Its been an eventful winter for us with lots if things we hadn’t planned for.
Nov,. Max had a few weeks visiting friends and family in NZ, making sure UK was where he was happy to be for the next while.
Then we had a quick weekend visit to the Xmas markets in Prague. A beautiful old town, & incredibly cheap but as with Christmas markets, lots of decorations. But very cold and so very christmasy. It helps that it got dark about 4.30pm.
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Christmas we spent with our good friends Dawn and Alvin in Bournemouth. Aren’t we just lovely!!!!! Posing in our Christmas woollies.
And after that it was New Years Eve. This time with silly faces. Of course the drink had nothing to do with it…And the amazing bunting Dawn lovingly spent hours making for us.
We had a lovely visit with Bob & Heather Fenwick just after Xmas, and had a few drinks at The Fox Goes Free Pub in Singleton. The obliqatory visit to Goodwood Race Track.
During January, Max made a couple of trips to France with Bill, to check on the sale of his boat, and then we had a ski trip to Kitzbhul. There we meet up again with the mad lot from New Castle.
Max doing the Jagermeister shot.. the cap on the forehead, but he was meant to hold the bottle in his teeth, NOT his hand,, always the gentleman.
During all this we have decided that there is still a lot of the rivers and canals we want to visit, So with a new 5 yr plan we have taken the plunge, and taken on a small mortgage and bought a flat. Its right within the old city walls of Chichester, so walking distance to everything ( Chichester centre is pedestrian only). Its actually in a retirement block of 40 flats which are common in UK, allowing people to downsize out of the country into the smaller towns. Just have to be of retirement age, so not on the competitive market, meaning they are cheaper.
We had a friend, Ben, do some remodelling, and max painting etc, , and taking endless trips to the FREE tip, and with plenty of shopping trips to IKEA, we have finally ended up with a lovely snug hole.
And the view from the window.. nearly finished, just the 28 yr old bathroom and bits of painting in the kitchen… but for another time.. NOT now.. its summer!!!!
A quick trip to up north over Lucy’s Birthday to York & Whitby on the north east coast with Bill & Min, to visit friends Maureen & John Foster, who we originally met in Oostvoorne in Holland when we first got the boat.
This all sounds so decadent when I write this all out.
Next trip was a week in Spain, Estepona with more great boating friends, Bill and Jan Caddey. Lots of drinking and shopping invloved.
Estepona has amazingly beautiful streets, decorated with all different coloured flower pots, here’s just a few.
We visited Gibraltar for a day ( which Lucy thought was an actual Island!!) , Visited the old fort and tunnels with such awful history. Saw the monkeys and drank some beer and Lucy bought a leather jacket. Max was most upset that they didn’t want to stamp his passport as he was going from Spain into UK territory.
We visited Ronda,way up in the hills built on the edge of cliffs and has the oldest Bull Ring in Spain, and luckily was not open. ( no blood seen)
Finally the ski trip to Champoluc in Italy. With some of the same group from last year, 40 in all, from Chichester and around, all friends of friends etc,. Emma joined us and had a ball with the young set that were with us.
After this great photo, Max had a slight accident, trying to beat his 80 km/hr record on his Ski-trac app on his phone. Ripped all his groin muscles, and popped an inguinal hernia. Easiest and quickest option was to fly back to NZ and get it done on good old Southern Cross. So, now we are ready to go.
June 9th, car is packed and we hear its 30-33 degrees in St Jean de Losne.
yeh yeh yeh lets party.
