Happy Birthday Dad!

Just checking in quickly to update on what has been happening in the past few days.

Lynne finally arrived at Alicante airport at 11.20pm, tired and fed up, but glad to be here at last. We have spent the last few days relaxing, swimming, eating, sleeping, drinking and shopping (not necessarily in that order). Mum and Dad came back yesterday after a long drive back from the UK - stopping at Carcassone en-route to have a look round - from the book they brought back it looks lovely, and exactly how I'd pictured it. We bought Mum and Dad some plants for their garden to say thanks for letting us stay - they are now the proud owners of a fig tree (for Jack), a bottlebrush plant and a plant with lovely purple flowers.

Today is Dad's 68th birthday - Jo and I have given him some money to go quad biking, an electronic Suduko game and a Boy's Own book. Tonight we are going for a meal at LaFinca, which is apparently a very nice restaurant.

Finally, just a quick mention for my friend Keili whose mum passed away last week. Today is the funeral so my heart goes out to her and her family.

Sunshine but No Smiles

Last night I went to the fiesta to watch the floats. It was a good evening, lots of music (as Spanish fiestas always have) and loads of people having a great time. It's a shame that Lynne didn't manage to come out earlier as I'm sure I would have enjoyed it more with company, but I still had a good time. The picture is of one of the floats. Every so often they would stop, the pit crew would run out and change the tyres around while the pit boss timed them - brilliant!

I rushed home afterwards with a fab pizza from the new kebab shop in the village and settled down for an early night as I had to be up early to go and get Lynne from the airport.

It was still dark when I woke at 6.30am, and trying not to disturb the dogs I quietly logged onto the computer to check that Lynne's flight had left OK. Unfortunately the news was not good - DELAYED was the message that appeared next to her flight number. Almost immediately, I received a text from her saying that her flight was delayed until at least 10am (she was supposed to have flown at 5.20am). As Manfred (a neighbour) was supposed to be giving me a lift to the airport I had to let him know, and then by that time the dogs were off, so I took them for a walk. Returning back I text Lynne again, feeling so sorry for her that the first day of her holiday was being messed up like this. She said they had now been told the flight wouldn't leave until 5.15pm! They were being taken to a hotel for breakfast and lunch, but understandably she's not very happy. I just hope they actually leave at that time and it isn't delayed any further!

Also just a quick word to wish Paul lots of good luck. He's racing today at Brands Hatch - let's hope he's on the podium again.

More Holiday Musings ...

Last night was the first night of the fiesta in the village which meant free sangria and beer for everyone to go with the entertainment - traditional spanish singing and dancing. Of course it didn't start until late so I missed most of it, having to be home and in bed at a reasonable hour so I can get up and take the dogs out early in the morning, but what I saw of it was good, and it was amazing how many people were there. Tonight was the floral procession where the women of the village walk through the town in traditional costumes bearing flowers which they take to the village church. I'm sure it was lovely but unfortunately I was hit by a migrainey headache (due to the sun I think) earlier today so wasn't feeling up to going. Tomorrow is the float procession which I am hoping to get to with more fun to follow on Sunday and Monday.

I have worked out that Jack always wants to walk the same route because it passes a number of fig trees, although he has now stripped them of any figs - I keep alternating the route, but then he has a tendancy to find half decayed goats legs and things instead.

Today I also had a surprise visit from Andrea's family - it was lovely to see them although they didn't stay too long.

Day 7

Well it's already day 7 of my holiday - my word how times flies!

I have been expecting people to invade every day since Mum & Dad left, but so far no-one has been round, apart from Manfred to discuss my lift to the airport to meet Lynne. I have been out and about a bit, but yesterday I spent all day at home apart from the 2 walks with the dogs and today I ventured over the mountains to Albaterra in search of a bank, but to no avail. Tomorrow I am having another lazy day at home and then off to the village in the evening as the Fiesta starts and it's free beer and wine - well how could I turn that down?

Looking after the dogs has been an interesting experience and made me realise that whilst it would be lovely to own dogs, it's a huge responsibility and one I couldn't and wouldn't (at the moment at least) do. Jack is still moping around, sleeping outside mum & dad's door and looking mournful every so often, he's like a limpet with me - I even have trouble getting into the loo without him. Reba has different attitude, as long as she's being fed she doesn't really care who does it. Walks are a bit of a challenge - Reba gets so excited she bites your feet and ankles and yowls and barks and it's really beginning to annoy me - especially first thing in the morning when I've only been up for 5 minutes. Unfortunately for her I've had 40 years of being stubborn so eventually she will give in and do things the way I want them - I refused to let her off the lead this morning because she was biting and tugging at it. She also appears to hate all other dogs apart from Jack so if I see anyone else (although most people try to avoid us if possible) I have to put her on a lead and she is quite a handful - I just I don't have to really try to restrain her 'cos she's so strong I'm not sure I'd win.

My tan is coming on well considering I am staying out of the sun until after 6pm unless I am in the swimming pool. My back is beginning to peel, a casualty of not being able to put suncream or aftersun there, although today I bought a spray cream so hopefully that will help.

Off to have a late night swim in the pool ...

I'm here!

Well here I am reporting in from sunny Spain.

Arrived safely on late Thursday evening, after a short delay at the airport - only 20 minutes to get through customs, which wasn't bad, and then the plane was delayed by another 20 minutes or so.

The weather is in the late 20s/early 30s and I've already managed to get burnt - my once a day factor 20 cream doesn't seem to be doing the trick - can't cope with the swimming I guess.

Mum and Dad left this morning for the trip to the UK so the dogs have spent the day moping - hopefully they'll be sorted in a day or so.

D Day!

So the time is finally here. In less than 5 hours (hopefully if there's no delays) I'll be on the plane to Spain. The flat is the tidiest it's probably ever been - sparkling and clean thanks to Lynne. She definitely is organised!

I think my case is a little too heavy but as I've stuck to my travelling light (tiniest handbag ever - which I remembered to remove the keyrings from) in the hand luggage department I'll pay excess fares if need be. Not entirely sure why its so heavy - I think the case must be quite heavy anyway, I mean I haven't taken THAT much ... well maybe I have.

Anyway this is me checking out, as I', just about to leave for the airport. More posts to follow from Spain.

Nearly There

Well as I post, the kitchen has been sorted and cleaned, my nails are done, my hair is cut, the rubbish is at the tip (except tonight's), Bluewater visited and almost all my work is complete. I am free of the pub (Iain didn't even bother to wish me a nice holiday, so I guess he's still not talking to me). Only the lounge and bathroom still to sort, and hopefully those won't take too long tomorrow with yet more sterling help from Lynne - she is excellent at getting me organised! Oh of course I still have my case to pack - and flight documentation to print ... had a terrible nightmare last night that I spent an hour in a queue at the airport only to find when I got to check-in that I had forgotten my passport and ticket and there was no time to go back and get it - yep I'm beginning to panic.

Unfortunately the lift to the airport was off due to Andrew suddenly having to go to Stratford on Avon for work (although he has promised me faithfully that he will pick me up - he'd better or something VERY nasty will happen to him!), after a lot of asking around (amazingly everyone I know seems to be busy on Thursday this week) it was looking like a taxi was going to be the order of the day. Fortunately I bumped into my neighbour Russ this afternoon and he just happens to be free on Thursday afternoon so I have got a lift again. Just need to sort out the logistics of whose car we're travelling in as my case is unlikely to fit in his sports car.

Arrrggggghhhhh

I've just remembered something else I haven't done and this should have been a priority. Remember the mini-album I produced for Dad for Father's Day? I was supposed to get the pictures printed off so I could produce a real life album for him. I decided against getting them printed online as I was going to do an 8x8 album and couldn't find a place doing that size at a decent price in the short timeframe I had, so decided to print them myself. I printed one and it came out a bit fuzzy (not sure why) so I was going to touch up and then redo ... of course I completely forgot and now I'm not going to have time to get it done before I go.

Time Out

Just taking a quick time out from the mad rush to update my blog. House cleaning continues apace, although maybe not quite as fast or as well as I'd hoped - I feel I'm sinking fast and I'm definitely running out of time big style. Tomorrow I'm working at home, but have a full day's work to do (got loads to get finished before I go on holiday) plus have to get my hair cut (definitely badly needed after missing the last appointment 'cos of tooth extraction problems), get my nails done, get to Bluewater to return unwanted clothes before the exchange date runs out, clean the fridge, defrost the freezer and sort, tidy & clean the kitchen - oh yes the lounge still needs doing as well, as does cleaning the bathroom. And on top of that I still have to pack properly as well.

One good piece of news is that the security restriction has been lifted on hand luggage. Having got used to the idea of no hand luggage I am sure I can travel light (no really I can!)- although I will probably take a bag now (so what happened to travelling light then?), but wonderfully, it means that I can take my MP3 player. The idea of not having it for this flight, and more especially for the flight to New Orleans later in the year was distressing me considerably. I just hope they don't change the rules again this week, or before I go to the USA.

I'm in a funny situation - desperate to get away to somewhere lovely and warm (temp is in the 30s), especially with the crappy almost wintery weather we have here and really wanting to be finished with work, whilst at the same time wishing there was a bit more time so I can get everything finished that I need to get done. I'll need a holiday to get over all this rushing around!

Unfortunately there had to be casualties with this lack of time and that's my ATCs and a CJ that should have been posted tomorrow. Fortunately, the CJ belongs to my friend Dolly, so she is cool about it being late - good news really as I have no time to dress up as a clown and scan my head before I go away! Not so good on the ATC front though. I missed last month's batch as I was too busy with work and life to get round to them and missing a second month when I had only done 1 batch out of 3 previously is unlikely to go down well. I think I have no choice but to drop out of the group - a shame as they are the most talented ATC makers in the world and I felt very honoured (and quite frankly a bit out of my depth sometimes) to be a member of the group. I just hope that I'll still get access to the gallery as it is always wonderful seeing the creations, although of course not as good as seeing them in real life.

So I now have only 1 last shift at the pub tonight and then I'm outta there for 3 whole glorious weeks - will I want to go back? I doubt it, but I'm sure I will, if for no other reason than to annoy Iain. I know of 2 more complaints that have been sent to Spirit in the last week, but I'm betting they'll have as little effect as the previous ones. Just need to hope that my lift to the airport has been sorted out, as that's looking in jeopardy at the moment. Hopefully good news on that later today otherwise it's going to have to be a taxi.

Bleurgh

So what's with this weather?

First we have unseasonably hot weather, culminating in the hottest July day ever on record and suddenly we get to August, usually a golden sunshiny month and the weather is pretty poor. Cold, wet, miserable and to cap it all I've got a stinking cold and feel like crap. Thank god I'm off to Spain soon, I really need a nice break with some time to relax and ejoy swimming and sunbathing with a few nice cool drinks. I just hope my cold goes before I leave.

I am in the middle of the 'big clear-out' (just taking a few minutes out to update my blog). Usually this happens twice a year anyway, but I missed the last couple due to other things and so am having to get majorly tidied up before my parents arrive on my doorstep. Luckily Lynne has been helping me, otherwise I think I'd be going nowhere fast - housework and tidying especially - is definitely NOT my forte and trying to fit enough stuff for a 3 bedroomed house into a 1 bedroomed flat is challenging to say the least!

So back off to continue with the cleaning ... at least I only have to get through this weekend working at the pub and then I'm free!

Festive Friday

Today a fair few of us from work went to the Great British Beer Festival at Earls Court in London. It didn't take long for us to get split up into smaller groups, so I spent the afternoon with Nick, Andrew & David trying several good (and not so good) beers including Exmoor Gold, Belhaven Fruit, Leatherbritches Raspberry Belter, St Austell's Dartmoor Best, Surrey Hills Shere Drop and Woodforde's Wherry.

I guess real ale must inspire me because as soon as I got home I immediately scrapped the photos that I had taken during the afternoon.

And no I didn't get drunk ...