Year: 2021

We took Ellie for a walk and it started raining.

Mal then went to catch the train to his brothers in Tewkesbury as he hasn’t seen him for such a long time.

I started cleaning with no muddy allotment boots coming in and out!

Thought for the Day – “Allow yourself to be proud of yourself and all of the progress you have made. Especially the progress that no one else has seen.”

I went shopping to Westwood, totally uninspired by most things I saw. I will have to sort out my Christmas present list very soon.

What a surprise, £672 has been paid into our bank account by Easyjet. It certainly pays to complain and keep at it!

We always  go out for a meal on the anniversary of losing Torin. This year we were in Malta, so tonight was the night we all went to the Crispin. We went to the cemetery first and Lou and Rhys left some flowers. Then on to The Crispin.

We always toast Torin with Guinness (a family tradition, my mums favourite tipple!) “Sorry we don’t have any on draught”. Ok we’ll have bottles, “sorry we don’t have any”. Not a good start. We ordered alternatives and were handed the menus.

Crispin cook delicious Caribbean food. Something new on the menu, swordfish curry, which I ordered. You guessed it …. “Sorry we don’t have any tonight.” We were very tempted to drink our drinks and move on to the George and Dragon. Had something else been missing we were going to leave. Rhys started laughing, things often go wrong for me and I think he was waiting for me to get up and leave. However they did have everything else on the menu and so we stayed and I have to say I thought it was the best chicken jerk I have had there.

Mal and Rhys ordered the goat curry. All our meals came including dumplings in separate dishes. BUT Mals goat curry didn’t come, he had told Rhys to have the first one that arrived and we had all started eating. Mal started on his dumpling! Well, Rhys was laughing again and in the end Ollie went to ask where the second goat curry was. We think they had forgotten it but it came shortly afterwards, we were all half way through our meals! Not the best service. Rhys’s grin is because he had the first goat curry, I don’t think he would have been as patient as Mal!

It was a lovely evening anyway and of course a toast to Torin. Missed so much.

Thought for the Day – “The most beautiful things in life are not things. They are people and places and memories and pictures. They are feelings and moments and smiles and laughter.”

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A nice walk with Ellie, even if she did go chasing after a mobility scooter that wasn’t Chris’s, the one who has all the dog treats in his basket! It was one of Chris’s neighbours who knows Ellie.

I forgot to mention that I had to withdraw from working at Pilgrim’s Hospice shop. I was receiving text while I was on holiday but prior to that because of one particular person, whose actions were more than extreme, it wasn’t the pleasant atmosphere I was used to working in. I don’t give up easily but this frantic working environment took its toll on me.

I met Jackie for lunch, we had such a good chat. She wanted to hear all about Torin and the twins and so it was really nice that she was interested. Very therapeutic for me.

Thought for the Day – “Maybe the journey isn’t so much about becoming anything. Maybe it’s about unbecoming everything that isn’t really you, so you can be who you were meant to be in the first place.”

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Our wedding anniversary…23 years. That doesn’t seem possible.

We took Ellie and went to Kearsney Abbey. She was very happy jumping in and out of the water and some other dogs joined her.

We decided to go out for lunch instead of the evening and within walking distance so I could have a drink. We went to The George and Dragon in Sandwich and we were even able to sit out in the garden. We had one of the best meals we have ever had there and ended up with three courses it was so good. Mal’s starter was a WHOLE Camembert!

We met a couple in there from Gillingham and so we walked back along the river with them. They are staying at the leisure park.

Later we received the results of our PCR tests, both negative.

We took Ellie with us and drove to Wye to drop off our PCR tests.  We thought once we dropped it off we could walk Ellie over the North Downs.

We took the tests to the pharmacy and you had to just drop them in a box on the floor! The boxes were overflowing. Yes, they really take care of them….NOT!!

From the pharmacy we walked towards the North Downs. A lovely walk but we couldn’t go as far as we planned as the rain started.

I  developed a migraine by the time we were home, so went to bed. I haven’t had one for a long while.

 

We were a bit more human when we woke up, so I sorted out the rest of the unpacking and we took Ellie to King George park for a nice walk.

It was sunny but very windy and Alison’s Kiosk had prepared, so we had a coffee there.

Mal started the claim for the flight, we were too tired the previous day!

We also had to do our PCR test! Another day and we wouldn’t have had to do it. Typical, another waste of £86.

In the afternoon we watched the football. Mal was happy Hammers beat Spurs…I wasn’t!  We then watched Liverpool totally thrashing Man U. Rhys and co will not be happy.

Eventually we just heard an announcement that our flight was boarding! We boarded, complete change of Easyjet staff and a “We apologise for the delay” from the captain. By this time we were all exhausted but neither Mal nor I slept on the plane. It was also so uncomfortable having already sat for so long.  I sincerely hope others will be doing the same as us and applying for compensation.

We had suggested, when we knew the delay, that Lou went to bed as she was collecting us. Bless her as we came out of the airport, she was there. Back to their house and Rhys had my car all ready to go, windows clean etc. We had a quick cup of tea, collected Ellie and home!

What a rubbish end to the holiday. The only bonus was there weren’t long queues when we arrived at Gatwick as we were the first plane landing. Do we really want to go abroad again taking into consideration no customer service from Easyjet along with all the paperwork needed now because of Covid and the queues when so many people had not done it correctly, who knows.

In the afternoon we walked to the allotment to keep us awake a bit. Lots of squash and marrow and more runner beans and sweet corn.

We decided to see if we could stay up rather than go to bed which we did but it was hard to keep our eyes open. By 8.30pm we gave in and went to bed.