We're off again

Hello Subscribers to the H & H Blog,

Contrary to popular belief, we have not fallen off the end of the earth! We’ve been at home for 12 weeks and it has been like having a full time job.

By the end of our first week at home I had handed my notice in to the Children & Young People’s Service. I think that we had both decided by the end of 2007 that going back into in to the bungalow, going back to work and returning to our previous life style, was not going to be an option we wanted to pursue. So, as you can imagine, such changes bring complexities to enable us to move forward

To further complicate our plans Dee & Julian (Bo & Dud) decided to book their wedding for Valentines Day next year. It’s going to be a small, intimate affair at Eyam Hall (do have a look on the web site it’s gorgeous), but none the less needs as much work as a full blown affair. We’ve organised the ‘frock’ and Dee’s got hers on order too. I have also got the most wonderful pair of cranberry clip cloppy shoes, the best shoes that the world has ever seen - on the day, there will be many photographs of my shoes from all angles and I suspect a few of the Bride & Groom and guests.

So, without boring you with the intricacies’ of all the ‘stuff’ that we’ve been doing, I will just update you on what we are going to do - far more interesting.

We are currently spending two nights in Canterbury ready for a ferry to France tomorrow morning (Tuesday 16th). As you may know we are great supporters of Le Shuttle as David suffers from the mal de mer. For us it’s the only way to travel. However, after last week’s fire, we had an email to advise us that it would be best if we could make alternative arrangements to travel - hence the ferry. As we are flexible with our plans we can always stay over in Calais if David is feeling a little wobbly - or I can drive - actually, this may make him feel even more wobbly.

We are going to head for Saumur to stay with David and Ann Bullock for a few days. Their CL style site will be perfect for us to ‘chill’ for a little while. We will also be able to use our brand spanking new bicycles (Claude & Claudette) to pop to the village for bread, essential supplies and plenty of red wine. The bicycles are my contribution to our new life now that Jim (my Suzuki Jimny, W Reg 2000, Bright Red, 35,000 miles, full service history and one lady owner from new) has gone to his new home in Halifax. A young couple with small child -met my criteria for ownership and appeared very kind and clean! What’s more they came up with the cash.

Anyway, back to the plot - we are then going to be heading south for the winter; hoping to arrive back in Torre del Mar on 1st October. It’s so very exciting, emails, texts and phone calls to and from the Pensionistas. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the weather will be as kind to us as it was last year and, let’s face it, it can’t be any worse then the summer we’ve had in UK. I think David has developed trench foot and my toes are looking decidedly webbed.

We will fly back for the wedding in February and then meander our way back to the UK mid March before Easter kicks in.

Unfortunately, as we are now on a limited income and I am a kept woman, our adventures and extensive outings will have to be somewhat curtailed. Sorry, that we haven’t caught up with Germany, Austria, Belgium and France yet but as I said previously our feet have not touched the ground over the last 12 weeks. I hope to continue posting a Blog, perhaps on a monthly basis. Should any of our readers not wish to be notified of future Blog postings, you will find an “Unsubscribe” link at the top of the email you received advising you of this post (clicking on the link will remove you your email address from our subscribers list).

Thank you to everyone who has been in touch - it has been lovely to meet up with friends and colleagues to catch up with what has been happening. We are also very grateful for the kind words and comments about our Blog - it’s almost as if some of you came on the journey with us ….. so, you might like to over winter again in Torre del Mar in which case stick with the subscriber option - or, you can delete yourself from the list and I shall no longer bore you with tales of sunshine, outings, boule, drinking and eating etc. Just a little something that may tempt you - our friends Viv & Pete and Sheila & Peter have also bought bikes. We rather fancy ourselves as the Torre del Mar cycling stunt team - I think I may need the sort of underwear that supports incontinence.

We hope you all keep well, happy and have a time in your life when you can follow your dream.

Love + Hugs + Kisses
Ann & David
(aka H & H)
Financially Poor but Time Rich

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