Moving on

Dakota_Rose

The stroll along the seafront in the warm sun sounds idyllic - I would like to trade places please!

It’s lovely to hear you have slowed the pace and each enjoyed time for yourselves.

rtandon27

So important to have time to just be with each other away from all regular commitments! Thanks for keeping us updated - so nice to hear about sunshine 🌞

Cherryfudge

Today didn't go to plan, which was to go to a town called Lagos. DH tells me Lagos is the capital of Nigeria and I should pronounce it 'Lah-gosh'. 😊

We got to the train station and queued behind a family whom DH recognised from our hotel, who were in turn behind two people who were engaged in conversation with the ticket seller for so long that our train came and went. The other English family and we discussed options: two hours till the next train or get a bus. I don't know what they opted for but I suspect they abandoned the plan. We went to the bus station which took some finding, then the ticket office there was shut till one. We waited about and asked a bus driver who directed us to an empty stand. No one else waiting, no sign of what to do. By the time the ticket office opened, I'd had enough so we agreed to go for a meal instead.

We went to the place we'd had coffee and sorbet the other day and treated ourselves - I had Greek salad and DH had ravioli. He had a sorbet and I had two coffees. Took ages over it and felt better for it! Total cost E66, which is rather a lot for lunch I suppose, but it was very good, hit the spot and refreshed us. It then took us ages to find our way through the back streets to the beach, but we got there by late afternoon and had a pleasant wander down to the sea. The beaches are beautiful, and hardly any people.

This evening I popped down to L1dl for packed ingredients, dried beans and cinnamon sticks (E9.55) and I've bought a few items I'd favourited on V1nted (£16.16, most of which was covered by sales).

Cherryfudge

Safely home, pretty well exhausted but uneventful.

We had the same driver to the airport as we had at the beginning of the holiday. After two 45-minute drives, it felt like saying goodbye to a friend!

A couple of E5 tips, a bottle of water (E1.50), beverages on the plane (£6.80), fish and chips for tea (£9.70) and a supermarket shop this evening (£10.49). I think I also slipped in a £4.40 V1nted shop late last night as someone was selling old embroidery transfers. I need to go through V1nted spends when I am more awake.

The Clubcard vouchers (£4.50) may or may not have been spent before they ran out. The account says they haven't, the receipt says they have. I can't get the app to accept that the password has been changed, though the password app shows it has. I can get in through the computer by using a one-time code… so frustrating.

I'm doing the children's activity in the morning: just about got it together, I hope. I've cancelled the team meeting as so many are unable to attend and there's nothing urgent that I can't write to them about.

Cherryfudge

The children's activity went better than I deserved, given how much time I'd put in. I had asked the parents to be prepared to stay with their child as we have one child incapacitated and the parent needs to focus on them over the next few weeks, which left me effectively short of a team member. However, people stepped up and two adults stayed with the children they brought, as well as one of the teenagers coming to help. This got complicated for adult/child ratios, but there isn't a legal limit and I think were okay as far as the guidelines go. Then one of the visiting children was ill so the parent took their two children home, the teenager turns out to be very clued up and the visiting grandmother is a nursery worker and superb with the children - so all was well, though I had to stay late to vacuum up sand and coriander seeds!

We had a quiet day after that. DH went for a spring walk up to the woods; I stayed in but admired blossom and daffodils that have appeared in our absence. Last night I had set some chickpeas to soak so I cooked those and made a few meals' worth of chickpea tikka, and in the evening we watched 'Throw Down'.

Uneventful, but it's nice to be easing back into English life. Most of the bags are unpacked and tomorrow I intend to do the laundry.

Dakota_Rose

Welcome home @Cherryfudge 😊

ladybird1106

Another throw down fan. Unable to say who’s going to win as they are all so good.
love 🐞

Watty1

Welcome home. Glad you had such a lovely trip.

Cherryfudge

@Dakota_Rose and @Watty1 , thank you. @ladybird1106 - I know, they've produced some amazing work, and the more I see, the more I realise there are multiple skills involved. And the presenting team are so lovely, too.

Right - today (said she, sounding business-like). The plan is to do laundry, buy groceries (there's quite a list) and work this evening. Some company is also going to ring us up about a quotation for solar panels, but that's very much an early-stages thing as we think our roof needs redoing, and I assume that needs to be right first. Most of it is intact but there's been the occasional tile slippage (sorted out by ongoing repairs) and there's no felting. The plaster under the tiles is probably original 1930s and a lot of it has crumbled away. To what extent the attic would need to be cleared, I don't know: DH thinks they would work from the outside but I'm sure anything inside would be vulnerable to the weather and even in the way at times. This could therefore be a very long term project!

That reminds me, while the sun is shining, I could do with putting more items on V1nted - try to clear a bit of space. And then there's the garden: now that the time away is complete and I'm home-based, I can plant seeds… if only I can find space for the pots indoors.

Rhyddid2026

planting and vinted sounds like an excellent plan for today, thanks for the inspiration!