After the extended travels we needed a quiet March and April. Well, we wish!  Multiple family visits around the country, a surprise not to be missed event in London and a visit to foreign parts meant we were busier than ever.

Family values

Back home for four days for Neil and one night for Cheryl before bags packed again and off to Keynsham to spend time with Neil’s son and family.  It was great to see them, and we had an opportunity to watch Sunday morning rugby, see the new school and to listen to the little man’s constant chattering – he never stops!

Next stop June and Roy a few miles outside Gloucester to see how they are getting on and get the latest on niece Anna and her constant fight against the silent assassin.  It was just one night as we were on our way to Cheshire to spend some time with Leanne.  She showed us her new business where she does her sports massage.  A grand day out at Biddulph Grange where we learnt something new – do you know what a stumpery is? Finally a quiz in Macclesfield.  It was an excellent quiz, very different in several ways with some local knowledge required and let’s just say it was not our finest moment.

Finally back in Seaton in time to watch the Grizzly in glorious sunshine.  It’s an annual event attended by runners from around the country and the town was packed.

Scrummy

Now, the sensational one-off as mentioned in the opening paragraph.  June sent us a fairly cryptic WhatsApp message that, on enquiring further, revealed that great nephew Fred would be playing rugby for his school, the under 18’s, in the schools final at the home of English Rugby Union, Twickenham!  Well, it had to be done didn’t it. 

After a bit of rapid messaging, we had all of Neil’s siblings together and lots of nephews and nieces to give King’s School, Gloucester the support they deserved for getting to the final.  What a day and what support from so many people who arrived in coaches and cars.

 At half time King’s were 11- 16 down even though our supporters out shouted and out hollered the opposition’s supporters.  Having resigned ourselves to the inevitable defeat, and we had heard the opposition were the favourites, the disappointment soon changed as King’s came out all guns blazing in the second half and set about demolishing the opposition scoring and scoring again and again. 

Final result, 29-16.  At the final whistle a huge cheer rang around the amazing Twickenham Stadium.  We booked a nearby hotel and that evening we had dinner with Bill, Sue, Kate, Sarah and children Jack and Evie.  An absolutely amazing and unexpected day.  Cheryl then headed off for a few more days in London to have more cuddles with Lyra & Luke.

A tale of two quizzes

Having failed miserably with Leanne and Neil in Macclesfield we didn’t rate our chances at the Gateway Fundraising quiz at the football ground.  We joined forces with our Gateway bar chums Linda and Dennis plus Liz and Graham from The Twinning and U3A.  Dennis came up with the team’s name, The Bar Stewards, and we duly made amends for the previous quiz by winning, hurrah!  There was a prize, vouchers to spend at a local beachfront café, The Hideaway.  We had a lovely lunch, a couple of drinks, lots of laughs and watched in awe as Graham polished off two cream teas.

Hola amigos

Then we were off again – this time for a short break to Spain to see Neil’s old school mate, Clive and his wife Karen.  They’ve been living in the really attractive small town of Alcalali for around 10 years.  We had a great time, visiting nearby resorts Calpe, Denia and Javea.  Clive cooked us paella one evening, delish, and on another night, we went to a nearby restaurant that served up wild boar – also delish! 

They were quite insistent that they took us to a special Sunday lunch in the nearby hills which was located in an old Roman Villa.  The host was just amazing, giving everyone a tour of the premises before we sat down for an excellent five course lunch with as much home-made wine as you could possibly drink.  What could possibly go wrong? 

There were about 70 covers in the restaurant and it was the league of nations. French, Norwegian, Russian, us Brits, Spanish and Lithuanians.  After lunch each table had to sing a song which C&K had warned us about.  We chose Nellie the Elephant and quite a few people joined in with the chorus.  We received a great round of appreciation from the rest of the restaurant when we finished.

Next the professional entertainers sang a mix of Spanish and popular songs.  As the wine flowed soon everyone was up singing and dancing.

Then it went a little bit downhill from there, and we did our bit to help.  Neil was dancing like his dad and Cheryl performed a heartfelt Karaoke ‘I Will Survive’.  It can’t have been all that bad as she did get a well-deserved and raucous round of applause and cheering. It was an amazing afternoon and a great stay with C&K – thanks guys we had a fabulous time with you. 

We finished off our trip to Spain with a few nights in Valencia which is has lots of green spaces, excellent walking in parks, a huge indoor market, stunning buildings and fine tapas.  The river which previously flowed through the city was diverted in the 1950’s following severe flooding.  The riverbed is now an extensive city park with a futuristic science park and entertainment complex as well as sports pitches and themed garden spaces.

Under pressure

Our apartment was perfectly placed for us to reach all the attractions and restaurants on foot and was only a short walk to the metro to get to the airport for the flight to Heathrow  However, our careful plans came to an abrupt halt on arrival in the lounge where we got the first text to tell us our flight was delayed by an hour.  As regular readers know, ‘lucky’ is Neil’s middle name and the decision to use up Avios and travel business class really paid off as at least we were comfortable in the lounge as the delay became longer and longer.

You would expect everyone on board the plane to be fed up with the delay but there was an air of anticipation over whether we would break the 3 hour late deadline.  It was tense and we did circle over Heathrow a few times but the pilot and crew managed to get the plane down, at the gate and the doors open at…………2 hours and 56 minutes, pah! 

We finally made it to Alex & Freddy’s house for a couple of nights before finally getting the train home.

Heard it on the grapevine

April ended with some beautiful weather, our first BBQ of the year and our Annual Town Council Meeting where the council reviews its highlights of the past year and public have a question and answer session.  Last year was a tad awkward as no members of the public attended at all! The date of the meeting is on the council website but you do have to search to find it so Neil decided to do his bit for community engagement and publicise the meeting on social media.  It must have had an effect as we actually had some people there and they did ask some questions – success!   So much better than last year.

Enjoy the sunshine.