At sea again

We are on our way to Dublin by ferry and it reminds us of our wonderful cruise last year!
We are on our way to spend a week in Northern Ireland with the family.
As it is term time all the kids will be at school and both Ian & Kathy will be working, but we will have the car and be free to be tourists.
The ship was held up because of an hour long diversion we were held up in. The A55 was closed and the diversion and TomTom took us through the mountains of North Wales onto the A5. Mind you there was another hold up for about three quarters of an hour where they were digging the road up!! We did not think we were going to make the ferry, we only had 20 minutes to spare!!!
It would seem that a lot of passengers did not make it judging by the shortage of people on board.
The ferry set off 20 minutes late to allow some to get on board but we are sure many people missed the boat.
So we are seated in a mostly empty food area with no queues.

What we have done up until the 16th March

We decided to go to the Trafford Centre one day, we had to get Penelope's birthday present. We also wanted to go to the cinema so it was a good opportunity. We saw the film The Exotic Marigold Hotel, it was really good with a very good cast. We went for a light lunch before went to watch the film.
Another evening we went out for a meal with John and Ilona, this time we went to The Greyhound at Warslow. It was a good evening and a very nice meal.
I have been enjoying a good walk once a week with the U3A. My second walk with them was from Knypersley Reservoir, it was such a beautiful sunny day and warm. My third walk was from Coombes RSPB Nature Reserve off the Leek to Ashbourne Road. On that walk we saw some new born lambs. This weeks walk was from The Knot Inn at Rushton Spencer to Wincle.
We went down south on the 2nd March and managed to catch up with Adrianne and Michael and Vivian as well as Philip. On the Saturday we went toTim and Kim's and Kathy and Margaret came for the day also. It was good to celebrate Penelope's birthday with them all.
I have met up with Wendy,Kath and Janet from work, we met at Woodford garden centre. It was good to see then all again.
We have just celebrated Stuart's 65th birthday. We spent 2 days in Buxton. We booked into room 10 at The Westminster Hotel on Broadwalk. We had views from our room across the lake in the Pavilion Gardens. The sun came out as soon as we arrived there and we explored the town on the first day and had a late lunch in town. Stuart's birthday was on the Tuesday. We woke up to a lovely greeting from our friends from Melbourne via Heytell. While we were enjoying talking to them we saw a heron sitting on top of a tree right outside window! This was at 7am. After a good breakfast we walked to Pooles Cavern and went on the tour which was interesting. After a cup of coffee we climbed up to Solomon's Temple, there were wonderful views from the top over the town and the hills and the sun was shinning. We went the Opera House in the evening to see Yes Prime Minister with Graham Seed as PM. It was very good and is a super theatre, we bumped into Julia, from work with David. We had an Indian meal later and got to bed about midnight! We came home the next day, it was foggy on the hills.
It is Friday today and we have just had a nice lunch with Liz and Harry, we met them at Pecks Restaurant which was very nice.
This is all for now!!

A message for our Australian friends

It is snowing here!

Mind you it's not settling.

What we have done in the last 2 weeks up until the 21st February

Our bedroom is now finished,the blinds were fitted today and we think they look very smart, the room looks bigger as the blinds go into the window space.
Last Thursday I went on a 6mile walk with the U3A, we were in the Teggs Nose area and it was very nice. The group are friendly and I will go most Thursdays while I am on long leave.

We cooked a 3 course meal at home on valentines day which was very tasty it was Delia Smiths Piedmont roasted peppers and focaccia, roast duck with the trimmings and then a tart with a soft macaroon filling topped with a few strawberries, it is a River Island recipe and we enjoyed a glass of wine or 2!! Other days we are trying out some new dishes, a new recipe for vegetable crumble was a big success, we will certainly have that again. Another day we made butternut squash soup and we have also made carrot, parsnip and coriander. We are certainly eating lots of veg, although we usually do. It is so nice to have the time to do extra cooking.

I am also taking the opportunity to make contact with some friends to organise meeting up.

This is all for now

Our Bedroom is Decorated (at last)

Having such a long period of leisure has finally resulted In our ticking off some of those tasks on our 'to do' list.
We spent the last week stripping out the bedroom cleaning it all up and painting it in fancy new colours.
We have now decided not to keep the tired old curtains and not to replace them with nice new ones.
The result is that an old sheet is serving us keeping our modesty intact.
We have, however, just ordered some attractive modern Venetian blinds so in 2 weeks time our modesty will be more easily protected.

And now going up t' North

We have had a busy few days with Stuart's brother Philip and seeing 3 of our grandchildren (and their parents).
When we come to see Philip we always stay at the Premier Inn at Junction 9 of the M1. Having stayed there over a dozen times we are always recognised and get greeted as friends.
This sounds a bit like we are being sponsored (extra nights free would be appreciated).
We are discussing our next task for my sabbatical - redecorating our bedroom. Stuart is suggesting a bright pea green ceiling, but he might not be being serious actually!

Driving Down M6

We are on our way to visit Stuart's brother and over the weekend we shall visit Tim, Kim and family.
Right now I am driving so to save my thumbs Stuart is doing this.
Compared to Australian roads this seems frantic, everybody trying to get there before every one else I guess (wherever there may be).
Fuel had gone up 2p per litre and there were queues because of the refinery going into receivership.
It is 5 degrees, windy and very wet at times.