More of the usual ramblings on the good life in a seaside town.

After a long closure our wonderful local Theatre was back open for business, and the best bar team were out in force for the opening fundraiser.

We’ve settled into the usual summer routine of eating, drinking and having fun with family and friends. We celebrated Pat and Don’s 40^th wedding anniversary with drinks and snacks outdoors in their gorgeous garden with the rest of The Social Club. We keep thanking our lucky stars that we have such sociable neighbours that love to laugh at themselves as well as each other. We also have a new venue for our mission to keep the local bars and restaurants in business by frequenting them as much as possible. The Harbour in Axmouth advertised a new ‘wrinklies special carvery’ every Wednesday lunchtime for £12.  Not one to miss a bargain Cheryl recruited the social club to give it a try.  Well, fabulous sunshine, an amazing lunch with so many vegetables to choose from gave us another superb afternoon. Everybody agreed it was a delicious lunch, and the bonus was it was great value.  All booked again for next month!

Next was Neil’s Siblings lunch with June and Bill and spouses Roy and Sue.  Another sunny day meant letting Roxy go topless all the way to The Cotswolds and as it was a long drive just for the day we took the opportunity to stay over with June and have a really good catch up. 

Alex and Freddy plus children arrived for a short stay and took themselves off to Exmouth on the Friday to ‘take a look’.  They are seriously considering leaving London and perhaps moving to Exeter. We had a trip to The Donkey Sanctuary with the grandchildren and then everyone, apart from Neil, set off for Exeter for a few days to further explore the area that they identified as the place they would want to live if they were to move.

Neil’s son and grandson also visited and we had just enough time for a beach walk and lunch. As we left the seafront cafe the rain started which gave grandson the opportunity to visit the Arcade, a place we hadn’t frequented much. It’s a seaside tradition and whilst the old fashioned penny falls machines brought back some childhood memories the rest of the tacky machines did not appeal at all. The rest of the day was spent indoors playing games and for him to demonstrate his newly learned tunes on his mini electric guitar.

How long?

Early June brought us our 7^th wedding anniversary and as it had been at least a week since we had a curry, we took ourselves off to Rajini for some delicious food and a few drinks.  When Neil booked he informed them that it was our anniversary. On arrival we found the table had been decorated to wish us a happy birthday but on the bright side they kindly gave us a small chocolate cake for dessert.  Not very Indian but very welcome!

June ended on a high with the visit of John and Suz, playmates from Goa.  They had spent the last 10 years or so living in France and decided to move back to the UK last November. 

They came to stay for a few days and so we started with a curry night, we took them on the tram, had lunch out, they both wanted a spin in the Mustang, and we ended their stay with a BBQ and way, way too much wine.

Bienvenue

The next big event was in mid-July.  Our twinning village, Thury Harcourt in Normandy, came to stay and we accommodated Nicolas as our usual playmates, Chantal and Jean-Philippe couldn’t come over as they had agreed to look after their grandchildren.  Nicolas was the perfect guest, he just went with the flow as we all enjoyed an afternoon in Seaton and a full day out at Bicton Park & Sidmouth followed by a formal dinner on Saturday.

Sunday was spent en famille so we joined up with Andrea and her guest Verena for a tram ride, lunch in Colyton, a visit to the Wetlands and a quick swim. The day ended with a BBQ for a larger group from the Twinning on the Sunday. 

It was all over in a flash as we waved goodbye to them as they boarded the bus on Monday morning.

Rest in Peace

Sadly we experienced an unexpected loss when our good friend Liz suffered a heart attack and died shortly afterwards. Liz and husband Graham run our U3A wine club, are members of the Twinning Association and we’ve had many meals out together. We’ve also had a lot of fun dressing up in ridiculous costumes to promote various performances at The Gateway. We will really miss Liz, and her loss has reminded us how no one knows how much time they have left. We’ve often joked about who was going first and what we would do without each other.  We were stunned and now we support Graham whenever he needs us including a few beers and a curry.