As you might devine from the title of this blog post, we have had a very sociable and busy month! We seem to have had a lot of friends taking holidays in the Lake District and so we have had a lot of meet ups there…and have eaten a lot of meals out! All of this is not great for my diet but it has been fun!
The month began with a lovely meet-up with our son Matthew and our grandchildren, Ethan and Hadley, just outside Carnforth, where we often meet them. This time it was part of my birthday celebrations and we were joined by Hazel, Phil and the little one, so I had all my family together, which doesn’t happen that often so it was very special. And they brought cake too to mark the birthday! We all had a great day with the kids really enjoying playing on the sand and jumping over the little pools. Our dog Xena enjoyed all that too and for once no one fell in! It was a lovely way to start the month 
Geoff and I followed that with a short trip to Northern Ireland. We had been wanting to do this trip for ages but have always been a bit put off by the cost of the ferry! In fact, this trip, enjoyable as it was, cost us quite a lot all in all…we could have gone back and forward to St Aygulf two or three times more cheaply than this trip! However, we did enjoy it and stayed in some lovely bed and breakfast establishments and ate some great food! We especially loved the spectacular scenery of the Antrim Coast and our trip to the Giant’s Causeway…although we were a bit disappointed by the amount of people there. I thought the site resembled a giant anthill with hundreds of people of all nationalities swarming over the rocks. I found that a bit disconcerting at times. We drove around the borders of N Ireland and down to the Morne Coastal route which was also very pretty but in a very different way to the Antrim coast. We did fit in a brief visit to Derry too to see the Peace Bridge…and the Derry Girls mural too of course…but mainly we just enjoyed the scenery. We loved the way that everyone we passed actually spoke pleasantly to us…it made us realise just what friendly people are here…which made all the stories and historical horrors of the Troubles seem so difficult to understand. And then in places like Newry and Armagh we drove past highly fortified police stations…and realised that there must still be a real undercurrent of hatred. It was a strange wake up call to see all that. All in all though we really enjoyed our few days away
The weather was not that good whilst we were in Ireland and when we got back home this continued with some really cold winds blowing most of the time. We both ended up with really nasty colds as a result of this I think and I began to despair of ever being able to wear some of my summer dresses and T shirts. However, we did have a brief spell of warm weather last week and actually managed to eat a couple of meals in the garden at last. We did make the decision though to get rid of our BBQ as it has sat unused for many months now!
As the month has progressed, so has our meetings with all these friends I mentioned at the start of this post. Our first one was with my great friend from my nursing days, Rose and her family in Darlington. We had requested this meeting, as Rose’s youngest son (and my godson) Jamie’s wedding was fast approaching, and he and Rachael are using our flat in St Aygulf for their honeymoon. We wanted to give them the keys and go over some of the information regarding the flat in person. We had a lovely day with quite a few of the family who we have not seen for a long time and we will also see them again at the wedding at the end of the month.
Following this trip, we then had a lovely day meeting up with one of Geoff’s old schoolfriends, Les and his wife Carol in Ambleside, where we all had lunch together. Incidentally, they too are going to use our flat in October for a much-needed short break so once again it was good to see them and explain a few things they might need to know. Although we normally choose to avoid the Lake District in the summer months (too much traffic and too many people) we found ourselves back there the week afterwards to meet yet more friends for lunch! Ewen and Jean are a Scottish couple we met on a cruise quite a few years ago now (along with Mandy and Carolyn who we often meet up with when we are in St Aygulf) and we have all kept in touch since then. We had a lovely lunch with them…and were actually able to eat outside in the gardens of the Wordsworth Hotel in Grasmere as it was a lovely sunny day for once!
The following week saw us heading over to Whitley Bay for yet another lunch (and overnight stay this time) with a group of ex-neighbours from the street where we all lived in Seaton Sluice, when Geoff and I were first married. It was lovely to see them all again and to swap news of all the (now grown up) children who all played together for many years in that street. There was much swapping of photos of them and all the grandchildren too. We stayed overnight with Gill and Charles and the next day we drove into Newcastle to go to a great exhibition of Turner’s paintings at the Laing Gallery there. Geoff was particularly thrilled to see the famous Fighting Temeraire painting….it turned out it had always been a lifelong ambition to see it! It did not disappoint and he had to be “persuaded” to finally leave the gallery!
Since then, things have finally calmed down a bit and we resumed all our usual things such as pickleball (him) and Op shop (me) along with a few long overdue appointments, including an eye test at the optician for me (new reading glasses needed) and the first part of my annual diabetic review which went well for once! The second part of that will be in July.
We, as I’m sure you are all well aware, are in the throes of the General Election build up. As yet we have not received any visits from any candidates (what a surprise eh?) and apart from a few leaflets delivered by the postman, have not really seen much political activity at all here in Carlisle. We have chosen not to watch any of the debates on TV and are still very undecided where our votes will go next week. Geoff is being swayed by the Greens but mainly because of their stance on the pollution of our rivers (one of his pet hates) and also because they are the only party to mention the importance of being kind to others in their programme! We have spent a bit of time trying to explain the differences between the voting systems in France to people and also to tell people how much more involved people get (especially in the rural communes like the one we lived in) at local levels. This will be the first time we have actually voted in the UK for many years and it all seems very strange to us again. It will be interesting though to see the results…I think!
And as the month draws to a close, we have started to watch a lot of sport on TV again. We have watched a few of the Euros football matches (yawn, yawn!) and I have been delighted to be able to watch some tennis at last…although the main reason for watching Eastbourne this week is to try and familiarise myself with some of these ladies, half of whom I have never heard of, before Wimbledon starts next week! Next week will be the usual clash point in our house, as the flipping Tour de France is on at the same time as Wimbers! Hopefully, though, once England set off for home, the football will go on the back burner so that will be out of the equation! And then we will have the Olympics…! Hey Ho!
To round off the month, we had a couple of nice social events. I was able to go with Hazel and Phil to the annual Rotary quiz night, in Carlisle, leaving Geoff to babysit the little one, for a change! It was quite a difficult quiz, but we all took it in good humour and had fun. Quizzes were something I really missed when we lived in France and when we came back to the UK, I had always hoped to do more but, somehow, they never materialised. I really enjoyed this one. The other big event was the celebration of my godson Jamie & Rachel’s wedding which was held at the Kelham Island Museum in Sheffield yesterday. It was a lovely “do” and we all had great fun. Geoff and I managed to dance quite a lot…my poor knees and hips are really protesting today because of that! It was lovely though, to meet up with lots of old friends once again…some of whom I have not seen for many years. It was also great to spend some time with my friends Rose and Robin and to talk to all their kids…again some who I have not seen for many years. It was a fabulous afternoon and evening and the newly weds looked very happy & were very excited to be flying out to our flat in France tomorrow for a week of relaxation and chilling after all the wedding preparations. Hopefully the weather will be kind to them We drove home today and chose the lovely Weardale route, so I was lost once again in nostalgia as we retraced a very well-travelled road from my childhood. My parents had a static caravan in St John’s Chapel and I spent nearly every weekend there as a child. Many happy memories for me
So now off we go into July. I keep hoping that summer weather will arrive…but no sign of that as yet, unfortunately. We are also hoping for a bit of a quieter couple of months to come, as we could do with a bit of a rest from all this gadding about! We got round to booking our flights to St Aygulf for our September break the other day, so we are hoping for a bit of relaxation then if not before!
A bientot mes amis
