H and I nipped down to Kent on Thurs for a night away at The Bell in Ticehurst, which J&R had recommended as being very dog friendly and with good food. And they were right! Maddie spent much of the visit chomping down on her new green rope 'tuggy' gift and we polished off the 2 types of home-baked cookies in the room with no problems at all, as a warm up to the pub grub supper….
On the way back we detoured via sunny Eltham (which actually was), to see my oldest niece Jess and her younger sproglet Polly. Excellent chance for a general natter and catch up, then to pick Jess's brains about how family Christmas works at Little Holland House – Rick's home, that H & I are invited to this year, for the first time for 24-26 Dec.
Relieved to know that the 'buy a £100 gift for the couple who you picked out of the online secret Santa' tends to be mostly nobby foody gifts, so no need for us to conjure up any suggestions for ourselves – and just a visit to the delicious local Bailey & Sage on my list now, for the lucky pair of peeps who we've been allocated. Now we just have to get ourselves to Margate for the joys of the Peter Pan Panto at 12 noon on Xmas Eve… Ear plugs and a bag of patience to combat the inevitable piercing screams, at the ready.
Polly was shy to begin with but warmed up once Maddie had licked her a few times and once she'd been fed her third mini meal of the day – a true Scott.
To counteract the night away and a day of fairly low level pottering, yesterday was an exercise marathon! Started with the 30 minute Welcome to Padel Tennis at the David Lloyd (our new second home) – 29 mins of which was playing. Went straight into the 90 minute Social Padel Session, where I was probably in the bottom 2 players but actually held my own and managed to do 3-4 'bounce off the back wall and return it' shots, while still managing to lose pretty much every single game. Chuffed with the wall shots but some way to go….
From there. H dragged me (slightly kicking and screaming) on an hour's walk to Wimbledon Rugby Club, where we met next door to watch a close game between Wimbers and Horsham – with WRFC coming from behind to win in the last minute, always a bonus. Only had to walk half way home as Rob & Anita had parked en route, but immediately repaired to the sofa and had the next 4 hours or so flat on there, groaning away as everything was aching. Even sitting here to type this, my back is in a slight spasm and both my & H's whole bodies are saying 'WTF??"
Still, we are on a health kick mission, so on we go. I managed to tweak my dodgy hamstring/butt muscle going for a Padel ball that was SO out of my reach, so that plus the overall body soreness wi'll be fun at my first personal trainer session and Reformer Pilates tomorrow… eek.
x