Hola Español........

 
Hubby got a chip on his windscreen coming home from sisterP's two weeks ago and thankfully it wasn't a problem, however parked in direct sun at the pub last Thursday caused it to crack, and the crack grew longer. He couldn't get it replaced under insurance conditions before our holiday so he's reluctantly changed our airport carpark booking from his car to mine. 

Saturday Daughter asked Hubby to hang a door (gifted by Son from his house refurbishment). Of course nothing is ever straightforward is it? The door was a lot shorter than the frame, as she wanted it to cut the draft it would be useless, so Hubby came home, found some wood, went back and with all his self taught carpentry knowledge he extended the door for a perfect fit. 

Son and fiancé with their dog will be moving into our house for some of the time we are away, firstly to dog sit for Daughter and also to be out of their house when the staircase gets ripped out and replaced. Therefore these few days before we go have all been housework so it's clean and tidy throughout. Housework for me always benefits from frantic motivation! 

Sunday evening and Hubby went out for a curry with a couple of bloodrunners. Of course Hubby isn't part of that now and this was arranged because another member had left and moved to Italy with this a rare visit back. I don't eat curry, I won't even sit in an Indian restaurant, I really really don't do curry so it's a treat for Hubby and thankfully he didn't come home stinky! 

Quite a relaxed Monday. Everything on the spare bed ready went into the cases easily and both weighed well under the cabin bag limit. 

Noisy fun coffee morning for eight of us and another neighbour has arranged to host it next Monday while we are away. 

Nails appointment for the afternoon. Amusingly my technician had forgotten and was gardening (thank goodness she hadn't gone out) she stopped immediately, then doing my nails while apologising all the time.

Tuesday started at 6am and out of the house by 6:45am. The traffic was really heavy due to road works but we got to Stansted Airport before the others. FriendsT&F arrived next but friendsM&P were messaging about a problem and detour and serious delay. Four of us went for breakfast and finally we were six. Then all the usual airport rigmarole and we were off. 

phew 25°C getting off the plane and queues and walking to get to the hire car place and finally at friendM's apartment and relax..... until the supermarket trip. Dinner was the walk down the hill to Mama Nostra for pizzas and pasta. On the way home we stopped at David's Bar where the guys played pool and the other two girls had a cocktail each. 

Wednesday and a leisurely start, then to the market at La Cala and comparing our purchases over lunch and drinks. 

Everyone had a nap at home when we got back, except me I read my book. 

We had a very interesting drive to find the restaurant friendM had been to (only once before) and their phones had lost signal so wasn't much help. Found it and enjoyed a bbq menu accompanied by live music. 

On the way home it was discovered our hire car had satnav 🤣

And again last stop was David's Bar. The girls reported these cocktails were not as good as their previous choice. 

Thursday and after a little DIY by Hubby and friendP we all took a walk down to the sea front and stopped for lunch.....mmmmmm sardines fresh off the bbq.

Slow Boat Chinese restaurant was a really yummy whole evening with food coming out in three courses and two extra rounds of brandy and vodka caramel on the house. Hubby was driving so we both donated our spirits to the others. 

Friday relax day and lunch on the balcony

This weekend is a big festival here, guess it's for mayday. About 5pm-ish we headed into Fuengarola. Parking was almost impossible so some were dropped off while two drive off to park. There was a large fun fare and a long road of stalls and areas for international food and music.

so much meat being bbq'd. Although it was almost evening it felt like the hottest part of the day. It got so crowded that it got too much for me so Hubby and I left the others to sit somewhere cooler. We all met up again at 9pm and walked towards where the car was parked looking for a good place to eat. It was a looooong walk. Nice Italian restaurant in "Fish Alley" more walking then finally home about midnight. 

It's now Saturday morning but I'll post this now as usual and continue in next week's.

Adios.

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Packing It In.......

 
Five machine loads of washing (extra load was smelly blankets used by smelly dog) and fitting it all onto clothes horses (it keeps raining) in my craft room was Saturday's challenge ✔

Lovely sunny Sunday and Hubby spent the morning leather clad on a bike ride with a few blood runners he used to bike with plus about 200 others. He hasn't done one of those for a long time and thoroughly enjoyed it. Meanwhile I printed off my holiday check list and made a start gathering stuff to pack. All takes a lot longer than it used to! 

Soon after coffee morning friendM picked me up and we went off to lunch together. Always good to have a one-to-one catchup.

Tuesday and our youngest O is now 14! All grown up in no time at all. 

He's a wonderful grandson, especially as he gives great hugs whenever I ask. We popped in in the morning to say happy birthday with card and present and share tea and cake. Before we went there we dog proofed our lounge as we'd been asked to have her for the afternoon but turned out R was working from home so we didn't need to. Came home and put all the dog proofing away again. 

Wednesday evening out with the usual gang and now less than a week until the six of us holiday in Spain. FriendM had planned to book us all in for our flight and print off the boarding passes to give us now, but she nearly had a panic attack when she realised the passport details she had for FriendsT&F were almost expired, she messaged and they had renewed them both just forgot to pass on the details of the new ones.... phew panic over and she'll bring the paperwork for us all to the airport. 

Thursday and ages ago I'd booked a lunchtime table at The Fox and Raven in Chelmsford for us and friendsL&K (as it's midway between our homes), I'd had the confirmation by email and text, plus this morning at 9:30am a text said "looking forward to seeing you today". Then Hubby called up the stairs that the pub is shut! He just looked up directions and to check where all the road works are and discovered the pub said "temporarily closed for refurbishment" lots more investigation found it had been closed for ages and one notice said opening spring and another said autumn!  We phoned friendsL&K and all decided to meet there anyway as we had a plan B. Sure enough we arrived to find the building gift wrapped and surrounded by scaffolding. Next door is a Miller&Carter steak restaurant. Lovely lunch and great conversation as always and all agreed plan B was the better choice anyway. I've messaged Vintage Inns with my complaint, let's see if anything comes of it. 

Hopefully I'll post again next Saturday but I'll be in Spain and not sure what Internet connection I'll have. We are back in time for coronation weekend so there will be plenty to tell you about. 

Till then take care.

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Happy to Help......

 
We go on holiday at the end of the month and as I've had a very sedentary winter Hubby thought "we" needed to get used to more movement, so it's a walk every day it's not raining. Saturday my phone recorded 6,518 steps and about 2.5 miles so nothing drastic but the main benefit should be the uphill bit back to our house as my friendM's apartment also has a long uphill walk from the beach or local shops/ restaurants/ bus stop etc. and then four flights of stairs to her front door. 

Lovely Easter Sunday as we were joined by Daughter, M, R, O and the dog of course. I made the lamb roast with the addition of rice for those that don't eat potatoes and vegan vegetable-fingers for the non meat eater. Daughter brought rhubarb and apple crumble for dessert and M brought some unusual Easter cakes he'd bought in town (a shop that does a lot of eastern European specialties) they were like a heavy sweet yeast bun with a baked cheesecake filling, very nice but rather large so Hubby and I had half each and saved the other one. 

Sunday evening I received an email from someone in the team I last worked with, she had emailed all four of us asking if someone could help with a design problem in Word. One replied he was on holiday, one replied she was unwell, one didn't reply at all so she must be on holiday, and of course I said "send it all to me, I'll have a look but making no promises". FriendA needs to create a catalogue for a charity auction, all items donated by various people and some had sent photos that were high resolution and huge files. FriendA couldn't get the table she'd created and the photos to behave. This needed concentration, too late on Sunday for that. 

Coffee morning was nice and lively. The weather was really wet and so windy that I think the chat cheered everyone up. The afternoon then got busy too as Son needed us to dog sit for the afternoon and while here he wanted to retrieve the garden swing seat we were storing for him. They arrived after lunch time and had a cuppa, Son noticed the rain had eased a little so quickly loaded the swing seat into his van. Soon after that he left with fiancé leaving their dog behind. They returned a few hours later all appointments and jobs accomplished and had time to stay for another cuppa before packing up the dog's stuff and all going home. 

While it was just us and the dog I had time to look at the Auction catalogue. Making full use of my phone, tablet, the laptop, the main computer, the 39 emails back and forth, needing WhatsApp too, the 17 versions of the 10 pics, some help from Hubby, moving between three versions of Word and finally printing to .pdf........... success and emailed back at 9pm. FriendA was thrilled.

To SisterP's on Tuesday. This was the postponed trip from last October when they both had covid and then they had a stressful house move, but we got there in the end, especially good as we hadn't seen them in person since mid 2019. Six of us met in their local pub, that's me and Hubby, SisterP & bilR and SisterS & bilK. Nice meal and even nicer when P&R paid for it all. Back to their house and a full guided tour as we'd not been to this one before. We also met their dog for the first time and she's incredibly friendly (although I suspect it was more our cake she was hoping for). Tea, cake and lots of chat and then the 2.5 hour drive home. Lovely day. 

Wednesday our usual gang night at Prezzo then the pub. Hubby chose not to drink as Daughter wants an early lift in the morning and it's so easy to feel sober but still be over the limit. 

Alarm set Thursday and 8:15am Hubby took Daughter, R and O to the station and brought the dog home. They were off to London and Daughter was surprising them with Kew Gardens. R especially is really into plants at the moment. It stayed dry for them and us all day so Hubby and I took the dog over to the park, I walked but Hubby did a couple of runs with the dog which she loves. 

Dog was quite relaxed for the rest of the day and mostly snuggled up beside me. Shame it was a day she was very smelly hahaha. 7:15pm Hubby did the return trip of putting the dog in the car and picking a tired threesome up from the station and taking them all home. Daughter immediately bathed the dog, she doesn't look happy does she? 

Friday morning and a lovely chap came in his van to pick up all the stuff Hubby had sorted from the loft and I'd added to for the salvation army charity shop. 

I had a lunch date that was long overdue (pandemic-lockdowns-interrupted of course) this was with the teacher and another student from my art A-level course which I started in 1994 after which a crowd of us kept in touch and met, they gradually dropped out until it was just the three of us determined to maintain at least two lunches a year and the Christmas card swap. It was lovely. We ate in the town centre so I thought I could actually use my bus pass for the first time since I qualified for it in 2017, but Hubby insisted on dropping me off and picking me up. He's an angel. 

We rounded off the day with an evening of dog sitting, this time for Son while he took fiancé out for a meal and special performance at the Ipswich Corn Exchange. 

So a busy week, guess you'd worked that out by this very wordy post. 

Really need to think about a bit of packing for our holiday as it's only 10 days away. 

Enjoy your weekend.

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All Improved With Chocolate.......

 
I bought tickets for myself, Daughter and R for a performance of Village Idiot at the New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich. It looked OK on their what's coming page and the cast included members of the Ramps on the Moon group. I'd seen the group before and they were brilliant. 
This time, however, only a few were included into this cast of just six. 

We were warned......

     Contains very strong language and discusses themes and uses language some may find upsetting relating to class, race, ethnicity, sexuality, sex, gender identity and disability.
     This production contains flashing lights, mild strobe lighting, loud music and sound effects, haze, fire, a shotgun (fired offstage), the smoking of herbal cigarettes, blood and realistic magic tricks.
     'Village Idiot' uses outrageous comedy to tell the story. It will certainly shock some people. It will certainly offend some people. Some will be upset by the very strong language, which includes swearing. The characters make jokes about class, race, sexuality, sex, gender identity, trans people and disability. 

     The New Wolsey Theatre doesn’t endorse the offensive terminology used by some of the characters. We believe one of the roles of theatre is to hold a mirror up to the world we live in; to begin a dialogue and challenge perceptions. For us, 'Village Idiot' ultimately carries a message of inclusivity, arguing that when we learn to accept each other’s differences and celebrate our individuality, the world is a richer place.

However, there was a reasonable story line that for all three of us was totally spoilt by constant swearing and constant mention of very explicit sex which was so constant it lost the shock value and the humour. The story was also interrupted all the time by the ridiculous front of curtain side story bits which is often used to allow for elaborate costume changes or very physical scene changes, so I was disappointed when the curtain raised to hardly any change at all. 

There was laughter from the audience throughout and some even stood at the end, the three of us did neither, had we missed something or were they being polite? Maybe my mistake for buying tickets for 1st April.

This reminded us of another awful performance daughter and I saw in October 2013 and one of the actors even agreed on my blog post review. Very funny. 

Lovely sunny weather this week, still chilly but everything is looking spring like. In the pond there's still a very large cloudy mass of frog spawn and although you can't see them on this photo, there are lots of tiny tadpoles swimming. 

While I was over there Hubby showed me lots of scratches in the paving. So what clawed animal had made them and was it chasing something or being chased? You may need to zoom in to see what I mean. 

A quiet week and thought it would be a very quiet bank holiday weekend as Daughter and Son had other plans. However Son needed to come over Friday morning to swap his car for his van and he invited Daughter to join us who also brought O and the dog. So that was lovely having them here for a few hours. O made himself pancakes as he has had pancakes every day since shrove Tuesday and is planning to keep that up till next shrove Tuesday. 

Daughter's weekend house guest has had to cancel (covid still interfering) so now she's invited themselves to have Sunday dinner here with us. Phew as that now means the whole leg of lamb won't last the two of us months hahaha. 

Happy Passover or Easter whichever you celebrate.

Paws in Proceedings.........

 
We had a lovely lie in Sunday morning and I got up at 8:15ish, came down and picked my phone up to look at the news headlines. Lebanon woke today in a two time zone conflict as the Christians were putting their clocks forward on the last Sunday of March as always but the Muslims wanted to wait until after Ramadan. That's when I remembered our clocks went forward, except in this house, so it was now 9:30am the latest I'd got up since being a teenager or when I'm ill. No plans spoilt so no harm done. 

Monday was busy. Started with Hubby heading across town at 8am to pick up a car battery Son had bought, then come home and fit it into Son's car.

Coffee morning as usual. 

Son fiancé and their dog arrived early afternoon. They parked the camper van and took the car and left the dog behind. 

We were dog sitting so they could go to a gig in Brighton. 
Daughter was dropping her car here during the evening to be picked up for a service and MOT Tuesday. She rang ahead in the afternoon saying she thinks a front headlight is out. Hubby sorted out a spare light ready. She arrived with O about 9pm and said she'd been mistaken, her headlight is fine it had just looked odd in the sunlight (wonder why she had lights on in sunlight?). They left with my car. 

Hubby went up to bed about 10:30pm.

Son and fiancé arrived back at 1:30am, said the gig was brilliant. Of course the dog was soooooo pleased to see them and very happy to be taken home. Think I was asleep as my head hit the pillow. 

Thursday was the turn for Daughter's dog. Daughter, O and their friends were off to London for an opera with juggling, sounded amazing. 

I tried an experimental bake as there was apple puree to use up. I put pastry on the bottom and blind baked it, apple puree over the pastry the sponge mix on top. Guess the apple was too wet and the pastry didn't survive and the sponge only cooked round the edges. 

Oh well, nothing ventured nothing gained eh? Not a total waste as I deconstructed it and the edible sponge got served with custard. 

And pleased to report that only now after nearly two weeks the pain in my foot is almost gone. I'll give it just a little longer before cancelling the physio appointment I have for the 20th, just in case.

Off to the theatre tonight which you'll hear about in next week's post. 

Have a good weekend.

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