On The Island

Marion and Bryan came over to join us in Stratford upon Avon.We woke up to rain but this soon gave way to a sunny day.  As soon as Bryan heard that we were having a ‘full English’ in Weatherspoon’s, he said they would come earlier and have breakfast with us!.  I can’t believe the deals they have on there, if you buy 5 cups of coffee, you get one free (they stamp a card) and also one of the staff gave Mal a Weatherspoons paper full of vouchers for even more money off!!

We spent the day wandering around Stratford, the shops, the sights and the river where they were holding a day of Dragon Boat racing. Yet again we sat by the river and drank a Pimms, well Marion and I that is, the men had beer! We had a very relaxing day and then in the evening we went on a dinner river boat cruise on ‘The Countess of Evesham’. It was a really good evening with good food, good company and a couple of bottles of bubbly!! So nice to see Marion and Bryan again as it is a year since we saw them last. Thankfully Bryan is feeling much better.

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Mal and I went and had breakfast together at Weatherspoon’s. £2.79 for a full English breakfast(!) You don’t get prices like that in North Cyprus! When we finished I drove Mal to Warwick Uni for his exam meeting. I then went back to Stratford and shopped and went for a walk by the river as it was a lovely sunny day. I collected Mal at 4 and later we went out to dinner, finished off the evening with a jug of Pimms.

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Well, I did sleep, for a total of an hour and woke up suddenly obviously thinking I had slept through the alarms! It was so hot indoors and so I sat out on the terrace waiting for Jill to pick me up. We were at the airport in good time only to discover the plane was being delayed an hour! The plane was only half full to Dalaman and here a lot of people got off and only two boarded. So, the whole journey I had three seats to myself and tried to get some sleep.  Mal met me at Gatwick and we collected our hire car, a Golf TDi, which we discovered seems to run forever on an egg cup of diesel, OK, a slight exageration but does do a good mpg. and seeing as fuel is now above £1.22 a litre, quite an important factor. We drove to Stratford Upon Avon where Mal had booked us three nights in The Swan’s Nest Hotel, right by the river. I do love Stratford Upon Avon and when I win the lotto will be buying one of those lovely £2million + houses that has the River Avon at the bottom of their garden! Meanwhile three nights in the Swan’s Nest will suffice. We had a nice room with a view, unpacked and had a stroll along the river and then found a good restaurant for dinner, stopping on the way for Mal to pose with Lady Macbeth and Hamlet!

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Eastenders was a day late and so I downloaded that and then Rosie and I went to the ravine, meeting David walking Jekka on the way. He said he had just seen two black snakes in the ravine, so I stamped my way along the footpaths when I got down there. I guess the hotter it gets the more they will be attracted to the water. When I spoke to him about all the building noise he then informed me that Ali Semi is going to build another TEN houses, this really is never ending.

A wander around the garden and one of the cacti has started flowering and the lantana is covered in Red Admiral butterflies.

I spent the rest of the day cleaning up, cleaning the pool and packing ready to go to the UK, to have my ‘week’ of 60th birthday as Mal has promised. I leave the house in the capable hands of Ingrid.  Mal has been working hard so that he can take the time off from marking.

My flight was originally 7.30 am the following day but CTA in their wisdom decided to change it to 5.30am but then I suppose I should just be thankful that CTA still exist! I decided to go to bed and see if I could get a little sleep!

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Rosie and I were up early again. I went to download last night’s Eastenders, shock horror it wasn’t there! I guess instead they were covering all the shenanigans at number 10!!

It was another hot day, in the 30’s, excellent for swimming. Not much peace to do anything else as all I heard was a kango hammer and wagon loads of bricks being delivered. I have given up all hope of building stopping around us, noise and dust………paradise?!

In the evening we went to girlie Pizza night and sat outside. It was a really nice evening until there was a problem with the bill.

Patti had been to a civil defence meeting and so arrived late and had her 112 uniform on, hence the reflectors on her arms! When I arrived home I spoke to Mal, who keeps telling me how cold it is in the UK.

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I rang Sol first thing in the morning as it was his 12th birthday today. Happy Birthday Sol!!

I then went and had my hair cut at Cutting Room.

It was a very hot day, I guessed as much and Rosie and I were up and out at 5.30am.

So, Gordon Brown as resigned and a coalition government. I think there will be another election within the next 12 months.

In the evening I was sitting under the terrace and realised Rosie had been in the garden for a long time so I went looking for her. As soon as she saw me she started barking at a bush. Of course at first I thought it may be a snake so went indoors to get the torch, not quite sure what I would have done had it been a snake so I made Rosie sit away from the bush, shone the torch and saw a baby hedgehog who Rosie had obviously scared to death. I decided to leave it as I am sure the rest of the family were around somewhere. I’ll keep an eye out in the evenings.

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Down into the ravine for our morning walk and the stream is still running much to Rosie’s delight so that she could get us muddy as possible.  I still find it difficult to believe that prior to the February floods this was all a footpath. The power of water!

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