A new life in the sun...

While John has been away I have been indulging my love of watching programmes like Escape to the Chateau DIY and New Life in the Sun. 

I have been following the trials and tribulations of someone called Alli who hails from Somerset and is embarking on a new life in Spain as a Yoga and Pilates teacher.  When I was watching last night she was holding her first 'retreat' in a new location in Spain having found out that the property she had rented initially was not licenced to run a business and she only found that out after sinking a whole load of money into it.  All the way through I kept thinking I knew one of the ladies on the retreat and even more so when I heard her voice - I kept thinking it was a girl called Louise I used to work with at Porter Dodson and then when Alli called her by her name 'Louise' I was convinced and so I did a bit of searching on tintyweb and sure enough it was her and what is really freaky is that many, many years ago Louise and her husband came on holiday over here to Cyprus and on their return she asked if we might be able to get a traditional Cypriot barbeque sent over for them (this was way before you could get them on the internet) and bless Dad he got one and parcelled it up and sent it to them!!!  So if anyone reading this knows who I am talking about then please say "Hi" to Louise from me - My godmother will for sure!

I had so many plans for this morning before going to pickleball but the weather wasn't good AGAIN so there was nothing for it but to do some ironing and it was bedding and I blooming well hate doing bedding as it is just too big for the board.  This is Nicky and Mark's bedding which is an absolute bugger to iron because it once got washed and inadvertently tumble dried and came out so full of creases that no amount of washing or steam ironing will remove.  You don't see those chateau owners in La Belle France with creased and crumpled bed linen do you???

I have been doing some tarting up of John's changing room aka the Guest/Spare Bedroom and just by having fresh clean and ironed bed linen makes such a difference.

I painted some of the picture frames and looking at this photo I think I should do the same to the large picture above the bed.  I think that small change makes things look lighter and brighter.

I am all ready for Jane and John to come up and stay the week after next - they usually come for a couple of days and we hope the weather will be kind because we have a few things planned to do with them whilst they are here which involve being outside.

The only trouble is that John returns on Thursday so the bedroom will be flung into chaos until he is unpacked and everything put away.

Initially this used to be our bedroom but there is a door out to the side garden (Wendy and Bill Corner) and we think that is a nice feature for visitors because they can just get up and go outside without worrying about disturbing us - Nicky is always an early riser so she tends to take herself off outside and take in the morning sun from Wendy and Bill corner.

There were five of us at pickleball today as John is away and it was good although with several of the light fittings not working was like playing in the Black Hole of Calcutta (no offence intended to anyone) until I put the office lights on which made a bit of a difference.  It wasn't helped by the fact that there was a terrific thunderstorm raging and we expected the power to go at any minute which fortunately it didn't.

Bless my Mum, she bought me some vanilla vodka for my birthday which I said was rather nice as an unmixed 'snifter', so today she presented me with a bottle of raspberry vodka which they had been selling in Lidl.

I haven't tried this yet - I am saving if for John's return.  I tend not to drink anything when he is away - I think that is partly because if I got an emergency phone call from Mum I wouldn't want to have to jump in the car having been drinking.

With the weather looking so threatening I didn't stay too long at Mum's and managed to get home in the dry which was just as well because come the evening the weather was absolutely appalling.

We had it all tonight thunder, lightning, torrential rain, hail and high winds - bloody hell this is mid-March - fortunately tonight there was no power outage which meant that I could cook my tea, watch the TV and put the gas fire on so I was snuggly warm.

So this is a goodnight photograph from Charlie who was also very grateful we had power as he loves a bit of the gas fire.

John is having his unofficial school reunion tonight - I know he was looking forward to it.  When they first met up he had no idea how it would be seeing his school mates for the first time since they were 16 but they picked up where they left off and this will be the third year in a row.  Sensibly he has booked himself into a hotel tonight near where they are meeting up as he is off to Mike's tomorrow so wants a good night's sleep and a good breakfast to set himself up for the massive football match which they are going to watch together.

We had a problem booking it online so in the end John phoned direct and got a bargain room - he only wanted cheap as it was for one night and wasn't expecting much - just a bed to sleep in but he sent some photographs when he arrived and let's just say the accommodation exceeded his expectations - let's hope breakfast is as good as the room and I dare say he will take advantage of a nice long soak in the bath because that is one thing we do not have here at Villa 10B