0394 Christmas and the New Year

Christmas 2015

Great fun despite the flu !!

As I write this, Christmas and New Year have come and gone, and at 5 am tomorrow morning we are off to Portsmouth to catch the ferry to Spain, and then we drive down through Spain to Morocco.  But more of that later !  In the meantime, we enjoyed a wonderful Christmas and New Year with very close friends and family, even if the local winter bugs decided to do their best to thwart our fun !

Janet was already starting to cough really badly, but after a visit to the doctor was told she wasn’t contagious, and there was no point in giving her antibiotics as it was a virus, so on

Christmas Eve, John and Di Skidmore and Janet and I set off from Effingham and drove down to our very good and long time friends, Jackie and Brian who live down near Wareham. The weather was pretty diabolical driving down (rain, rain, and more rain), but the traffic was surprisingly light for a Christmas Eve, so we arrived in good time.  Once we arrived, the rain cleared up a little, and we all went for a walk down on the beach around Poole Harbour where Jackie managed to find some Holly for the Christmas Table, and we drove home around Corfe Castle.  That evening we enjoyed a SUPERB curry cooked by Brian – A perfect way to round off the day !

On Christmas morning we had a leisurely wake up, and over coffee and then champagne, we gathered round to see what Father Christmas had brought.  One Father Christmas had done a lot more than others, and we ended up having a most enjoyable morning with lots of laughs – Although Janet was coughing harder and harder – Not good for her.

We ended up going for a walk on the beach down near Swanage, with the wind blowing hard, but no rain.  Once we reached the point where “Naturists may be seen”, we had the usual frivolities before heading back to the house !

Back once more to food, with Jackie hard at work in the kitchen keeping the turkey heading in the right direction, while we sat down while the Queen joined us for her speech, after which it was time to dress for dinner !  Jackie and Brian had organized a murder mystery theme for the evening, and we had all been advised of our roles, and had been asked to dress accordingly.  Between Dukes. Aviatrixes, movie starlets, Princesses, and movie moguls from Yorkshire, we had all bases covered, but

Brian as an ex British Army officer was probably the best !!   After a few photos, we sat down and worked our way through both the murder story and the meal, but in the end we found it was getting harder and harder to follow the plot – I think the drinks were playing a role in that !   When eventually we found out who the murderer was, we were all surprised (including the murderer herself !), but relieved that we could now focus on the rest of the food and drink. A very pleasant evening with good friends.

 

There were some interesting and funny cards around, and we had some good laughs at them.  Our theme for the day was “Just for today, lets not be grownups” !!  We tried hard.  On Boxing Day John and Di headed back to Effingham because they had to get home for their cat, Percy.  Janet and I stayed an extra day, and went for a walk through the fields and beside the Frome River into Wareham, and then had a quiet evening.  Janet was starting to feel worse and worse, while Jackie also seemed to be coming down with something, while everyone else was couching a bit.  Not much fun at all.

Next morning we left quite early, and Janet was not feeling well at all.  So instead of going back up to John and Di’s for New Year’s Eve as planned, we went to my sister Margaret’s in Milford, where Janet promptly went to bed and barely moved for the next 5 days !  Once again the Dr said she could take nothing to help, and just had to let it run its course – Not too helpful.  Margaret had a small dinner for friends on NY Eve, but Janet stayed in bed – I took her up some champagne at midnight, but she didn’t drink it !  So our entry into 2016 was somewhat subdued !

A couple of days later, with Janet feeling a bit better, we returned to John and Di’s, enjoying the chance to get together with a number of their friends over the next few days, and also getting a chance to walk up to St Martha's outside Guildford where my dad is buried.  we then returned to Milford to pack up the car and get ready to catch the ferry to Spain on the 12^th January. In packing the car I am stunned by how the car has suffered in the 2 ½ months of wet weather in the UK – Hinges and sliders rusting up and seizing, and even rust spots appearing anywhere that stone chips have happened - The car has really suffered.  Need to get back on the road again !

While the winter here has been unseasonably warm and wet, there have been enough dry spells to enable sister Margaret and I to get out for some bike rides in the area around Milford.  There are some great rides along the coast, and apart from the high winds we occasionally encountered, they were very pleasant – And also helped to counteract of the effects of all the food we have been eating.  Back on a diet once we get back on the road !!

So our hiatus in the UK is at an end, and we owe an enormous Thank You to everyone who has put up with us for such a long break - Especially our friends John and Di Skidmore and my sister Margaret.  We really needed a break from our travels, and could not have had a more enjoyable time.  Tomorrow morning we head to Portsmouth and catch an 8.30 am ferry to Santander, in northern Spain.  The ferry travels overnight through the notorious Bay of Biscay, so we hope it won’t be too rough !  From Santander we will drive fairly quickly down to southern Spain and catch the ferry across to Morocco for 3 – 4 weeks before returning to Spain.  Janet is due to fly out of Lisbon on the 26^th February – She is heading home to Queensland to allow out house and dog sitter to move on, and to work out where we night live !  We have some decisions to make – Do we move back to Melbourne ?  Stay in Queensland ? Not sure yet.  But she does know that having been away for 8 months, she is ready for a break from the road.  Not being quite the gypsy that I am, she finds it hard to keep going for long periods, which I can understand.  Once she goes back to Aus, I will slowly head back to the UK with the plan being to ship the car to Nova Scotia in late April before driving across Canada to Alaska (again !) and then down to Seattle, from where I will ship the car back to Australia in about October.  That is the plan anyway !!

But for now we look forward to seeing Spain (my last visit was in about 1957 !), and then Morocco.  So my next post will be from somewhere hopefully a little warmer and drier. English winters are not easy – The darkness by 3.30 pm means one either feels really tired, or else turns one into an alcoholic because it seems like time for a drink when it is in fact only 4.30 pm !! One certainly has to adapt to it in a way that is not necessary in Australia.  

Rest of the pics here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/0394ChristmasAndNewYear?authkey=Gv1sRgCOrgqZSck7qojQE