I think we’ve all been there. You’re standing at the counter, waiting for the clerk to find your reservation, whatever it’s for, and you have this sinking feeling in your stomach that no matter how right you are, or think you are, you will not be getting it today.

We caught the tube to Paddington, the frantically busy, main railway station in London. Chelsea turns to me, “stay in your body mom.”

“I’ll try,” I say, but it’s useless, I can already feel the panic seeping in. We have arrived in plenty of time, it makes no sense. But the whirlwind of other people’s frenetic, rushing, confused, and sometimes fearful energy is palpable to me.

Needless to say, we have an uneventful, enjoyable ride out of London, into the beautiful Cotswolds district. Stow on the Wold in Cheltenham, the town I was born in saw, is our next destination for 3 days.

My cousin Bob picks us up at the station. We have not seen each other for 35 years. Although the car rental place is only 10 minutes away, he had insisted on coming ‘just in case there’s a snafu’.

And now we’re tapping our toes at the rental counter, as the amiable clerk taps on one device after another trying vainly to find our reservation. With crinkled brow he asks, “how do you spell your name again?” Oh dear, this is not good. “Don’t worry,” he says. “We’ll get you sorted.”

“Aha,” he looks up triumphantly…there’s a glimmer of hope. “You rented the car in our Worcester office, it’s only half an hour away.”

Chelsea groans and tries half-heartedly to convince him to rent us a car from there. But we are up against the system. Before the words are out of her mouth he is shaking his head.

Thank goodness Bob insisted on waiting to be sure everything went smoothly. His intuition was right on today.

The suitcases are loaded back into his car, and off we go at a breakneck pace to Worcester, before it closes.

Bob is our knight in shining armor today. A travel angel.

I’m relegated to the back seat as Chelsea takes the wheel on the opposite side to what she’s used to. She determines correctly, that Jai will have a more calming influence for her as she learns to navigate the ‘wrong-side’ of the road.