We all has breakfast and the sun was put so we headed back for a better time at Minnis Bay. Torin had his dog Boo with him and it’s so nice here to see all the dogs running on the beach together and having fun (unlike Cyprus!) These are the walks we used to do with my old Golden Retriever and English Setter.
We collected some beautiful shells.
Charlotte and Torin
Eventually back home and I had left a joint of beef roasting in the oven so it was all ready by the time we were back. We also bought some freshly baked cherry pies.
After lunch Charlotte, Torin, Scarlet and Jack had to leave as Torin is off to Germany for work early in the morning.
It was such a lovely afternoon that Mal and I went back to Broadstairs, down to the sea front and also spent some time in the Food Festival again.
Sunny Sunday afternoon in Broadstairs
We all went to Westwood to get Scarlet and Jack some new trainers and also head phones and MP3 Players. Back home for lunch and then rather than go to the Food Festival, which is what we planned, we went for a walk along Minnis Bay.
It was bracing! No other word for it, the wind was so cold and it also started raining. But we plodded on, soaking by the time we arrived back home.
Well, we had a lie in until 5am! Must have been the late night!
We went to Broadstairs Food Festival and it was as good as ever. I have been watching the Great British Bake Off but haven’t seen the last couple of episodes. It seems Chetna is now out and she was giving a demo in one of the food tents.
Chetna
We bought quite a few things and had a lot of tastings. A good thing we went early as it was very busy by the time we left.
In the evening we had tickets to see Chas and Dave at the Winter Gardens in Margate. Obviously it was a sell out. The seating was arranged in tables and we had the table right at the front in the middle. The secret is to buy tickets for all these shows as soon as they are advertised and so far we have been really lucky.
The first half of the show they played mostly numbers from their new album. The second half they played their classic numbers. From the moment they appeared on stage to start the second half, that was it everyone surged to the front to dance. The bouncers tried their hardest to get people to sit down. No way, you couldn’t sit down once they really got going. It really was like being back in one of the old East End Pubs. By the time they got round to singing “Dahn to Margit”, the theatre roof nearly came off. You could see how much they were enjoying to too! Fantastic night.
By the time we arrived home Torin, Charlotte, Scarlet and Jack had arrived for the weekend, along with Torin’s new car!
I was awake at 4.30 again, with a streaming cold…great! I went to Marcello’s to get my hair cut. We caught up with all the gossip. They have evidently been repeating the Come Dine with Me that he was in and now he is receiving more death threats! Do people really take that programme so seriously?! Mal stayed at home and took delivery of the chest of drawers for the spare room, the cane furniture for outside and also the dresser.
It’s all coming together bit by bit.
In the evening we went to babysit for Lou and Rhys while they went to watch Michael MacIntyre. The kids were very good and after Grandad reading them a story, we didn’t hear any more from them. Lou and Rhys enjoyed it. They hadn’t been to Theatre Royal before and said what a lovely theatre it is.
A good nights sleep at the Blazing Donkey and then into early breakfast. Normally we would go for a walk in the grounds and surrounding area but we had to get back for the man from Beaches! We were in stable number 1……
He delivered the furniture on time. Really nice man, we will have to go back to Deal to have a better look around his shop. He is open 7 days a week.
We invited Lou and Rhys for lunch and poor Rhys offered to put all the furniture together. I knew Mal would take forever to get round to it so that was a good job done but I ended up sending him home with a doggie bag as they had to dash off to pick the little ones up from school. Lou had eaten but Rhys hadn’t as he said he wanted to get on with it and get it finished.
Just as Lou and Rhys were leaving the spare room bed arrived. Well, they took ages putting it together and eventually told us that there was a part missing. Torin and Charlotte and the twins are coming on Friday, that is the urgency for the bed. Mal told them if you have part of it missing then just take it away! They told Mal someone would phone us. They were looking for the part. Someone did and told us it would be Friday…oh no…so Mal told them they could come and collect it. In the end Mal phoned the managing Director. About an hour later the two men returned and fixed the bed.
A complete bed in the spare room!
I think I failed to mention that yesterday I put up one net curtain, I needed two separate ones for the front window because of the way the double glazing opens. I put one up, cut the bottom as it was too long. When I took the second one out of the packet, one side of it was black where it had obviously been left somewhere to get damp or wet. So we had to return that to Dunelm. Sorry we don’t have any and there won’t be any of those in until Friday. So, we asked for the Manager He said he would replace it with a much longer curtain, as I was going to cut it anyway. Obviously why he is the Manager, he had a bit of common sense.
Two net curtains, chest of drawers, 2 bedside tables and a new spare bed all sorted and more coming tomorrow!
4.30am is really too early to be up and doing! Still on Cyprus time. Unfortunately we are not doing well with the internet we are using and may have to get the full package as we keep losing it. We are using Mal’s phone as a modem.
More shopping and we found a great shop in Broadstairs High Street called Second Chance. A lovely lady called Heather owns it. Her son does all the work on the furniture at the warehouse where they have masses of furniture. So, we bought a dresser and then round to the warehouse where we bought a cane settee and two cane chairs (not on our list!) and a chest of drawers. I am sure we will be going back there, lovely people. They are delivering on Thursday! I am afraid I don’t like Ikea type furniture and at the moment don’t have the time to invest on spending thousands on furniture in a hurry!
BUT in the afternoon, after a walk along Deal Beach and then the High Street we discovered a lovely shop with furniture in. The shop is called Beaches. It was flat pack but good quality flat pack or we could pay £30 each item for them to be built. We bought a chest of drawers and two new bedside cabinets. He said he couldn’t deliver until next week, fine we would leave it. Miraculously he found some stock and said he would be at our house at 9 tomorrow morning! That’s more like it! I was very tempted by a huge arm chair that was £900 but resisted!
From there we went to the Blazing Donkey in Ham for the night. Another deal I had bought , bed, breakfast and 3 course dinner for £62. We have been there a few times before so we know it is excellent food. But we could have done without it this time as we are so busy but we didn’t know that when we booked up! It gave us a rest! Excellent food as always and quite a lot of wine.
A long day, shopping mostly for things we couldn’t find! We did manage to buy 2 chairs in Birchington, having trawled around both Margate and Ramsgate. We bought some delicious apples in Waitrose, ‘Estivale’. That’s one thing about the UK, they know their apples! We did buy some net curtains, more bedding for the new bed and a new fleece blanket for Ellie!
A tiring day.
We are not quite sure what to make of the “lawn” here. It really hasn’t been seeded properly and they haven’t killed the weeds first…..another time! However it does look as though we have some resident birds in the trees at the back of the garden. That’s good.
