Chapter 11 started in October with saying goodbye to family.  We began with Leanne and Neil followed by Paul, Miranda and grandson.  We said we would bring dinner to cook at their homes and surprised them with a full Christmas Dinner including pigs in blankets and sprouts, (not well received tee hee), pretty lights, Christmas pudding, mince pies and crackers and hats….great fun.  For all of you who despair at Christmas things being sold in the shops in October and wonder who would be mad enough to buy them……..wonder no more!!

We had a family lunch with Neil’s siblings, June, Bob and Bill, and their spouses.  It has been a long time since it was just the four of them so it was something that we think should become more regular.  We moved on to drop the car with June and Roy before heading to London.  Lunch with Bill & Sue at The Mayflower in Rotherhithe which is one of London’s oldest pubs – the name says it all.  We also surprised Alex and Freddy with yet another Christmas Lunch – here the sprouts were tolerated!

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Our Swiss Air flight was excellent with comfy beds and extremely good food.  The Swiss wines, yes that’s right Swiss wines, were also very good as was the single malt scotch whisky.  We grabbed quite a lot of sleep which was just as well as we had a mind and bum numbing 4hr stopover before we could check in for our 5.30am flight to Goa. 

Not much has changed here in Benaulim, a few tweaks here and there, but essentially the same old Goa we have come to call our second home.  The swimming pool is in great condition, so we’ve been doing our daily swim to continue with the weight loss.  6kg down and another 3kg to go!!   Don’t forget we have 2 spare rooms in the house and we’re here until the end of January so you’re very welcome to visit.

October ended with some of the families in the complex organising a Halloween party for the kids.  The mums put in a lot of work making costumes and props for the event and the results were quite Spooktacular!

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We also managed a trip for 8 of us for Sunday Brunch at the Radisson Blu for less than £18 each including all taxes – lots of delicious food, free flow wines, beers, cocktails and sangria……what a rip off!!

Diwali, one of the biggest Hindu festivals,took place at the beginning of November. It’s huge all over India and even in mainly Catholic Goa they celebrate.  Having said that, all Indians seem to celebrate every religion’s festivals which might explain why the kids always seem to be off school.  Whilst we didn’t get involved, some of the Indian residents where we stay organized a party.  They set up little clay lamps around the swimming pool with precise measurements and it looked beautiful.  One of the guys used a drone to take a picture of the complex from above, which sadly only gives an impression of what was such a spectacular scene.

This was followed by a surprise for Hugh.  He arrived a few days after his birthday and mentioned he didn’t have time to celebrate at home.  We arranged to meet for dinner a few days later and he walked into the restaurant to find balloons and a huge ‘Happy Birthday Hugh’ banner.  Raju and Karem at C5 restaurant put up the decorations and we bought a big cake from the German Bakery.  A good night with one or two or maybe more drinks to celebrate.