Blimey – where did August go? Finally home and in grubby living room (why does your cleaner always desert you just when there's an ironing mountain and a yeti-load of moulted cat fur to be dealt with?) after several weeks on the go.
In order of enjoyable events:
1. Greece went REALLY well with H and Zoe, phew what a relief. She loved the HotShots water club – all v exciting learning to sail, waterski, windsurf etc, and extort virgin cocktails from the Nielson bar staff. Much better than the hols I had at that age, in a plastic tub-boat in the chilly UK sea! H and I made the most of free daytimes, with the odd nip down to wherever Zoe was, so happy Daddy could sneak some photos and a spot of pride in. And Zoe v good at meals and in evenings – can chat at the table for hours (and hours!) – quite grown up for a nearly 9 year old. All still slightly reeling from the steps in the resort – that old 'built into a mountainside' chestnut – just the 169 steps from our room to the nearest beach, ay yay yay moosey! Wish I could lay claim to buns of steel as a result, but they are still more like buns.. of buns… sadly.
2. Got back on a Sun afternoon to Gatwick from Greece and flew straight to Belfast, for girls surfing trip. Quelle schlep! 17 hours from Greece to wet and windswept Donegal, including three hour hairy drive on my own in the dark across Ireland – god, they don't invest much in street signs, and the house was in the middle of Bally nowhere! Thank God Paul B was sober enough to talk me in as the girls were helpfully hooting with pissed laughter in the background.
Was delighted to find just how stretchy wetsuits can be as I squeezed my lard into the 'Size 14' one I have (14? I should coco..) as we strutted our not-so-funky stuff down at Finn McCool's surf shop. Highlight moments were Nicky kneeing Tina in the chin as she leapt up to break into a top floor window when the housekey was with the second car, still at the beach. And the endlessly reappearing lasagne – evidently judging portions to feed 12 once only is a still to be gained skill. And of course Soph finally landing a house in London, nailing the exchange of contracts on the day before her birthday, aah. Slightly barking that she's employed by the RAF in bloody Gloucestershire or somewhere, so Earlsfield station will be seeing plenty of her at gnat's crack on a Monday morning.
3. Then a top weekend on the boat with Janine and Ross – who caught the most monster fish, that seemed to be an enticing red bream and destined for the dinner plate until we decided it was a mere large wrass and therefore better off back in the briny. Cracking dinner as ever at Graze, though somehow I missed out on my statutory Pina Colada there, as we noshed on every crustacean known to man. And some delicious fresh flash fried Mackerel on the boat the next day, caught by our own fair hands, with some help from a very niffy bag of lugworms and squid. Poo-ee.
The sun even graced us for some hours as we whipped past the Needles and off to Poole for the night. Where the mere sight of the mini skirted / tattooed locals was enough to send us scurrying for fish & chips before retiring to the boat to scoff them and do damage to the booze locker on board. We somehow kept bumping into the same 3 chaps from another boat, in their 50/60s, stalking Hawksey so they could borrow his charts and sporting the dark salmon/corduroy red shorts that only sailing men of a certain age seem to possess…just wrong…
4. And then a few days at work before nipping to Turkey last week on a 4 day trip to talk Snacks. And – more importantly – stay in the very spanking Four Seasons Bosphorus Hotel, bang on the edge of the river, with amazing views of the mosque spires, trawler and taxi boats and not bad Berry Cairpinias from the hotel bar. Very good to be back in the saddle of foreign travel, not least as my Gold card will def disappear this year but hopefully only to Silver not… horror of horrors… Blue. Shhhh, its like saying 'Voldemort', that neve rto be mentioned word…. for any Harry Potter fans out there.
So – emerging from the ironing (its never a good sign when flame shoots out of your iron, but that was last night and it doesn't seem to have electrocuted me yet today..sizzle..) and scanning the photos of the last 7 months. Can hardly believe my Stem Cell Transplant was already 7 months ago, great that am feeling so well but always the fear at the back (well, front to be honest) of my mind that time is shooting by so fast. So – all the more reason to make the most of every single day.
Off to plan Sri Lanka a bit, well a lot actually as so far we have flights but bugger all else! Cathy & Emmanuel and little niece Lily coming from Holland for a weekend before that, so will report more then.
Oh – and last but not least – big congrats to Claire and Jon White on the arrival of Emma (great name, though 'Scotty' was a top option too!) and Abigail, to Nettie & Earl for Joe and Liney & Ian for baby Luke. Wishing you some sleep and the ability to come through the next few months and emerge – ready for a cocktail with me & H.
Cheers all, Sx