Taking it eezy

Last minute finishing jobs around the Oldbrook flat last Thursday saw the end to our labors and the place looks so much better with beds and pictures. The garden is so much more usable with the fence around it. Claire could soak her weary feet whilst catching up with her wine tasting.

Friday we were off to Lowestoft first thing to see my Aunt Daphne and her friend and helper Jim. The only pictures we took are on Claire’s camera so maybe she can publish one of those? We shot down to the local Harvester for a salad and our usual steak then back for another chat. Our plan was to drive to the seaside and find a reasonably priced hotel for the night. We would normally do this on the internet before we set off but everywhere Claire tried was full up so we decided to wing it.

We couldn’t even find a place to park at our first stop so kept trying each resort until we found somewhere to park which was not until we arrived at Oldburgh. We asked at the 3 hotels along the coast but there was only one double room left between them and that didn’t have a sea view and they wanted £140 for the night. We ended up at the Ufford Park Hotel where the only room they had left was a premier room also for £140 a night. The receptionist said that there was a function on close by and they had a disco until 12.30am. There seemed to be allot of weddings this weekend. Claire said that this was ok as long as we got a discount and managed to negotiate the room for £100. It was a lovely big room called the Aldburgh and had a balcony overlooking the golf course. We shot down to the bar for a quick drink and snack before retiring to our room to watch the Big Brother eviction.

We left the hotel reasonably early having had our compulsory cooked breakfast and parked up at Woodbridge for a walk around the thoroughfare and along the river before we bumped into Claire’s Aunt Jacky walking a neighbor’s dog. We drove back to her house, dropped the dog off and walked back along the river to the Cherry tree pub for fish a chip lunch. The tide was out when we first walked along the river but upon our return it had come in again.

Then it was back to Jackie’s for a coffee before we headed off to meet Claire’s Dad Mick and Marie at her house where she had made home made sugar free scones. Of course, everybody knows that if you eat sugar free scones, you can eat anything else you like for the rest of the day. We decided to sit and eat them inside rather than outside as Claire was frightened of all the wasps that were around. However, this didn’t stop about 10 of them coming into the lounge where we were. I think they were attracted to the sugar free scones but Marie thought they were attracted to Claire’s smell of fear just like dogs seem to smell your fear of them. We made an early retreat to Mark and Louise’s where Julie tempted Claire to have another crafty fag. Will she ever stop completely?

Mark was busy BBQing two chickens ready for our chicken salads but for me the star of the show was the home made bread. Mmmmmmmmmmmm yummy and it was probably good for you too. Plenty of drinking and chatting as Mark had just finished his first week at a new job here he thinks it might be his best job ever and he hopes that he never has to look for another job again. Good luck Mark! Both Julie and Louise are doing correspondence courses like me so there was plenty to talk about. Although not many seemed very interested in my snail project for some reason.

We retired to bed but two cats managed to also get in and share our bed, first “Beasty” then “Grace” and in the morning we were joined by their new addition “Henry”. He is a little Burmese kitten that was bought to replace the other one that went missing. Probably cat burglars. Mark boiled the eggs with more lovely home made bread while Molly and Henry watched the fish eat their breakfast.

What a great weekend only ruined by the long drive home. Never mind, more of the same this week, once I have got this snail project finished.