Getting Back To Reality

Thursday 12 April

It was great to wake this morning and catch up with Dawn and Darren. It definitely does not seem that we haven’t met up with them for the past nine months. But we didn’t have long for chatting. Today was to be a “pampering” day, as Juz had arranged for Dawn and I to have our hair cut and Dawn to have a massage and facial too (they were meant to be for Juz before Colin and I altered her plans by arriving at such short notice – I am not a facial person, so Dawn became the recipient of the pampering package). I emerged looking a bit like “Billy Bolisha” with very short, bright orangey hair (!!!!), while Dawn had red and cream highlights – much more sensible. But it had also given Juz and I some time together to chat and catch up, which was great.

We spent the rest of the day shopping which seemed almost a new experience for me – but I still have to tackle Sainsburys and food. We still had prezzies and cards to buy for the birthday girls (Juz and Natasha) and Dawn needed new shoes (to match a new outfit), although we were not successful on two out of three items – only buying birthday cards. Later we spent lots of time talking – there is just so much to catch up on – and playing “Trivial Pursuit” – the modern genus where ‘history’ starts about 1990! Tonight we decided on take away food and ended up with a selection of both Indian and Chinese, neither of which Colin and I had eaten for months. I think we have now just about drunk ‘Darlo’ dry of champagne, so will need to replenish the stocks tomorrow – for the birthday celebrations.

This interlude “up North” is easing us gently into “life back home”, before we have to get into the routine of shopping, cooking, cleaning and ironing. We have already been looking on the internet for other places to explore, even before our planned trip to America in the autumn. Although we are not in quite the same league as Millie - who we met on the Trans Siberian train last July and has been off somewhere new each month, since then – but traveling is now in our blood and I am sure we will have to be off again soon – even if only for a week or two.