After one month and a day and over 3,700 miles we're finally back home. We've had a hectic few weeks and a really enjoyable time but we are looking forward to spending a night in our own bed. Hope you've all recovered from the excess' of Christmas & New Year and are all back hard at it.
We spent Christmas at Rebecca & Alan's in Ealing and it was then up to Manchester for New Year. On the 27th December we'd arranged a night out with some friends we used to go to a pub quiz with. It was good to catch up and we visited a local restaurant that has been a legend in the north west for over 40 years. It's over 15 years since we were last at Smithills Coaching House in Bolton but little had changed. Even the prices hadn't moved all that much & Mr Pickwick's mixed grill of a pork & lamb chop, liver, sausage, rump steak, black pudding, gammon, mushrooms, peas & chips was excellent value at only £12.50! With that under our belts we didn't need to eat again until 2008 but on Sunday we did a little more visiting & had an excellent meal at R & J's with some of their friends, another great night & now all that weight we'd lost working hard was back on. Thanks to I & J where we had a great New Year's eve and for putting up with us once again. As always they made it like home from home & made us very welcome.
New Years day and it was off to sunny Blackpool to stay with Barbara's mum for a couple of nights & was informed on arrival that she had a small job for me. I'd been sending copies of the blog to Beryl in the post but she decided that it was time she got on the information super highway & bought a laptop. Off to the computer store it was to buy a computer & set it up ready for broadband which she'd already organised. So hopefully by the time this gets posted Beryl will be surfing the net! Another lovely meal at J & D's on New Years day. Wednesday it was a flying visit to the dentist in Bury and then it was time to head south again. The appointment was late in the day and it would mean that we'd end up getting to Tunbridge Wells fairly late so we took the opportunity to stop off on the way & visit Oxford. First time we'd been & although we only spent a couple of hours wandering round it's somewhere we'll definitely visit again.
Holiday over & it was time to return to the flat in Tunbridge Wells & get on with some plasterboarding & painting. What a change! So we could spend the limited time we had available working we decided to stay at the flat and although the facilities were basic our first night went reasonably well it was only on the second night when the inflatable mattress sprung a leak & had to be re-inflated every 90 minutes. What a wonderful nights sleep we had but it did enable us to finish off the work and head back to R & A's on Friday. It was my Aunt's 80th birthday and we were attending a surprise birthday at Chez Gérard in Convent Garden. It had a superb menu & we had one of the best French meals we've had since moving to France. Back to Tunbridge Wells to finish off & then it was time to head for the channel.
Typical of French motorways they were very quiet & we made good progress and we spent the night at a €30.00 hotel where you check in by putting your credit card in a machine & getting a printed slip with your door key code printed on it. It was good value and lying on the bed (there were no chairs) watching the film Magic in French made an excellent end to our road trip.
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