This year’s theme is Just Do It.  We’re going to focus on getting on with the things that really matter to us and trying out a few new things we’ve always wanted to do.  This month it was all about the community we live in and the simple things that ordinary people can do to make things better.

Since returning in March we’ve not enjoyed what has been endless grotty weather, and rain, rain and more rain.  But there have been many positives – the grass needs cutting, the spring flowers are out and the garden has come to life, the birds are singing and getting frisky, decent wine is readily available as is real ale and with a bit of luck and a following wind it’ll be BBQ season very soon.

Neighbours Paul & Maureen looked after the house while we were away so we took them for a thank you meal in The Shed Restaurant and sampled their new bistro menu.  A new experience was the accompanying cocktail flight. Food and drinks were delicious.

Picture This

You may remember that last October we met Colin and Iris on the cruise.  It turned out that Colin and Neil went to the same school when they were 11.  Neil showed Colin some photos of some of the classes and Colin revealed that he had a full school photo from 1967.  Anyway, they were staying in Exmouth and messaged to see if we were around.  So, we met them for lunch and Colin brought the photo – brilliant!  He’s loaned it to us and we’ve had a copy made by our local Seaton Design & Print and we’re now in the process of getting it framed.  It’s over a meter long and 25cm high.  Lots of familiar faces for Neil to try and name but it is not far off 60 years ago that the picture was taken.  Sadly, a few of the faces are no longer with us.

Keep on Running

The middle of March brought the annual Grizzly Run.  It’s a gruelling (there’s a clue in the title) 20 mile run firstly along the pebble beach to warm you up and then along the coastal path westwards.  The weather was lovely but because of the constant rains over the last few weeks it was the muddiest Grizzly in years possibly even since its inception in 1988.  People come from all over the country and we also get international competitors.  We don’t take part in the running but we impressed ourselves when our team came second at the fundraiser quiz – however, we do realise it was due to the stellar knowledge of team mates Bob & Steve, thanks guys.

Things can only get better

Trying something new, towards the end of March we went on a Warners Hotel break at Hayling Island.  It was meant to be a short break with dance lessons of all types and standards.  Sadly, it was neither, it was mostly ballroom dancing, most of the people were so experienced that they had their own special dancing shoes, the average age was 80+, the holiday park was a tad run down and sad looking and the weather wasn’t kind.  So all in all it wasn’t a hugely successful weekend.

However, we always find some positives.  The rifle shooting activity was good fun and Cheryl was extremely smug about being better than Neil.  After deciding the dancing lessons were a bit of a dud we managed to dodge the showers to take walks exploring Hayling Island and had a pleasant day out in Chichester. 

We also found another activity which suited us better and the cocktail making class was a hit right from the start.  It cost £17 each but for that we learnt how to make 4 different cocktails and drink them!  Plus, the guy doing the teaching had to make one to start with and they were piling up on the bar.  Nobody else seemed bothered so at the end of the lesson we grabbed the extras and went and sat in the bar for the rest of the afternoon.  After a bottle of wine that evening with dinner we did have a good sleep that night.  We don’t think we will rush to book another Warners break.

Easter parade

Alex, Freddy & Luke came to visit for Easter and we had a wonderful time with them.  The new soft play in the Jurassic centre had just opened and kept Luke amused.  Cheryl couldn’t resist playing along as it was big enough for adults as well.  Luke timed his nap to perfection allowing us all to enjoy a great lunch at The Picture House on Easter Sunday.

That’s what friends are for

Marlpit Lane Social Club had a night at the Thai restaurant which was a lot of fun.  More fun was had at our Perk up Pat Party.  Cheryl bumped into her one day and the expected improvement in her painful feet had not transpired and her recent visit to the consultant did little to improve her mood.  We decided to have a surprise party to cheer her up and with our lovely bunch of neighbours that’s exactly what we did, along with some food and just the odd bottle of wine.  Pat went home much happier than when she arrived.

This is how we do it

We like to do our bit to help out whenever we can and have both been enjoying sessions at the Tourist Information Centre which is manned by volunteers at the weekends during the Summer.  Neil has also been spending a lot of time putting together the volunteer rotas each month. 

Regular readers know that we volunteer at our local arts and entertainment venue, The Gateway Theatre.  Neil cleans the pipes every two weeks and Cheryl has agreed to take on the role of Bar Manager on a temporary basis.  The charity needs to raise funds to pay for its running costs plus a share of maintenance and insurance for the building which has increased substantially over the previous year’s amount.  The revenue from the bar is crucial to raising the necessary funds to pay these bills so Cheryl plans to maximise the return from the bar by analysing profitability, optimal stock reordering levels and streamlining the products on offer.  As some of you know, she can be a bit of a finance nerd and does love a stacked spreadsheet.   It’s an ongoing project but hopefully in the next few weeks we will have made some changes which should deliver some improvements. 

We also helped out with the Seaton Shipshape Festival organised by Seaton Chamber.  It’s all about getting Seaton spruced up ready for the tourist season with such things as cleaning gutters of all the weeds, cleaning shopfronts, weeding the streets and so on. It’s been fantastic to see how people can contribute and make a difference just by doing simple things to make the town look its best before the main summer season starts.  We both got stuck in with the beach clean up organised by Jurassic Coast Clean Up.  They were able to identify the really large hard plastic object as a mussel float and had the contact number of the fishermen who would collect it for re use. 

We also offered our top skills of dressing up in pirate costumes, having fun with the public and taking as many silly pictures as possible whilst wandering  around the town with friends Graham and Liz handing out leaflets for the big party at the end held at The Gateway.  The series of photos were then posted to the local social media along with the some totally cringeworthy puns to attract ticket sales. 

Sadly, we couldn’t be at the party as we had already committed to a visit to family in Bristol and the next day Cheryl travelled on to Champneys for a couple of nights with the girls to celebrate Anna’s birthday.  The Champneys break was superb with Anna on top form between her treatments and her mum June walking better than ever since her recent surgery.

It’s a Jungle out there

Wildlife report from the garden.  Silver has become our pheasant in residence, he’s still very shy but is getting used to the place where Neil will put out seeds.  We had a bit of a shock one afternoon to find a new visitor staring at us through the patio doors. 

Mindful of protecting Silver as pheasants really are the most stupid of birds and an extremely easy target for a hungry predator, Neil made sure that Foxy soon got the message that our garden was not a safe refuge for him. 

Mid-month and we noticed that Silver was limping and clearly had a very sore leg he could barely stand on.  Ringo developed a gammy leg last year so we wonder what on earth the pheasants are doing to damage themselves in this way.  At the end of the month we had a surprise visit – Ringo was back and limped his way happily to Neil for his handful of seeds.  Will we have handbags at dawn between Silver and Ringo?  Who knows

We could be right, we could be wrong….

Just do it also means being open to saying yes when opportunities arise and this was the case for Cheryl when a last minute ticket was available to go and see one of her teenage influences, punk legend John Lydon aka Johnny Rotten at nearby Axminster Guildhall.  Huge fan Eric had booked himself the VIP meet and greet and an additional ticket for the show for his wife who couldn’t attend at the last minute so Cheryl went along.  It was not something she would have booked, but, came back buzzing from the event especially as Eric managed a front row seat for her for the second half enabling her to sing and dance along to the closing songs – Anarchy in the UK and Rise, and she took the opportunity to shake his hand.

This year’s