We all seemed to get a good night's sleep - thank goodness that Mark didn't have to sleep outside or have a very very early morning swim to keep cool this time. Maybe the wobbly coffees had something to do with it, or the wine with the meal or the pre-dinner cocktails - who knows? actually who cares!!
We had a very very leisurely breakfast, all thoughts of healthiness or diet out of the window with a Sunday Morning full English which just has to be done every now and again. Thanks to Klaus for introducing me to the 'Snack' chipolata sausages which are sold in Paps and which are fantastic and rather on the chubby side for chipolatas!!
We had a good old reminisce about some of our past holidays as Nicky is hoping to plan something special for Mark when he celebrates his next 'special' birthday (although I am not sure how many years he has to go to get there!). It was hard for us to pin down our favourite, was it the safari, Pangkor, Thailand or Borneo? - all were special and all very different and as always John and I could not agree!! I dug out some of my old guide books, which will be a little out of date, for Mark to have a read through to see if he might be able to narrow the location down. We said goodbye to the Kirbys after breakfast and settled down to a quiet do-nothing day.
It was my sister Kaye's birthday (seen here on a recent boat trip to the Blue Lagoon). I had already organised her present and she had taken it back with her after her holiday here earlier in the year but on Friday she had said goodbye to her elder son Matthew who is taking up a position in Dubai for a couple of years (more of that later) so I reckoned she would be feeling a bit sad to have seen him go. On Friday I decided I would send her some flowers (via the internet and the Royal Mail) to cheer her up knowing that they would be late arriving and leaving an appropriate message so I had been flabbergasted when she text me yesterday (Saturday) to say that they had already arrived and were beautiful. We Skyped one another and she told me that she had been very lucky to pick up two tickets to the paralympic athletics yesterday morning even more amazing when you realise that they had only released 22 tickets for that event so she and husband Richard had raced down to London for the evening session. Kaye said she didn't know who had cried more, the winning competitors, her or Richard - but what a fantastic experience and one never to be repeated.
On the subject of Kaye's son Matthew, my nephew and my godson, he has just taken up a swimming coaches position in Dubai. Matthew has been working as a swimming coach for some time, most recently in Leicester. He provided Vicky and I with a rather easy on the eye training session running up and down the road at Lordos 1 last summer (bare chested) when he was over to celebrate Dad's 80th birthday. He is initially doing a two year stint in Dubai which is a fantastic opportunity and will be infinitely warmer and sunnier than the Midlands that is for sure!!
I managed to catch him via text on Skype last night so I know that he had arrived safely - apparently Kaye said no sooner had he arrived than he was almost straight to work - it will obviously take him a little time to settled and into a routine and then I think I may have to do a God Mother's visit to make sure he is eating properly and not getting up to any mischief as well as taking in a little retail therapy!
We received a really really lovely email this morning from our very dear friends Joani, Roger and Daisy Dog. Roger and Daisy can be seen in the photograph above seated in their newly renovated and almost finished fisherman's cottage. We have seen the cottage complete and in need of some TLC and then gutted to the point where it was difficult to see what was holding it up in places and how it would ultimately look. The little cottage is in the most enviable position overlooking Newton Creek and we have spent some pretty memorable times down there - not least when I was left in charge of Daisy Dog and she decided to roll in the smelliest seaweed ever - I think Roger was less than impressed when we had to take her all the way back to Mewstone House in the back of the Land Rover!
It was my sister Kaye's birthday (seen here on a recent boat trip to the Blue Lagoon). I had already organised her present and she had taken it back with her after her holiday here earlier in the year but on Friday she had said goodbye to her elder son Matthew who is taking up a position in Dubai for a couple of years (more of that later) so I reckoned she would be feeling a bit sad to have seen him go. On Friday I decided I would send her some flowers (via the internet and the Royal Mail) to cheer her up knowing that they would be late arriving and leaving an appropriate message so I had been flabbergasted when she text me yesterday (Saturday) to say that they had already arrived and were beautiful. We Skyped one another and she told me that she had been very lucky to pick up two tickets to the paralympic athletics yesterday morning even more amazing when you realise that they had only released 22 tickets for that event so she and husband Richard had raced down to London for the evening session. Kaye said she didn't know who had cried more, the winning competitors, her or Richard - but what a fantastic experience and one never to be repeated.
On the subject of Kaye's son Matthew, my nephew and my godson, he has just taken up a swimming coaches position in Dubai. Matthew has been working as a swimming coach for some time, most recently in Leicester. He provided Vicky and I with a rather easy on the eye training session running up and down the road at Lordos 1 last summer (bare chested) when he was over to celebrate Dad's 80th birthday. He is initially doing a two year stint in Dubai which is a fantastic opportunity and will be infinitely warmer and sunnier than the Midlands that is for sure!!I managed to catch him via text on Skype last night so I know that he had arrived safely - apparently Kaye said no sooner had he arrived than he was almost straight to work - it will obviously take him a little time to settled and into a routine and then I think I may have to do a God Mother's visit to make sure he is eating properly and not getting up to any mischief as well as taking in a little retail therapy!
We received a really really lovely email this morning from our very dear friends Joani, Roger and Daisy Dog. Roger and Daisy can be seen in the photograph above seated in their newly renovated and almost finished fisherman's cottage. We have seen the cottage complete and in need of some TLC and then gutted to the point where it was difficult to see what was holding it up in places and how it would ultimately look. The little cottage is in the most enviable position overlooking Newton Creek and we have spent some pretty memorable times down there - not least when I was left in charge of Daisy Dog and she decided to roll in the smelliest seaweed ever - I think Roger was less than impressed when we had to take her all the way back to Mewstone House in the back of the Land Rover!
I have to admit that I shed a little tear as I read Joani's email - John and I were so priviledged to have met them through the Soroptimists and to have become friends and spent time at their lovely home near Plymouth. I know that Joani's health has been poor for quite some time and John and I have everything crossed in the hopes that she is improving because she certainly deserves to. If and when we go back to the UK they are most definitely a couple that we want to catch up with.
It being Sunday John spent the afternoon catching up with some football and you can tell it is getting cooler because Chivers decided to sleep on his lap, up until now it has been far too hot for any physical contact (well that is my excuse and I am sticking to it). Chivers was singularly unimpressed clearly and John doesn't look overly excited by the Arsenal Liverpool game and after cheering on the Scummers when they took a 1-0 lead over Scumchester United quickly switched over when Scum United started to dominate and opted for the Newcastle game instead. We even managed to miss the exciting start to the Grand Prix when all the action took place! I couldn't really be bothered watching any of it to be honest to I busied myself with a very atypical English Sunday Dinner - Prawn Biryani with lime pickle and yoghurt relish!! Recipe to follow!
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