Tuesday, May 06, 2008

South of The Wold and Beyond

Spring is here at last! In fact... (am whispering this, so as to pass it under the radar), it *almost* looks like summer out there! 25 degrees, beautiful cloudless skies, and the garden is sprouting forth! Hurrah!! Us brits are so bloody patient when it comes to sunshine, and God knows we have to be...

First things first though. Big HAPPY BIRTHDAY hello to Jen in Australia... the time difference, and errr.... well.... I dunno... *something* made me save the purchase of your gift until the weekend of your birthday, which doesn't actually give it much time to wing its way over! Anyway... I hope you will forgive me. It will actually be more than worth the wait I *can* assure you... it was purchased along with my Mama on Saturday in Southwold. We had such a gorgeous day there - a lovely lunch in one of the local cafes (Veggie Lasagne for me), and we spent the entire afternoon wandering around the shops, for once (I hate to say it, but its true) without my Dad or the boys in tow, who always prove too difficult to entertain on such trips! They have opened a new Joules store in Southwold, which kept my Mum and I VERY happy - it seems though that I have developed amazingly similar tastes to my sister, as everything I picked up she had bought already (more amazing if you knew the pair of us as children or teens - we would rather have cut off our limbs than wear anything even vaguely similar, so different were our 'styles'). I guess we all mellow in old age! ;-)

Saturday evening, Mark, his Dad and I went into the village for a pretty low key curry. Mark was in no mood for socialising (having just finished his shift), and John was in no mood for anything really... he was panicking wildly about his holiday he was due to go on on Monday morning. Unfortunately, it was a holiday that he and Suzy had booked to go on together in happier times, along with their friends Ken and Anne. John was still going with them, but I think the half empty suitcase and the empty seat in the plane was weighing heavy on his mind. I really do hope that he manages to enjoy at least some of it. He could do with the break.

Sunday, I got up early-ish, and spent a pleasant morning with John - I cut his hair, gave him a few words of Hayley-wisdom (heh) and listened to him talking (all of this while Mark had a nice lay in). At lunch time, we headed over to Mark's friends place in Hitchin, and headed out to a country pub for lunch. Very delicious steak and jacket spud for me! Here is where the weekend went down hill for me... we had wine with the meal, stayed at the pub (in the lummy garden) all afternoon supping wine, and in the evening we met up with Nigel et al for more drinks in Cambridge. We cycled home, and then (then!) I drank a bloody bottle of wine. Urghhh... we stayed up until far too late, talked far too much crap... and then went to bed. Yesterday was glorious weather all day, but I was like a bear with a very very sore head. How I was not sick, I do not know!

Yesterday was the bank holiday. After my late and reluctant departure from bed, we went over to St. Ives to look around the market there... and my head hurt. Then we went to Waitrose to get stuff for a BBQ later in the day, and I felt sick. We went to the animal shelter in Wood Green (the one nr Cambridge) and looked at all the little abandoned doggies and puddy tats (I cried AND my head hurt). I also, to my horreur, was wearing sandals and got bitten all over my feet by fleas at the centre... and then my head hurt, AND my feet itched. We had a delicious BBQ at home (my head hurt, and I felt sick)... we finished the day with a walk around Histon, a pint of shandy in the pub (it helped!), and berating the cat for killing a beautiful little blackbird in the garden. Cue bed, very early!

Anyway... back at work, and lots to do! Will catch up soon... can't wait for our holiday in Spain next week!!!
Much love

Hayls The Reformed
xxx

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