A wonderful wedding......

Sunday 6 December and one of my oldest friends (she's not old but we have been friends for almost ever) celebrated the wedding of her first son and we were invited to celebrate with them. About 12 years ago we all celebrated the wedding of her second son and I haven't met up with her family and mutual friends since then (although we do keep up with some news on facebook).

Hubby and I left home at noon looking like this

And drove to Maida Vale in London and managed to park (at about 2:30pm) on the road right near the oldest surviving synagogue in the UK, Bevis Marks, where the wedding ceremony was taking place at 3pm. Men and women sit separately and as I was saying my hellos to the few people I know I was hoping Hubby was ok as he knows a lot less people here than I do.

The Bima (raised central platform) had its columns packed with white flowers and the chuppah (canopy) was white lace

which looked beautiful against all the dark wood, unfortunately I was three rows back and behind a pillar so a very restricted view. I've saved all the photos that have popped up on facebook as I was never in the right position to get good photos myself (love social media).

From there we drove to Park Lane for the reception, and gave two of friendH's Israeli relations a lift too. As The Four Seasons Hotel is right near the Winter Wonderland now open over Christmas the whole area was really busy so Hubby dropped the three of us outside the hotel and went off to find somewhere to park the car.

I was greeted in the foyer by the groom who after a big hug introduced me to his bride "this is my mum's best friend, Aunty Beryl, and we all love her" how wonderful is that! His bride kissed me and said "I'm so pleased you are now my Aunty Beryl", made me smile.

Up to the first reception area on the first floor where filled champagne glasses were laid out, each one had a card disc with our names and table number. I just started sipping when Hubby arrived having parked in the Hilton underground car park nearby. We moved into another large reception room and stood chatting with more old friends for drinks and some exceptional hors d’œuvre.

Into the ballroom and we found our places at large round tables of 12.

The menu to come was

We started with dancing and speeches, and there was lots more of that between each course. Dessert was proceeded by an amazing violinist who was followed by staff holding each dessert with its own firework

truly spectacular!

We knew six of our table companions (the groom's family) and it was really interesting getting to know the other four. My new shoes had been quite comfortable all day, however my feet are prone to swelling so just before dessert (thankfully the car was close enough) Hubby got my flat shoes for me to do a swap under the table ahhhhh!

Then aware of our long drive home we said our goodbyes to those we could find (very crowded) about 11pm-ish and had a lovely drive through the West End and South Bank (due to road works diversion) looking at all the pretty Christmas lights and got home at 1am. We'd had a wonderful day. Muzel Tov to the Bride and Groom.
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No time for jetlag! .......

As you know we landed early hours Wednesday and straight to bed, up about 11am-ish I think. I managed to unpack everything and get a wash on. That evening I ate out in Felixstowe as usual, actually not totally as usual because they have refurbished our pub, no longer have a large round table and put the prices up but we'll still go there! Hubby was out bowling as he usually does on a Wednesday too.

Thursday was also a usual night out for me but not our usual art night as we had a demonstration of water colour techniques of how to paint water by the very clever Claudia Myatt. FriendDJ hasn't been too well recently but he wanted to make it to art so I picked him up and he loved the demo but needed to go home straight afterwards. FriendM and I then went on to Olive's Bar and met the others there for drinks and live music. We don't get there till after 10pm so another very late night.

I know during the days there has been lots of laundry processing and coffee breaks with neighbours, having to rescue my nails that hadn't been done for a month and disguise the growth gap which I could thankfully do with glitter varnish as it's party season (think it worked quite well)

and other stuff I can't really remember now, oh we did some gardening too and during the day Friday we had O while Daughter did the four hour round trip to collect R who had been with her dad for the week having an early Christmas, E and O had been with Daughter at their HE Christmas camp till Thursday night so that's why we hadn't seen them till Friday. When she got back it was a quick cup of tea catchup then wave them off so we could get ready for another night out. This was my x-work team Christmas dinner

I love it that we all still meet up even though we stopped working together more than six years ago.

Saturday morning Daughter was picking me up to take R to drama and so together with O we could be in the audience for the end of term performance. Unfortunately R was feeling quite unwell and tearful, so in the end we gave her paracetamol, left O with Hubby and the three of us drove to drama, she didn't feel any better when we got there so Daughter went in to explain and leave her costume there for the understudy. We actually came home and left R on the sofa under a blanket and took O out to see the local church Crib Festival (we all loved it, hope it becomes an annual event)

See we haven't stopped, so busy in fact that we are struggling to find any time to catchup with recorded tv programmes and we are running out of sky-planner space hahaha. 

It didn't stop there, as Sunday was a very big wedding day in London but that will get a post of its own. 

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Florida holiday, week 2, November 2015.....

Monday 23rd - quite chilly today although we stayed in reading and relaxing till mid-afternoon,

then went to the cinema for "Love The Coopers", very American Christmas story of a dysfunctional family that all ends happy ever after. Have to say the cinema seats were extra comfy! We then went to dinner at TooJays, my special burger was definitely special.

Tuesday 24th - after breakfast we had a lovely walk to the Eisenhower recreation area then played Shuffleboard

it was good fun, especially as Hubby and I won, although we later found out that we'd been playing it all wrong hahaha. Our men had booked an afternoon of golf so they dropped us in Brownwood square first for a mooch around the shops and a coffee. We moved out to the square when the live music started and I got friendly with a cowboy!

When a few people started line dancing friendL and I joined in, she's done the "Electric Slide" lots but my first time so I was grateful to have her to copy. We'd arranged to meet the men at Cody's for dinner and we got there first, but they arrived and said they'd got there first couldn't see us so left to look round the square then came back, although I'm sure we'd been there all the time, dunno how we missed each other! Mmmmmm bbq ribs and live music by Mark Seymour (brilliant singer) and lots more dancing, fast, slow and more Electric Slide (I'm an expert now).

Wednesday 25th - friendK had to spend a huge amount of time on a help line sorting out a bill for their UK mobile, and Hubby spent some time sorting out their laptop and friendL took the opportunity to do some of her ironing and I got to read lots of my book! We went out at 4pm into Sumta town square (about half hour away by cart). We left our men guarding four chairs while we popped to a couple of shops and bought a picture frame. When we joined the men the act was in full swing up on the stage, tonight it was Scooter a mad DJ.

Photo is a bit dark, actually not a good night for photos as this is the next selfie I took of us watching

...far too serious when we were really laughing all the time but the best one was too shakey because we were laughing and then the rest of the time we were up dancing! We went off to dinner at the Lighthouse Point and all had great fish meals, and we got back to the square for the last hour of Scooter and a bumpy ride home in the back of the golf cart. Great fun.

Thursday 26th - Today is Thanksgiving here in the US and I'd made this card for our lovely hosts

We went to the Evans Prairie Country Club for their Thanksgiving buffet lunch. Lots of great food and we all came away stuffed. It was a traditional turkey dinner and I tried the green bean casserole, grits stuffing and corn succotash......all good and fun to try new things. Hot again today at 26°C / 79°F. Spent the afternoon watching tv just like Christmas day but hotter! Birdcage a film starring Robin Williams is hilarious and a must see, I'll say no more hahaha.

Friday 27th - the men went off early for a round of golf, Hubby rarely plays but says K is a good coach so he enjoys it without doing anything awful. They got back quicker than expected so we planned to head off in the car to Crystal Springs in Citrus County. The day after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday and it's retail sales in a big way and everyone goes mad, so we were definitely avoiding shops. On our way there we stopped at a beautiful beach,  Island Fort Gulf Beach

Crystal Springs is famous for manatee sightings. The website mentioned boat trips, talks, viewing points, snorkeling trips etc. It was about an hour drive and we pulled into one marina and could see the one we wanted across the water so we drove out and round and still in the wrong place, then our pilot and co-pilot saw a sign for Three Sisters Springs which they'd seen on the website so we headed for that which took us miles out so turn around and miles back and stopped at another car park by an information office where they told us to go back to the main road and find the big information centre to buy tickets for the trolly bus as there was no car access anyway! Very bad signage! We were hungry so drove into Crystal historic district to eat (we were all very hungry by this point) then a quick mooch round the gift shops while we waited for the next trolly bus (too expensive to buy anything but a very pretty place)

We caught the trolly bus, had a walk along the boardwalk admiring the lakes and natural springs, spoke to the guides and learnt lots. .......but not a manatee in sight!

Tonight's entertainment was Rocky and the Rollers in the Brownwood Paddock Square and when we arrived it was already packed (holiday Friday night and residents have family and guests obviously)

We went to eat in Cody's again as they had live music too, I just had to have the ribs again and there was room enough to dance before the night ended.

Saturday 28th - this morning we walked around the farmers market

We had a coffee stop with cheesecake and apple pie. .....but I chose this

Then we went to play Bocci

When we got back we met the lovely neighbours that live opposite and while we were chatting they invited friendsL&K with their daughter who is visiting soon to join them for Christmas dinner, what a special community they have here, I'm so pleased for L&K. So many houses here are starting to put up their Christmas decorations so our first stop this afternoon was Walmart for friendsL&K to buy some outside bling and Hubby and I had a good wander and bought a few bits. We then went to Eaton's Beach

We were there especially for the restaurant and on K's recommendation I had fried green tomatoes as a starter followed by shrimp and grits for main course, both new to me and both really really good! TV before bed was actually a two hour drama on National Geographic called Saints and Strangers about how the English Pilgrims invaded and settled in America and their problems with the Native Indians and disease and starvation etc.

Sunday 29th - our last full day here! Lazy morning and after lunch we went to look at the new nature reserve

Then to Bonifay Country Club for coffee and key lime pie mmmmm! We had to hang around for our 6:30pm online check in for our flights tomorrow, then out in the golf cart

We ride "shotgun" at the back, (altho that pic was taken during the day not at night of course) for a lovely Italian meal. On the way home we drove around to see all the Christmas decorations going up, Hubby loved this biking Santa

We finished the evening by watching the second part of the pilgrims drama. It was gripping stuff.

Monday 30th - you know how you never want a great holiday to end. .......well we now have an extra 12 hours as Hubby checked his phone first thing to discover our flight home at 6:15pm had been cancelled! After logging in on K's laptop and making phone calls we are now booked on the 6:15am flight Orlando to Philadelphia, Philadelphia to Heathrow, then bus Heathrow to Gatwick where our car is! So we made the most of our extra day by first going shopping for all the extension cables they need for all the Christmas lights, then we went for brunch and came back for the men to get all the glitz fixed and lit, looks very pretty

When it was dark we had a lighting up ceremony. We spent a while outside chatting to neighbours and admiring our lights and theirs, and came in when we realised that we were all getting bitten! I've now three more bites one of which is getting quite large on my forehead. Out again in the car, and we ate quite late at Gaitors then walked to the square to catch the last 10 mins of the country and western trio, and we were introduced to another friend of theirs. All packed and ready so watched rubbish on tv and golf (when Hubby and L both went for naps) where I got some interesting explanations by K of what's going on, all really just wasting time!

Tuesday 1st December - we said our goodbyes and left our wonderful hosts at 2am, I'd already given them their Christmas card and we've brought some of theirs in a large envelope to post for them in England. Then off......car to Orlando Airport and the first hurdle as we couldn't just park the car and plonk the paperwork on the desk as we needed to pay for the extra day and fuel (we'd missed the fill-up place) and we had to get a receipt so we had to wait a while. ........then with a little time to spare we stopped for tea and a toasted bagel. ......no hassle flight Orlando to Philadelphia. ......just 20 mins from getting off that plane to the boarding gate of our next flight and it was a very fast walk from one end of the airport to the other (should have worn a pedometer and reported the result to friendL haha), there were a few people at the gate who also should have been on our original cancelled flight and they were "furious" and "so angry" and Hubby said "well they wouldn't cancel without good reason, and I'd rather not be on a plane with technical faults, would you?" they shrugged and moved on to moan to someone else!........Philadelphia to Heathrow and the plane was half empty so we could spread over three seats and the seats had more leg room anyway so we were quite comfortable apart from the whole cabin temperature being quite chilly so I was under blankets all the time. The food was really good too. We landed about 10:30pm (back on UK time now) but of course we are still in the wrong place.........so rather than waiting around for the airport shuttle bus we jumped into a taxi who agreed a fixed price of £100 (meter would have clocked up £140) we asked for a receipt to add to the claim. Lots of road works made him do a longer diversion and then obviously he couldn't go into the long stay carpark so he had to take us to the terminal........for us to go inside then out the right door to catch the bus to our car. As we'd overstayed we couldn't drive straight out as we had to go into the office and pay extra and get another receipt of course.........then the drive home with more roadworks and diversions.

Wednesday 2nd December - finally walked through our front door at 2:15am and so grateful that our lovely neighbourA had put our heating on. Quick message to friendsL&K to say we are home but not to anyone else as they would all be asleep and very soon after so were we! Very sweet dreams of our lovely Florida Villages holiday.
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Florida holiday, week 1, November 2015.........

We are so lucky to now have friends who own property in Florida and even luckier that they invited us to visit.

Monday 16th - early but sensible start leaving home at 8am and arrived at Gatwick about 10:15ish which is good for rush hour on the A12-M25. Check in, security check and double check, flight on time all according to plan. Landing at Orlando airport at 5:30pm (US time) and having to join the longest queue after queue after queue for at least four passport checks before collecting our luggage and then joining another long queue to get our hire car meant we didn't leave the airport till about 8:15pm and finally arrived at friendsL&K's villa at 9:45pm (that's 2:45am the next day UK time). So lovely to see them and L had made us spag.bol. so we had a tour of their US home then relaxed and chatted and went to bed around midnight.

Tuesday 17th - We went out for breakfast then had a tour round The Villages, having a guided tour by friendsL&K of some of the 30ish villages and four town squares and various recreation buildings

and sports areas. Really interesting with something going on in each place all the time and already getting decorated for Thanksgiving and Christmas. A lot of space is given to golf courses but there are also a large number of swimming pools and Pickleball courts and Bocce courts which we'd never heard of before. Our transport within The Villages is their golf cart

which most residents use here, no need for a driving licence or road tax (there are two seats at the back too)! We headed back to Sumta town square for 5pm for the live entertainment by Rocky and the Rollers,

they were brilliant and had everybody (including us) up and dancing. Unfortunately all the seating was taken so we bought some drinks from the "bait shack" street vendor and crossed the road to some comfy seating. A great first day!

Wednesday 18th - lazy day today. Three of us went to the supermarket after dropping friendL at the hairdressers. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and enjoying good catchup conversations. It had reached about 30°C so I was grateful for the air-con inside.  We headed out 5pm-ish to Brownwood Paddock Square for the live music

and a mooch around the shops and dinner.

When we got home we sat in the lanai having drinks watching the lightning, then the rain came down really hard and went on for a very long time.

Thursday 19th - We drove into Leesburg as they had a quick appointment (made especially for while we had the hire car) then onto Mount Dora which is a very pretty township.

It was about 28°C and very humid. While we were sitting having lunch on a restaurant balcony it rained again

but that didn't help the temperature, so we had a gentle mooch around the shops. All a bit drained by the heat we had an evening in with takeaway (sorry should call that takeout while I'm here) and actually we all had an early night with the ceiling fans on.

Friday 20th - We are off on holiday on our holiday hahaha. We packed an overnight bag as friendsL&M are staying about 90mins away and we wanted to all meet up. First we drove further to St Petersburg and had a look there and a walk on the beach (lovely soft fine white sand between my toes) after a quick visit into the posh Loews Don CeSar Hotel to use their toilets.

Actually that photo doesn't really show the lights properly as they were like cascades of falling bubbles, very pretty. I even had a paddle in the Mexican Sea, you can see nobody else got close to the water.

From there we drove back up the coast road through Treasure Island to John's Pass, for a stroll along the boardwalk looking at boats and pirate ships

and lots of pelicans and cranes stopping at Scully's for a wonderful lunch of fresh salmon char grilled which was billed as a sandwich but apart from the fact it had an open bun underneath it was so much more than a sandwich. I decided to try a drink called coconut creme and it was delicious and enormous, a bit slush puppy in texture and it came in a souvenir cup to keep which was lucky as I carried it around for the rest of the afternoon to finish it. Then we drove to Clearwater which was Hubby's only special request to see, nice beach but quite seaside commercialised. We reached L&M's rented villa about 6pm

and chatted for a while before sending the men out for Chinese takeout (see I'm getting the hang of this lingo). The portions were huge so lots of waste grrrr! Then we settled round the table to play Mexican Train

It was a late night!

Saturday 21st - I was up first then gradually as each one got up they joined me in the lanai. Great conversation putting the world to rights and lots of funny stories told. Eventually all up and out for breakfast (it was lunchtime lol). We went there in two cars so when we'd finished we could go our separate ways. We had to say all our big goodbyes and hugs in the entrance of Denny's as it was raining so heavy. It rained all our way back to The Villages but we still managed to make a pit stop at a massive candy store Russell Stover, hard not to spend a fortune!

Sunday 22nd - Don't know why but after waking at 3:45am for the loo I never managed to get back to sleep, so by 5:30am I got up and read my book till the others got up. It started raining again about 7am and although not heavy it did keep it up for most of the day, so a good day for shopping. I bought some shoes.

We ended our time out-n-about with dinner at Longhorn Steak House, which was the best fillet steak I've ever had mmmmmmmm. Back home and decided to watch a film......"Did you hear about the Morgans?" starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Hugh Grant.....please don't waste your time, it's sooooo boring! Quite a late bedtime, can't believe I've been up so long!

This first week has been brilliant and gone by so fast. Fingers crossed for enough dry days to fit in all that friendsL&K still have planned for us in our second week.
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We didn't come last........

Saturday evening we went out with neighbour-friendsP&A to a quiz night. It was just £10 each for a whole evening of organised fun and included a massive ploughman's supper followed by a large tray of homemade cakes on each table with tea and coffee. We were a table of eight and the church hall was packed with 12 tables.

It was a charity fundraising event and they raised £700.

The charity was one I hadn't heard of before. Talitha Koum, which translated from Hebrew/Aramaic means "little girl, I say to you, arise" this comes from the biblical story in the Gospel of Mark in which Jesus was said to have brought a child back from the dead with the words talitha koum.

Here in Ipswich in 2006 five women were murdered, they were all prostitutes, possibly driven into the lifestyle as the only way they could earn enough to feed a serious drug habit.

Following those murders, that shocked the whole community, sprang up a group aimed solely to help women struggling with addictions. Much needed funds are being raised as they are now building a residential help centre. Talitha Koum is the name they have given this very worthwhile cause.
Click here if you want to know more  http://www.talithakoum.org.uk

Oh the quiz, nearly forgot to mention, out of 12 teams we came 11th hahaha.
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Theatre: Beryl......

Presented by West Yorkshire Playhouse
By Maxine Peake
     The Greatest Woman On Two Wheels

      Maxine Peake’s witty, charming and critically acclaimed play celebrates the life of sporting legend Beryl Burton – the greatest woman on two wheels.
      When Beryl Charnock met keen cyclist Charlie Burton she was smitten, not only with Charlie but by the thrill and freedom found on her bike. She would outwork the men in the rhubarb fields, she could outclass the cyclists on the road, and still find time to over-knit young Denise an enviable cycling jumper. With her husband, daughter and cycling club at her side she became five times world pursuit champion, 13 times national champion, twice road-racing world champion and made it home in time for dinner.
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This was brilliant!

Four people on stage in tracksuits or lycra the whole time, who partly narrated the story to us and partly acted it out, swapping characters as needed. It was hilarious at times, like when one actress had to be the small child and reluctantly sit in a crate that was supposed to be the bike's sidecar and as they rode along she spun a wheel in her hand with a very sulky face! The tallest male actor also had us laughing when he wore a scarf and 'Dame Edna' glasses as the mother-in-law, also a tiara and white gloves as the queen and donned a small red hat and did the safety talk hands as the air hostess to show they were on a plane.

They all rode (static) bikes a lot throughout, mostly racing them fast, it must have been exhausting! Opening lines were something like "I'd never heard of Beryl Burton till I got this job" to which another actor replied "I didn't know what exercise was till I got this job".

This was a wonderful tribute to a sports hero that nobody seems to remember. She dominated women's cycling from 1955 to 1996. To be honest I don't think we would remember sportsmen as we do now if it wasn't for them appearing on quiz shows and reality tv. The cast were so obviously proud of Beryl and her utter determination to "make her mark" and that pride was contagious throughout the audience going by my feelings, my friends comments and those comments I overheard as we left the theatre.

And how funny that we only really booked this one because it was called "Beryl"!
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