THIRTEEN may be an unlucky number for some but for Burleigh grandparents Gill and Peter Tomlinson it brought double good fortune at the end of 2005.

For two of their daughters gave birth to baby girls on the same day, December 13.

"You wait forever for your grandchildren to arrive then two come at once - just like London buses," quipped Gill, as she prepared for a frantic festive season with the new arrivals.

Gill, 66, and her husband Peter, 73, were expecting the babies to arrive around the same time but not on the same day.

Their eldest daughter Nicky, a dance teacher, known as Miss Nicky, gave birth to a 6lb 1oz girl, not yet named, at Cheltenham Maternity Hospital.

She runs the Cotswold Dance School in Bussage and teaches ballet at Beaudesert Park School in Minchinhampton.

Gill and Peter's youngest daughter Helen 36, who lives in Hertfordshire gave birth to daughter Imogen Amy, who weighed 7lb 6oz.

Gill, who runs the Minchinhampton Nursery Group and also has another daughter and a son, said: "We're thrilled to bits that both granddaughters arrived safely and are healthy little girls."

"I didn't even realise that Nicky had had her baby the same day until she called," said Gill.

Helen, and husband Andrew and their two older children Benjamin and Anna, are due to move to Woodchester in the summer.

Gill said: " I expect when Helen moves back here she and Nicky will be a great support to each other."