington Palace plus the Victoria and Albert Museum, located just a few blocks away.

From London, travelling west, we stopped to check out the city of Oxford, as well as Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill, and the ‘Harry Potter Tree’, as well as the butterfly house and the Marlborough Maze, we also called in to see St Martin’s Church in the nearby town of Bladon, which is a beautiful old church with one of the graves around it being the resting place of Sir Winston Churchill.

We stayed overnight in a travel lodge in Witney, just west of Oxford, and from there we continued west, stopping to check out another historical place, that being 11^th Century Gloucester Cathedral, which is a stunning building, and the grounds are the resting place of King Edward the 2^nd before we continued to just beyond the town of Kingston, where our accommodation at Dunfield House in Herefordshire is located, just 500 metres in a straight line to the border into Wales.

The 16^th-century building and its stables provide plenty of room for all of us and include an indoor pool and 5 acres of fields and has history, going back to Queen Mary's attempt to make England a Catholic nation, which resulted in the owner of Dunfield House at the time, being accused of treason because of his Christian Beliefs. The property was taken by the government, until his death, when justice was restored and his widow became the rightful owner of Dunfield House.

We stayed there for two nights with a full day of activities, before setting off once more, crossing into Wales, and heading north with our first stop being Newtown, where just north-east of there were the 13^th-century castle ruins of Dolforwyn Castle. There wasn’t much left of it, but there were some fairly awesome views of the countryside from there.

Our next stop was just out of the town of Welshpool, where we visited the National Trust-owned Powis Castle, which is huge and has massive gardens. From there we continued to travel north, learning later that we had crossed over into England for 19 kilometres before crossing back into Wales.

After an overnight stop at a Travel Lodge, just south of Wrexham, we checked out nearby Erddig Manor which has some impressive displays of old cars, coaches, and bicycles, landscaped gardens, and an 18^th-century manor house.

Travelling south-west to the town of Trevor, we began our big hike, which was a distance of 11 kilometres one way, to a place called ‘World’s End’ and when we finally reached it, we were totally stunned at the views from there, it was so incredible it was hard to describe it.

After five hours of hiking, we were all very tired by the time we returned to the road coach that we had been travelling in, and after just a short trip, we arrived at the World Heritage-listed Pontcysyllte Aqueduct where we hired two narrowboats, to cross over the aqueduct on the canal, which was amazing, stopping about two kilometres down the canal at a café for a meal, before returning to the road coach just before dark.

Just over an hour later, we arrived at our next accommodation in Liverpool, having crossed back into England, just 15 minutes north of Wrexham. Having already eaten dinner, and feeling very tired from all the hiking we did today, we all retired to our rooms, and I for one fell asleep very quickly.

The following morning after breakfast, we all headed down to the waterfront where we checked out the Beatles Statue, the Titanic Memorial, the Museum of British Music, and the Maritime Museum, and we had a ride on the Ferris Wheel of Liverpool before having an early lunch and collecting our luggage, and heading to the Ferry terminal, to board the ferry to Douglas, that leaves at 2.15 pm.

Arriving on the Isle of Man, once everyone and their luggage were loaded onto the two small buses, we headed towards Marine Drive, and I was about to ask the driver why we were going this way, knowing that the road comes to a dead end, due to landslides, when I thought about the famous Marine Drive Arch, and I smiled and waited till we arrived there, as the driver slowed right down, as we passed under it.

A few kilometres down the road, we pulled over into a car park at Pigeon Stream, where the driver explained, that we would be turning around at this point, as the road ahead had collapsed into the ocean due to landslides, and that he wanted to just show us some of the coastline, and the arch.

From the capital city, we headed north, with it now dark, we arrived at the Venture Centre and Bunkhouse, feeling tired after another long day. Happily, we learned that dinner was ready to be served, so we headed to the dining room for a hearty meal, that made everyone happy, including the adults.

After an awesome meal, we were shown around the property, and we were allocated our rooms for our stay, Nicholas, Simon, and one other classmate – Giles shared a room with me, and we quickly settled, had showers and headed to bed, ready for another day of adventure ahead of us.