Month: December 2024

A little shopping at Tesco, Manston and bumped into Sue who used to work at Cancer research. She was with her new man and is moving in with him!  So, my short shop took longer than planned.

In the afternoon we went to Heather’s house (Mal’s exs sister) and met Tris and Natalie and also Violet who was over from Canada for Christmas. We had mince pies, Stollen and exchanged presents.

Violet is a teenager and didn’t take her headphones off!! Everyone made a big fuss of Ellie!

We took Ellie to Botany Bay. She loves running along the beach and rolling in the sand. It was very cold but the sun was out, not bad for December!

The beach was covered in mussels.

We then delivered Mal’s sisters Christmas present and from there went on to Dom and Jem’s to deliver their present.  They now have three cats. The other two we have met before and are fine with Ellie. The new one Yellow walked into the living room saw Ellie and it was truly like a cartoon, she jumped right into the air and ran back out!

The roads coming home were horrendous, so much traffic but at least those deliveries are done.

I went into Deal to collect my corrected glasses. I think they have made the correct alteration. Time will tell. Deal was packed and I spent ages trying to find a parking space in Aldi!! I only just arrived at the opticians in time. When I returned and shopped in Aldi, the check out didn’t give me my change or receipt. I called the assistant over and he apologised . I explained I needed the receipt in case they tried to fine me again!  He then told me even their staff have been fined! About time they sorted this out then!

The crazy vegetable rush is on…………8p for various vegetables, which I  bought quite a lot to make soup with and I also bought another side of salmon, gammon and beef joint from Sainsburys, of course all half price. The freezer is full!

In the evening we watched a very good football match Spurs v Man Utd. I have to say Spurs were lucky to get through to the semi final!! A tense game.

Our Kent Lavender Ladies – Red Hatter lunch. They really are a lovely diverse group. We have so much fun together. I have to say we went to the Anchor at Wingham and they exceeded our expectations for a Christmas lunch, everyone loved it. We had a prize for the best decorated hat and also a Secret Santa.

George came to collect Annie about 9am. He brought a huge box of biscuits and some lovely flowers to say thank you. Bless them.

We took Ellie for a very long walk over the fields and I think we wore her out as she slept for the rest of the morning.

I managed to unpack at last and do the rest of the washing and put the cases away. I also prepared my “decorated red hat” for our red hat Christmas lunch. Sadly I am not that artistic unlike one particular member of our red hat group! I certainly know, I will not be winning the best dressed hat!

At last having only seen a small selection of the Strictly Final. I sat and watched the whole thing!

We went through all the post and amongst it was a parking fine letter from Aldi in Deal from 5th December. Of course I use cash, so couldn’t check my bank statement and couldn’t find my receipt but I know I definitely put my car reg in their machine. Mal got on to it as we have read their machine frequently goes wrong! They have now cancelled the ticket.

My goodness we were tired but we had agreed to look after a sweet King Charles that we have looked after previously. They were desperate and said they would pay anything. I told them we would have her for nothing, I didn’t want paying and as she said they would always look after Ellie, so we agreed to work it a bit like a babysitting circle!

Annie arrived about 9am so we took them both for a walk.

She was good all day apart from the fact that she snores when she is asleep! She certainly made herself at home.

It rained all night! It was still raining when we went for breakfast. A leisurely breakfast and then we went back to the room to pack. We checked out at 12 and the receptionist locked our cases away until our transport arrived  at 2pm.

Meanwhile we went in the lounge and I had my last poncha .

Then Sardines for Sunday lunch! So delicious.

It was still raining all the way to the airport and as the pilot said”Unusually the weather is better at Gatwick” . I think we left at the right time.

Lou was waiting for us at Gatwick and took us back to their house to collect Ellie and my car. It was about midnight by the time we got to bed.