Major calendar malfunction

I was just settling down to write about our trip to Woodhall Spa on Friday afternoon when I had phone call from my very good friend Anne which went like this
Anne 'Where are you?'
Me 'At home, why?'
Anne 'We were meeting at the entrance to Centre Parcs '
Me ' I thought that was next week'
Anne ' No it's this weekend'
Me - pause ' Oh right, well don't worry I have all the food in the freezer and the drink is in boxes in the dinning room so it won't take us long to pack so we'll be with you soon'
A look at our calendar confirmed that I was to blame for the mix up - my writing, however there was no time to dwell on that. A quick shout to David who was cutting the grass to stop and come in to pack, a phone call to the friends we were meeting in the pub that night to say we couldn't make it, a climb up into the loft for a suitcase and we started to pack. Within 45 minutes we were on the road and in another 45 minutes we were at the entrance to Centre Parcs. The week end was to celebrate a 60th birthday and there were eight of us altogether and what a good weekend we had, here are just a few pictures

Some competitive bowling

with much discussion afterwards

a walk passed the tree houses

visitors at our patio doors

watching the rugby

and the wild life

 the happy birthdays

 and realisation that there was more alcohol to take home than was brought!

A quick swim, a ride down the jungle run and 10 minutes in the hot tub was all David and I had time for as I had to be at work for midday. 

So this coming weekend I will be doing all the jobs I had planned for last which includes writing about Woodhall Spa! 

One of those nights

So here I am,  already up (although I do have to go to work in an hour) after having 'one of those nights' You know the kind I mean - the ones where you wake up every couple of hours with 'stuff' going round your head, and then you toss and turn, get cramp in your legs and at some point drop off again to wake and find it's only an hour later. I use to get them all the time when I was teaching and not only did I have all I needed to do going on in my head, but also music went on it. Usually it was the music we were having for our 'wake and shake' that week, but sometimes music that was totally unrelated - just a song that had got stuck in my head. Last nights 'one of those nights' seem to be due to the busy life socially and work wise I have till after Easter. Next week I am working each day the clinic is open with one of those days being all day. We then have a 60th birthday weekend at Centre Parcs which will be full of fun, food and the odd drink. We return on a Monday and I'll be working again for the following three days- one all day and then it's Easter when we go away in the caravan to Gloucestershire - relax!! I'm not complaining as I count myself incredibly fortunate to have chance to do all this and be in good health to do it. So I look forward to a better nights sleep tonight, which I'm sure I will have. Becky is coming for tea, she has had Ofsted in this week, so a glass of something will be in order and I am making her some of these - Cream egg brownies. Find the recipe here

I am also planning a weekend of cooking and baking plus writing about our trip to Woodhall Spa. Till then enjoy your day!

An Ebay purchase = a trip to York

For over a year Charlotte has wanted a pine blanket chest - not just any pine blanket chest but one like ours in our bedroom in fact it has been suggested to us that we might like to 'donate' it to her 'if we don't need it'. Bearing in mind it is full of spare quilts, curtains and cot bumpers and blankets 'if we don't need it' isn't likely. We bought ours before we were married (so over 35years ago) for £10 from what was called a 'junk' shop . The shop still exists but now looks like this

It was old, painted in dark lacquer, a bit smelly and was lined with newspaper dated 1912. We striped it down and due to the state of the newspaper took that off (wish we hadn't now) and it's been in use ever since, but I digress. Charlotte wanted one to use as a coffee table and storage but it needed to be old. I had looked for her when she first said and was taken back by the prices as now they are not considered junk but 'vintage' and thus command a vintage price ie anything from £100 upwards, £250 not being unusual. As her and Angus's move to their own home is imminent, the purchase of a pine chest came up again, so I started to look on Ebay. There seemed to a fair few but they were either too expensive, too new, too big/small or too far away.  I was about to give it up as a lost cause when the next one I clicked on looked interesting - £95 starting price and no bids, old (I could tell this as it had a candle box in it),

exactly the right size and in York so not too far away. We kept watch over the next few days and still no bids so we put ours in just before it ended and got it!! The bonus with it was that David and I could enjoy a day in York after we had collected it.
We arranged to go up on Monday and set off and as we passed Meadowhall (our big shopping centre ) just a few miles away we were in a snow blizzard. This continued on and off all the way up the M1 but became rain as we approached York. We found the seller's house despite the satnav loosing signal before we had arrived and spent a very pleasant few minutes chatting with him before departing with the chest, which was just perfect.

David might sand it down a little more before it goes down to Cornwall and it will need sealing.
So having got the business part of the day out of the way we continued into York. Unfortunately the weather had taken a turn for the worse and it was blowing a gale and raining when we parked up, so a trip to our favourite coffeeshop/ restaurant was our first stop - Cafe Concerto

We have been going here for many years and it's always consistently good with lovely staff.

The menu is interesting and food excellent. After coffee and toasted fruit and nut bread we ventured outside where the weather hadn't improved, hence the rather dreary pictures.

A wedding bus and car was waiting at the back of the minster

 The bride must have been frozen and trying to keep her dress with it's long train out of the wet was impossible.

A walk up Stonegate took us towards Bettys, where a look in their window revealed their display of very expensive Easter eggs

The weather didn't improve so rather than endure it we decided to call it a day and walked back to the car via the river

 passing this new bar/ restaurant right on the front

I could imagine sitting outside there on a lovely day with a nice glass of white wine - bring on the warmer weather!