Yup, our blog this time starts with a momentous occasion, Neil hits the dizzy heights of 70. Surely not? we hear you say……..he only looks 69!   At this age Neil decided he needed more than just one day to celebrate so he started on the 11^th August and went past his birthday on the 16^th and all the way up to the 20^th.

First up was the Gala Night for the Indiana Jones Film when we got dressed up for a screening of the film in our local venue where we had canapes and bubbly on arrival.  We had a great night although the film wasn’t the best.  The following evening we went with neighbours to a Murder Mystery Event where half a dozen people on stage read the mystery with clues as to ‘who dunnit’ in the style of a radio play.  It was just so good to see how a handful of people with such limited resources can put on such an entertaining show.  The special effects man had us in stitches!

For Neil’s actual birthday we had smoked salmon and scrambled eggs for breakfast in bed and then cheese for lunch and a very expensive bottle of red from our friends in France.  Then it was off to The Gateway again for a very funny spoof of two Shakespeare plays all in less than 90 minutes.  Plus, Neil wearing his ’70 Today’ badge, was called on stage to help with a minor stabbing….fab! After the show we took off down to the beach to walk off the red wine and the odd drink we had at The Gateway.  Then we bumped into Lisa and Sean who insisted that we went for a couple of beers at The Vaults to celebrate Neil’s birthday.  Like we needed to celebrate more!  For the evening we went for Neil’s favourite food, curry, what else?  Here, his ‘70 Today’ badge got him a very nice free desert with a candle in it! 

After meandering home via the beachfront, and turned down another invite from a group of total strangers to join them having a birthday drink on the beach, we finished the posh red wine that we opened at lunch time and slept very well indeed.  Well Neil did but Cheryl struggled because somebody was snoring!

There was more to come the following evening.  We had invited the neighbours around for dinner and once Chris and Viv knew what the plan was they insisted in driving all the way from Brecon to take part.  Only Chris and Viv knew that we had invited a chef, Dariusz, from nearby Colyton to come to the house and prepare a 4 course dinner for everyone.  Dariusz did not let us down and even included a hands on pasta making lesson while he was preparing the food which was amazing. The neighbours were very impressed, so much so that we thought that they were never going to go home to bed.  We had a fabulous night.

Next day we drove up to Leanne’s in Cheshire where we were to have a weekend with Neil’s family.  It was action packed with walks, the odd beer (now there’s a surprise), BBQ (now there’s a surprise), a climbing wall and Sunday lunch where Neil was welcomed with a giant balloon of ‘70’ behind his chair.  It was just so good to spend the whole weekend surrounded by his family.  What a great way to finish a 70^th birthday celebration which, actually, went on for over a week rather than a day or two.  Hey, it had to be done!

After slowing down for a few days we had a visit from Alex, Freddy and Luke.  Always good to see baby Luke but it is tiring keeping him out of mischief now he’s increasingly mobile.  He’ll probably be walking next time we see him so that it’ll make it even more full on.  We don’t mind, he’s such a cheery happy go lucky little fellow that we don’t feel tired until he’s gone to bed.

There were a few other events/activities like Marlpit Lane Supper Club where Neil baulked at the bill until Pat pointed out how much wine we had drunk, the new Mission Impossible Film (we liked this one even though we had to admit it was just a load of exciting tosh), volunteering at The Gateway behind the bar and volunteering at Tourist Information.

September brought us our two week narrow boat trip with Gail and Orren her dog.  We started in Ellesmere in Shropshire with the intention of completing The Four Counties Ring – Shropshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire (West Midlands) and Cheshire.   The first week was so hot with temperatures in the UK setting September records.  Thankfully, whilst we were hot at around 28C we were much cooler than the south.  The trip was going well until Neil had an argument with a windlass when he thought he had broken his arm.  Fortunately, being something of a drama queen, he just had to contend with a very sore arm and a wound that just would not heal.  Still, it could have been worse as we have heard of people having similar accidents and finding the windlass mashing up their faces!  ‘Of course, that might have made an improvement’ says Cheryl!

The second week’s weather was not so pleasant as we had a number of wet days but on the upside we still managed to BBQ most evenings even if we did eat inside. 

The trip went so well that we calculated that we had 2 clear days extra to play with.  Neil had the idea that as Cheryl was now beginning to steer the boat a lot more we should head past the marina and get ourselves up the Llangollen Canal as far as the Pontcysylite Aqueduct.  It’s an amazing piece of engineering from Thomas Telford which was opened in 1805.  It’s over 300m long and there’s not much to prevent the captain at the back falling off and plunging nearly 40m down to the River Dee.  We have passed over it a few times before so Neil had the idea that this time it was Cheryl’s turn to take the boat over, take her first winding (a 360 degree turn) and bring it back over again. It’s just an awesome experience and she did brilliantly. 

We weren’t done.  After we gave Gail a hug we parted company and we headed off to have lunch with June and Roy plus Bill and Sue.  This time we had chosen a good venue.   The Highwayman Inn delivered a cosy environment, cheery staff and excellent food.  Bill and Sue headed off back to West London and we went to spend the evening with June and Roy and watch our first World Cup Rugby Matches.  The drive home next day started great but just past Bristol the heavens opened and we were down to 50mph as the rain was so heavy.  We stopped off to buy diesel but gave up as the filling station had a huge queue because most of it was more than 6’’ under water.

The final few days of September and early October were pretty busy.  We had the U3A wine club meeting where we had to provide 2 bottles of rose/white and 2 bottles of red each containing the letter K in any part of the grape variety, vineyard name or country.  Letter K Easy?  Actually, it wasn’t that difficult and our favourite amusing purchase was a bottle of Kylie Minogue Rose.  Sadly, most people thought it wasn’t good value and not a great taste, we agreed.   That evening we were at a quiz at The Gateway with Simon Jupp MP as our question master.  We went with Bob ‘n Shiela and Paul ‘n Maureen and improved on our position compared with the last quiz but not enough to win the prize.  The following evening we volunteered behind The Gateway Bar for the AC/DC Tribute band, it was busy and bloody loud but the band were good value giving excellent entertainment.  Then next day it was Tourist Information all day so a very busy weekend indeed.

Last month we left you wondering what Neil had been up to to get into this state.

He was transforming the garage – and had enough paint left over to do the workshop door as well.

Next month…………all at sea!