Fusion

I put enough money in my pocket for 3 nights stay at the Rainbow and crossed the road to explain to our landlady that we would be leaving on Wednesday. I took a little extra incase she took it badly to try and console her. I remember from last time that they had a very frisky boxer dog that kept guard and trod carefully making sure not to latch the gate for a quick getaway. I crept in so quietly that I made him jump when I got to the door; he started barking and came flying over to the porch to greet me. He was just a big softie really and when he realized I wasn’t scared (much) and gave him some fuss he went ballistic. Our landlady was very nice and took the news gracefully asking us to recommend her to our friends. Consider yourself recommended Mr’s Landlady!

As Claire seemed keen to also sort out our Christmas meal at the Fusion before it became fully booked, we had a bottle of wine on our terrace and headed of there which seemed to cheer her up. We didn’t intend to eat as we were still pretty stuffed from lunch. We arrived shortly before they opened but they seemed pleased to see us. They asked us where we had booked and we explained our story. He said that if we were still struggling for accommodation that we could rent their studio apartment in Benaulim. I explained that it was too late for this year as we had paid deposits for our remaining holiday but thanked him for the offer. We do have one night that we haven’t arranged a place to stay yet but I am keeping that just in case. Although we weren’t hungry Claire ended up having the Tornado steak with pepper sauce and mashed potato with spinach layers whilst I had the Thai prawns and pineapple, all washed down with a nice bottle of Sula. This holiday seems to be getting better by the day; I wonder what delicacies await us tomorrow?

We got talking to the couple on the next table to us at the Fusion, they are staying at Martins Comfort for their first week and Sandray’s in Colva for their second. They said that they thought that Martins Confort was a little over priced for what it is and its position. See, I do get some things right. We were Sandray’s first paying guests when they started up 3 years ago and spent the next 12 months fighting them for our money back so I could hardly recommend them. The main reason being was that they were still building it and were no where near ready for paying guests. Also it is not in the ideal spot with long dark lanes to negotiate with packs of wild dogs even before you get to the road with no footpath or lights. If you do end up there you should get a taxi everywhere as it really is quite a tortuous journey and will take at least 45 minutes to walk to the beach; non of which are very pleasant.

Again I had real trouble sleeping, this time waking at about 1am and getting up at 3.45am. At least we have a second room hear so I don’t have to disturb Claire. Our second room is like a kitchen dinning room with the bathroom coming from it. In the main room we have 2 three-quarter sized beds and a single but there is plenty of space in there as well. This place is very good value for 600 rupees a night; I will get their phone number and publish it before we leave. If you stay here and have a choice, pick the third room as it is furthest away from the road and dogs and is even bigger than this one.

First thing we rode the bike to Betty’s place to change our Friday booking for another day as we are all inclusive at the Majorda Beach resort that day now and it seems silly to waste our only bit of luxury. I had deliberately kept the Saturday unbooked in case we could change Betty’s and stay nearby. Claire had found that the Leela were doing rooms for about £100 per night which is a real bargain for there at this time of year. Also the Holiday Inn is nearby. It wasn’t to be, we ended up booking two trips from Betty’s, one next Monday and one Wednesday. As we were over this neck of the woods and it was getting towards lunchtime we decided to hit Jocons for lunch. Jocons is the closest restaurant to the Taj Exotica and so services all guests that are not up to paying extortionate prices for every meal. It is well established and been there for many years; a little more expensive than average but very good quality. We went there for the New Year Dinner in 2005 for our first time and have been going back ever since. They also have a beach shack on the beach be we weren’t so impressed with its quality.

On the way back Claire was taking some pictures as we were driving along as we hadn’t done that before when we could see that a truck had knocked a large branch off that was overhanging the road which caused some small delays. This is a regular experience over here.

Once back we decided to walk along the beach to Utorda where the Kenilworth hotel is to see if we could find the couple that I bored silly on the plane. Their names are Phil and Bev and their eldest is Harriet. I noticed that the bridge was sunk; another sign that the rains were heavy this year. We walked through the grounds where they have a nice pool. They also have treatment tents like quite a few top hotels over here. This hotel also uses the identical blue and white striped towels that the Majorda have so I got mine out but it caused more trouble than it was worth as they kept trying to take it from me for a clean one. We couldn’t find Phil and Bev but luckily we spotted them on the last sunbeds in Utorda as we were walking back to Majorda along the beach. We told them of our adventures and that we were in the Majorda Beach Resort tomorrow and we would be in the bar for Happy hour at 5pm sharp if they fancied a drink. So far they hadn’t been out the hotel except for the beach immediately in front of the hotel, spending most of their time sleeping and reading. I suppose we are in the minority when it comes to what people do on holiday.

We walked back to our Mish Mar beach shack for our usual relaxation time while Claire could sunbathe and I could read the local news. There are now 4 English newspapers so I bought them all at the laundry in Colva that we visited on our way to Betty’s. For all four it was 11 rupees so I gave him 20 but he gave me 10 back as he wanted to keep his change. I will make sure I add it to the bill when I pay for the laundry. We decided not to pick up yesterdays laundry until tomorrow otherwise we would be packing it and carrying it to our new hotel tomorrow. Really looking forward to staying in the Marjorda Beach Hotel tomorrow, we might go quiet for a while, while we chill out and follow the majority.

Sunset cocktail is God’s gift

At the end of our first day in Goa which was quite busy, especially with our lack of sleep we went, as promised, back to the Mish Mar for a sunset cocktail on the beach. What a lovely way to pass the time; just as we were leaving I noticed a potentially great sunset shot when the horse was about to go home; I think it worked great.

Next stop the Pentagon for a light dinner and a bottle of wine. On our penultimate night two years ago when we were here last we visited the Pentagon and Claire had a very cheap bottle of wine that she really liked but we could neither remember it’s name or the restaurants name. Now we know that it was called simply “Vino”; which is a locally made wine retailing for a couple of pounds. Unfortunately they had stopped selling it at the Pentagon when they moved the bar around. Never mind we had a reasonable meal and an expensive bottle of wine. Claire had brought her Mega sonic dog scarer for our walk home but somehow she still managed to look cool.

I had a bad night, and even though we managed to stay up until about 9pm I woke up at 11.45pm for the toilet. That was it, I eventually got up to tweak the blog at about 1am not returning to bed until 3.15am and eventually got to sleep sometime after 4am. We are right on a corner and traffic is heavy on the main road causing moving lights to travel across our walls as they go around. Adding the 5 or 6 local dogs howling all night and no aircon I am surprised I slept at all. Claire got up at about 6am having read by torchlight for an hour so as not to disturb me. When I got up we decided that we would move onto better pastures ASAP. Good job we hadn’t already paid for the 10 nights that we booked.

In the morning we headed off to Colva, on the bike to surf the internet, buy a bottle of Vodka and a bottle of Vino to try then back to Majorda to put them in the fridge and head off to Martins Comfort so as to view their apartments (www.martinscomfort.com ) . We found them quite nice but a little over priced for its target market. Rooms at the moment are 3000 rupees and go up to 4500 rupees next week. Considering that we are only paying 600 rupees a night where we are it’s a big jump. Also, the rooms are quite a way from anywhere other than Martins Place where we had lunch afterwards. Tandori chicken and cauliflower caldin which is another local delicacy. If you have the Caldin expect a wait as they have to cook the cauliflower from scratch in the coconut milk but it’s worth the wait.

After lunch we shot off to the guest house that we were told about from the owners of Fusion. It’s called, “God’s Gift”, which I thought quite appropriate to add towards the title (www.palmviewinngoa.com ). Claire really liked the room and I really liked the price of 1500 rupees a night even over Christmas, especially as they have a nice pool and it’s even closer to all the action in Majorda. We booked our final week there starting from 21st December. I don’t think I mentioned yesterday that we thought we were coming home on 27th December like our confirmation said but when we picked our tickets up at the airport they said our return date was 28th December so we just gained an extra day free.

Off to celebrate at our favorite beach shack so Claire could catch some rays and the Budah could catch up with the local news in the shade (I did get caught out with the sun yesterday). We took our laundry into Colva first thing and I bought the three local English newspapers for about 10p. I love the local papers here; they are just like the Times used to be about 20 or 30 years ago. There are so few people around this year compared to other years that we have been here, just look at this shot taken on Majorda beach today.

We noticed that the blue and white towels that we had bought in Colva yesterday were identical to the ones give out in the Majorda Beach Resort next door to the Mish Mar; now I remember why we bought the identical ones 2 years ago. We each slung a towel over our shoulder and swaggered past the gauntlet of security and sales girls through the grounds to reception. Two of the staff recognized us and it was handshakes all around. We knew that there were hardly any people staying there when we walked through the deserted grounds but I had looked on their website before coming and they had no availability. They do have availability and we have booked a 3 night/4day package starting the day after tomorrow. Yippee our favorite hotel in all of Goa; all I have to do now is break the bad news to our lovely landlady.

A Busman’s holiday

Harriet picked us up and took us to the coachpark as it was raining but we were freezing whilst waiting for our coach and it was 30 minutes late, good job we got the early one. On first encounters with our coach driver we thought him a bit of a “Hitler type”, being determined to keep everybody behind an imaginary line while he finished his cigarette and before a single person being allowed on the coach. We soon realized that he probably wasn’t but was just making the most out of his job in his own delightful way. He came out with some classics during our journey leaving me with the feeling that this was the highlight of our first day. When we got to Heathrow airport, he asked everyone to listen carefully to his announcement but then he noticed a lady still talking to her friend and said that she obviously knew better than him what he was going to say. After the announcement, he said, “So when you come to ask me your stupid questions, don’t ask me, ask that fat black woman with the big mouth”.

I couldn’t help thinking that I wasn’t the only one racking my brains, trying to think of the most stupid question imaginable. I gave up in the end, leaving it for others, far more capable than me.

We arrived at Gatwick South terminal very early but couldn’t pick our tickets up from the agent’s office until two and a half hours before the flight. As they were already checking in, when we finally got there the flight was full’ we couldn’t even get two seats together without being opposite an istle. Claire got about 3 hours sleep or so but I didn’t sleep a wink and I am very tired now whilst I write this but we are determined to stay up until at least 7pm tonight so as to fit in with the new time zone.

We were one hour late leaving the airport, because when checking passports, going into the departure lounge they found four people without visas so they had to retrieve their luggage from the plane as they wouldn’t be allowed to enter the country without them. Why the hell they didn’t check that they had visas during check in, before their luggage had been loaded I will never understand. Is it because nobody has thought of it?

Strangely though, we still arrived on time. You are not allowed to take photographs at Goa airport as it is a military airport. Jail if you don’t obey. We definitely noticed the increased security since the Mumbai attacks. We were soon reminded that we were back in India whilst waiting for our luggage, the lights went out and the conveyors stopped whilst we encountered our first power cut. Got our luggage, got a taxi, dropped our stuff of at our apartment and unpacked quickly. It’s a bit basic; no, it’s a lot basic, but it has nice gardens and is in a great spot in Majorda, South Goa.

Off we set for the beach getting a couple of liters of water on the way ready for our long walk on the beach, in the sun to Colva where we always hire our motor bike from Anthony. You can still see that there is plenty of water left over from the monsoon season; this beach shack has laid sand bags so you can get to it without getting wet feet. It’s a beautiful beach but it wasn’t long before my face felt sunburnt. Claire had put cream on herself but didn’t put any on me! It really feels like I am “home at last” when we walk along our South Goan beach. We couldn’t help noticing just how many people recognized us from previous visits. It couldn’t just be them trying to get more business could it? No, when we went to buy towels from our usual little store in Colva the shopkeeper came running out with a blue and white striped towel

and asked us how many we wanted. Seemed to work; Claire bought four when we only needed two.

We finally found Anthony and set off on our motor bike to get some

money out but the first three holes in the wall wouldn’t give me any. I tried my credit card and it worked so there must be a problem with

my Nationwide card. We didn’t need wine as we bought four bottles in

duty free that were already chilling in our fridge. Upon returning to Majorda on our motor bike we tried the “Mish Mar beach shack” for lunch and the food was fabulous and cheap. We settled for the Goan invention Chicken Vindaloo with rice and naan bread all washed do

wn with a pint of Kingfisher each and another bottle of water; thirsty work over here. Our favorite barman, “Beano” was not allowed to

present us the bill, either because he was too young or that he
was from Napal. Smartly, I had already decided to take a picture of the bike so we could find it when we came back from the bar.

We stopped for a quick sunbed and a lovely swim in the Indian Ocean. Here is a “sunbed’s eye

view” and Claire going for a dip. Only a short relax and back for a shower, write the blog and back to watch the sunset tonight with a happy hour

cocktail, an early dinner and bed. Here are a few photos of our beds and the outside space. Let me leave

you with one final quote from our wonderful busman, “Leave me alone to get on with this miserable job”!

Were off!

One last quick one before we are off. We decided to have our last meal at the cavery at Peartree Bridge today, something English before the Indian breakfast, lunch and dinners. So we could have a bottle of wine with our meal we decided to walk. It was very cold, we had even had a sprinkling of snow on the cars when I went to the shop for the paper. Never mind Claire was well wrapped up. We walked along the Grand Union Canal and I spotted a Jesus bird apparently walking on water. Although it didn’t look like it, the canal must have been frozen over in places.

Claire is lending her car to Charlotte while we are away and got a missed call on our way there. As men can’t multi-task but women can we had to wait until Claire managed to retrieve and ring back Jane who had left the message rather than do it on the hoof. Anyway by the time we got to the restaurant there was a 20 minute wait so we got a bottle of wine and sat down ready for the wait. After 20 minutes had passed Claire went to have a look how the queue was and it was all the way into the second room. We decided not to wait as once we had even got a seat we would have to queue for another 25 minutes to get our meal and we had to be back for Jane and Harriet who was also coming around.

By now it had started to drizzle so we decided to cross over to Eaglestone and get the bus back to the city centre and save ourselves an hour. We looked at the timetable in the shelter and a bus was due in one minute’s time, great things were looking up. It was the X31 to the train station at 13.21 and we saw it coming along the road only about 2 minutes late so we stepped out from the shelter. He didn’t seem to be slowing so we both put our arms out to stop him, but that was only a trigger for him to put his foot down and accelerate so he didn’t have to stop. We could hear the engine noise get louder when he saw us put our arms out. Good job we are not allowed to carry shot guns otherwise he wouldn’t have got past us. We had to wait a further 20 minutes for the next bus to come along.

Once back we cheered ourselves up with a whopper with cheeses from Burger King, made a cup of tea with a mince pie and got the sausage rolls in the oven. We were soon cheered up again from our cold walk. It makes you look forward even more to the sun in India. Can’t wait to get there now!

Harriet popped in to pick up Claire’s keys so she could have her own place while we are away. She has been off work with a bad cold so was feeling sorry for her and grumpy but still offered to give us a lift to the Coachway where we commence our journey.

Jane and her sister Ruth also popped in to pick up Claire’s car for Charlotte while we are away. It was nice to see them again and they looked pretty fresh as they had just been to Whittlebury Hall for a few days getting the full works.

Happy Christmas & Happy Holidays

Well here we are, the last day in the UK before we fly away. It’s been a funny old week, with of course the biggest drama, being the fire in the flat next door on Tuesday. This was fairly traumatic and I have to say, I panicked when I opened the front door and saw the thick smoke in the foyer. Okay, I had the sense to dial 999 and raise the alarm on all floors but I have learnt that I am crap in a crisis. If it were a real emergency, without Phil, I wouldn’t survive.

I can’t recall exactly what I have been up to this week; I caught up with Vanessa for a cup of tea on Wednesday and called in on Funmi afterwards but she wasn’t at home. I got my car cleaned inside and out by the polish guys on the A421 near to Giffard Park. It only cost 10 quid and normally I wouldn’t have bothered but I am lending my little KA to my friend’s daughter for a couple of weeks and I would have been embarrassed to hand it over in its filthy state. Last night I went over to Christine’s for supper. Obviously she’s deep in the depths of grieving for John but still we managed to have a pleasant evening with lots of wine.

And tomorrow we’re off. The food cupboards are empty and the cases are packed. Well actually the back packs are packed. I thing I’ve done good this time and remembered everything; universal bath-cum-sink plug, mega sonic cat-cum-dog scarer, 4 way extension lead, chains plus padlocks, shit pills, tea bags, 100% deet mosquito repellent; torches, pencil with rubber and Phil’s goggles. All I have to do is buy some cold sore cream because I have a big crater forming on my top lip so I want to nip it in the bud ASAP.

Yesterday Phil managed to book a room in The Rainbow House on the Majorda beach road in Goa. We saw these rooms last time we were in Goa and although I took the telephone number of the owner, somehow I managed to loose it. I finally got the number from emailing the owner of one of our favourite restaurants just down the road from Rainbow House and he emailed me back with the number. It is costing us 6,000 rupees a night (about 8 quid). Our room won’t have air conditioning which I can live without but I am praying to god that we have hot water. Phil seems to think it does have but I am not so sure. We have to get out of Rainbow House on the 23rd December because they are booked up but this is fine, just means I get to stay somewhere half decent for Christmas Day (fingers crossed!). Harriet is not best pleased that we’re going away but she is happy that she gets the kebab flat to herself for 2 whole weeks. Actually, I do feel guilty, because as I pen this, she lies in her bed, off sick from work with the flu bug. Get better soon HH, I will be thinking of you.

And so, this is the last word from the UK and our next entry will be from a dirty, dusty, & sweaty Internet café in Goa on Monday. For now we wish everyone a happy Christmas & happy holidays!

Vivid imagination

Not sure if everyone thinks like me but a funny thing happened to me yesterday. Our printer was playing up because at least 2 of its ink cartridges were empty so I took them out and set off to Staples to get replacements. As soon as I got out our front door I could smell smoke; this was the trigger for my imagination to get going.

Between our door and the front communal door I noticed that one of the other house doors was open and that the smoke smell seemed like a paper fire. The same smell as when you start a fire outside for the BBQ with paper. There was no visible smoke anywhere and I could hear voices so I continued to my car. I started thinking when do you light a fire with paper and the only time I could think of indoors was when I wanted to light a candle and have no matches so I use a strip of news paper from the gas stove. But there is no gas in the blocks, only electric. By this time I was well on my way to Staples. As there is no gas in the blocks, someone must have deliberately lit the paper with a match or lighter, why would they do that? They must be deliberately trying to set fire to the whole block.

By the time I reached Staples, which is not far from here, I had the whole block in flames and Claire trapped inside our flat unable to get out the front exit as that’s where the fire was started from. I knew she couldn’t open the windows as they were so big and heavy and stiff and I had fitted window locks. The type you have to use a tool to unscrew it with. How would she get out?

My imaginary fire stopped when I asked an assistant to help me find the correct printer cartridges from the many hundreds on display in the shop. They seemed very expensive and I was hoping to find a cheaper pack containing all 5 cartridges that I needed as although only 2 had finished the other 3 were very nearly finished as well. The only multi pack available was the 3 colours in one pack so I still had to buy the 2 black ones separately. The whole set still cost over £50 and I said to the assistant that I might as well buy a new printer. Before she could answer my phone rang but I couldn’t see the number as my phone has not been working properly lately. I had been getting lots of calls from agents about potential contracts here and there and had a couple on the go that I might get an interview from so I thought I had better answer it. I put the packs of cartridges down and took the call. It wasn’t an agent but Claire, she said that there was a fire in the block and she was really scared.

I dropped the printer stuff and ran for the door telling Claire to get out as quick as she could and I would be home in a couple of minutes. My imagination carried on from where it was a couple of minutes earlier but got worse. What was real and what was imagination? I tried to recollect exactly what Claire had said on the phone whist getting into my car. I flew up the road and around the side streets avoiding all the traffic lights. I got onto the main road but now I needed to turn right and there were three cars waiting at the roundabout in no particular hurry. I switched to the left lane and accelerated over then around the roundabout in front of them; after all this was an emergency. Claire probably wouldn’t agree with me and say something like I always drive like this. I whizzed back into the side streets again avoiding the traffic lights but this time I couldn’t get too far as there was so much congestion ahead of me. There were flashing lights, fire engines and crowds of people ahead. I pulled into a space near the council offices and ran down the road past the library knocking old ladies and children out of my way. As I got closer I could see that there were four fire engines outside our block and the road was blocked off. This was decision time, should I run straight to the front of the block to see if Claire had managed to get out or should I run around the back of the block and look through our window if she was still trapped inside? I could try and smash the window if she was still inside. But I didn’t have anything to smash it with; decision made, run around the front first.

Claire had made it out the door and was standing near the front entrance. Phew! I could relax again, try and get my breath back and find out what had happened. I saw a police man amongst the fire men so went over to talk to him as by this time I was convinced that the fire had been started deliberately. Apparently it was a chip pan fire that got out of control so I went back to Claire who was talking to our neighbor from the flat above where our leaks had been coming from. There was also another guy that he knew from the top floor who said that it was the numpty from the ground floor that had caused it. Apparently he had not phoned the fire brigade but opened his window and climbed out making a run for it. It was Claire that had phoned the fire brigade. Shortly after I had left she could also smell smoke and went into the kitchen to investigate but nothing there. She followed her nose which led her to our bedroom which is at the other end of our space. The smell in there was very strong so she knew there was trouble and went outside our flat to have a look.

The entrance hall was full of smoke, just like in fires you see on the telly. There were 2 people standing near the door where the smoke was coming from with their head in their hands. Claire asked them if they had called the fire brigade and they said that they hadn’t so she rushed back inside for our landline phone and her handbag like most girls would. She phoned 999 and they told her to calm down and get everyone else out the block. By this time everyone else was rushing around screaming FIRE! anyway and the fire alarm started to ring. Once outside she rang me but I new none of this only my imaginary fire. The fire brigade turned up with a few minutes and smashed a hole in the flat door where the fire was coming from so they could get their hands in to unlock the door. It turned out the fire hadn’t really got going it was just lots of smoke. I arrived and as nobody was around went inside our flat to get my camera which I had just got back from the menders that day. I went back outside again and tried to get a picture of the firemen but the camera battery expired. Back inside again to search for Claire’s camera but I had to wait as firemen were around this time. Once the opportunity arose I was inside again but couldn’t find Claire’s camera so decided to look for batteries for mine instead. By the time I had found some, got outside and replaced the batteries most of the action and fire engines had gone.

By the time the alarm had been switched off and we were officially allowed to go back inside again we were late for our usual Tuesday trip to the cinema where it was my turn to chose. I made a bad choice and we watched Transporter 3 but at least it gave us time to unwind and have a couple of glasses of wine that we take in. On our return to the flat we noticed that the hole in the door had been boarded up. We knocked on the door to see if the occupier was alright and a young chap in his twenties answered. He said he was ok and invited us in for a cup of tea. We accepted and went inside to inspect the damage. There was hardly any damage at all which really surprised us, he could still live there and even cook there; the only thing he lost was his chip pan and front door lock.

Alex lives alone in his studio flat and works in Westcroft where until recently when he got his bicycle walked for an hour each way. His bicycle was parked by the side of his bed, I assume in case he woke up late. I don’t think Alex can smell as the first he knew of the fire was when his fire alarm went off. He was watching the tv and forgot about the dinner that he was cooking. Smoke was pouring out of his pan and because he didn’t have a lid decided to put a towel over it. Strangely the smoke got worse, so bad that he couldn’t get out the front door so he shut his living room door to stop the smoke going in their and hopped out the window. I started to get concerned when Alex said that this sort of thing had happened to him several times before, especially as he is our next door neighbor with his kitchen next to our bedroom. Sleep easy and don’t let your imagination run away with itself.

Early Christmas

Back to Melton Mowbray on Sunday for our early Christmas as we shall be enjoying the sun in Goa on 25th. Christmas lunch was served promptly at 12.00 noon where Mum had excelled as usual. Once Georgina and I had washed up we were all in the conservatory to open our presents. By this time Georgina was already wearing her new jeans, top and scarf while she opened some others.

The Victorian marked was through the town center on Sunday so all traffic was diverted causing even more congestion than normal. Melton is an old Market town originally called “Middle town” as it is right in the middle of Leicester, Nottingham, Grantham, Oakham, Loughborough and a few others so this was the reason it originally had the market their. Melton is one of the few towns still supporting a cattle market which is open on a Tuesday.

I returned home to the kebab flat where all the presents were laid out for our second early Christmas and Harriet came around to open some of hers, leaving others for the 25th. Claire seemed happy with hers and even I got some things to open. Claire and I normally buy a holiday between us as we both enjoy getting away from the cold for as long as possible. Only 2 weeks this year as I need to find a new contract in the New Year. Have a good one everyone!

Happy Holidays

And so we come to the end of another week. It’s been nice to have a bit of a break from doing the blog plus it saves everyone from my dark doom and general moaning. I have also had a break from the cooking duties which has been good. We’ve had wonderful stir-fry concoctions which have been hot and tasty but have left me with a real yearning for some plain old English stew. Phil has taken this request on board and today we had liver and bacon casserole with creamy mash, sprouts and steamed spinach and carrots julienne style. All lovely but there was enough on my plate for a small army!

I have to apologise for the lack of photo’s. Phil’s camera is still in the camera repair shop being fixed after the dropped in at Lou & Mark’s BBQ. He’s hogged my camera ever since he finished and now when I’ve just downloaded his pictures, I can only find one of ASDA and one picture of the new 2 seater sofa. I’ll go with the later. Can’t say that I have achieved much or done anything particularly exciting (nothing new there). I’ve been round to see Funmi in her new house to see how works are progressing. I don’t think the works have gone as smoothly as she would have liked but I keep telling her that she’ll get there in the end. Indeed I popped round this morning and had a chat with her decorator-cum-handyman and he says things should be more or less there over the weekend. I am pleased for her; she deserves to be happy in her pad after living next door to the neighbours from hell in her last house in Fullers Slade.

One lunchtime this week (Tuesday I think) I went for my usual walk around the OU with Jan. It had been shit weather all morning and I thought I would have to cancel but the sun came out just before noon so we were lucky. I am not very happy with the OU this week, I have applied for 2 jobs at the OU that I could have done standing on my head and after spending hours on the applications, I received 2 letters of regret telling me that I hadn’t got to the interview stage. What’s going on??? Phil says I should ask for feed back but to be honest I can’t be arsed. It’s their loss and now that I have calmed down, I have come to the conclusion that it is not my destiny to go back and work there. End of.

Yesterday I went round to have coffee with Sandy across the way in our cul-de-sac. This is the first time that I’d been back since we moved out. It was a bit weird especially as my tenant was at home and his car was parked outside. Weird thing was I felt totally disconnected to our house even though we have only been away for about 10 weeks. Anyway back to Sandy. Alan her husband moved out into a rented place leaving the place in a right old state. It’s taken her a couple of weeks to get it to back to a liveable state. Her plan is to get a job, rent, out a couple of rooms and try and pay the mortgage and bills. I stayed way too long chatting away and Phil was not best pleased with me when I got home sometime just before 4pm, some 3 hours later.

Phil has been busy applying to hundreds of agents and submitting his CV on various websites. His phone was buzzing at the start of the week but it’s gone eerily quiet and he has nothing in the pipeline. Personally I can’t see anyone wanting to take someone on this side of the Christmas. My efforts in the job department have been nowhere as zealous as Phil’s. I did send off my CV for a job as an Events Co-ordinator at Willen in the early hours of this morning but on checking out the ‘Who’s Who’ on their website, the team seem to be all under 25 so I won’t be holding my breath.

As I’ve said before on this site, life is too short and you never what shit is waiting to drop down on you and so with this in mind, we’ve booked flights to Goa. We spent most of Thursday morning trawling through the internet and couldn’t seem to get anything under 600 quid. But Phil persevered and eventually found direct flights to Goa from Gatwick at £349pp which is an incredible price. So Phil handed over his credit card details and we fly to India a week on Saturday for 2 whole weeks. We haven’t quite decided where we going to be sleeping yet but we’ll just grab a Tuk Tuk from the airport and head for Colva. When we get there we can book a night at the Lucky Star and find Anthony our motorbike man and then we’ll be guns away. I can’t wait to escape this miserable country. Christmas holds no appeal at the best of times and the prospect of the festive holiday this year is particularly grim. The search for a job will just have to wait until the New Year. Unless of course, we win the lottery!

New sofas

We are very pleased with our new sofas. They are not only the most comfy I have ever owned, they are the most comfy I have ever sat on. I should have bought something like these years ago and the price was very reasonable too.

MK city centre (where we live) have the usual Christmas decorations up and they are very nice too. We seem to nip over there several times a day now we live here, whereas before I would only venture a couple of times a year, except for the library.

Now I’m off work Claire forced me to start back at David Lloyd to try and loose a bit of weight. We went back yesterday afternoon and you know how hard it is to get going again after several months off. However, this time was different; I actually found a machine that I really like. It contains crisps and several different kinds of chocolate.

After my last entry Steve B saw that I was again looking for work so he emailed me some job search websites. Thanx Steve, the phone has hardly stopped ringing since I registered with them. I need a new phone as mine has seen its day and no longer retains previous dialed or received numbers. The charge also disappears very quickly even if the phone is switched off.

Since I have been off work I have taken over the kitchen duties and have been trying to cook tasty but healthy and non-fattening food. We had ginger coconut and lemongrass chicken and vegetable stir fry which was a bit on the hot side as I used those little Thai chilies. We bought some unusual vegetables from the market for it; most of which looked a little like sexual aids.

As it was Tuesday yesterday we had our usual excursion to the Odeon cinema. We prefer that to the ski dome as nobody uses it and we have the place to ourselves. Also it’s closer. On a Tuesday it is only £4 each which is a really cheap night out, especially as we take a couple of bottles of wine from home and get Scooby snacks from M&S. We saw “4 Christmases” which was Claire’s choice again because it started at 4pm and the one I wanted started at 6pm (What just happened). Although it was Claire’s usual type of film, it was quite good and amusing. In particular the script was realistically excellent and very well acted.