On The Island

We walked in the Minster Fields. It was lovely listening to the birds so I had  my bird identifier on, blue tits, great tits, robins of course, chaffinch and a dunnock. Spring must be on the way! At least the rain stopped for a day.

Traitors in the evening!

A miserable day, it just kept raining!  I went to Westwood Cross for an overdue car clean. Mal usually does it but hasn’t recently, so I had quite a shock when told it was £35. They obviously polished the leather seats as I slipped on them when I got in the car.

I heard from Paula, she has now been registered partially blind and yesterday Gilly had her knee operation which went well.

Traitors in the evening again!

A walk along the river in Sandwich, still quite misty.

Lunchtime I met the Red Hat girls at Taddy’s Barn for lunch. A good lunch and really good company. Two didn’t come as they said it was too close to us going away on Saturday, so we will see them then.

We agreed as a group we have quite a lot on in February but decided out February lunch would coincide with a Marlowe theatre trip and meet earlier to go to  The Ivy, Canterbury.

In the evening Traitors, what twists and turns!

23,000 people in Kent without water and they have doubled the water bill! Thankfully we still have water BUT every time you drive out , there are “South East water” vans. How can” he” receive £150,000 bonus?

We have to laugh, in north Cyprus we always had water and a swimming pool. OK, we ordered tankers in the summer but it was a fraction of the extortionate  price they are charging for out current water bill.

We went to King George VI park. It was very misty and we managed to get our walk in before the rain started pouring down. A bit of a miserable day.

Also today our local hospital  (QEQM) have declared a “critical incident“. This country is broken!!

 

 

 

A work day and it was a big reshuffle of everything. I spent the day (in between serving) culling so many clothes. Jack is very good at redesigning layout of the shop. A lot of people come in and comment on how good the shop looks which is nice.

We took a drive over to Knees Wood but the gate was locked. We have tried to find out who owns it and why sometimes it is closed up. Locked out again today but a car followed us and so Mal got out to talk to the occupants. It seems East Kent Railway, a charity, own it and lock it after entry. They said we could go in but someone could lock us in and they “probably” wouldn’t open up until February.  We did try ringing for information but no one answered. Nice people, so we could be locked in if they felt like it!

From there we drove back to Minster for Ellie’s walk.

We watched the Hammers game later and they WON!!! It was stressful watching them though, especially in extra time!

A day in London. Ellie was left with Lou and Rhys and we caught the train to Victoria. We hadn’t decided where to eat but decided on a wander around Soho to see what we felt like. We just happened to be passing The Ivy when I remembered reading about their Heritage menu. It was busy and I think we may have had the last table for two!  Their heritage menu goes back to the date 1917, that they first opened. So at the moment they are charging £19.17 for a two course meal. We presumed it wouldn’t be up to their usual standard but it really was! Wow, were we delighted!! If you wanted dessert, along with this menu it was only £4.95!!!

A point to note here is that many restaurants are making offers for January and February, if you look for them. It is their quietist time of the year and they are desperate to get customers in.

Thanet are doing it for a week in February, many restaurants for £20.26 – for the New Year! That is a lot around Margate, Ramsgate and Broadstairs. We have booked two

Today we just couldn’t believe the good value we had along with a charming waiter!

We then walked round to the Palladium to see their panto – Sleeping Beauty. There wasn’t too much Sleeping Beauty story line in it but it is always so funny. Julian Clary and Nigel Havers are so good together and the guest this year was Catherine Tate. The costumes and set are just unbelievable. It is now in it’s 10th year.

We will book again next Christmas, it never disappoints.

The train back to Faversham, collected Ellie and stopped with Lou and kids for a cuppa and then home.