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Meet-Up With My Sister & Co

So we got ready and started the 15 minute walk down to East Cowes Marina (where Paul’s boat is moored) when suddenly there was a BEEP as Maria & Sophie drove past on their way back from shopping in Ryde !!!
They stopped and gave us a lift and we bibbed into Waitrose to pick up some alcohol then boarded “Blinkbonnie II”…
We hadn’t seen them in person since Mum’s funeral on 16th March so it was lovely to finally catch up. Sadly there was no Mike as he was recently knocked off his bike and has a wrist injury making it impossible for him to sail or fish ☹️
But after yummy olives, meats, hummus & crisps to accompany bubbles 🥂 it was then a stone’s throw to The Lifeboat pub for dinner…
I really enjoyed my ham, egg & chips (washed down with a few Sauvignon Blancs) and we also benefitted from the “Eat Out Mon-Weds” deal !!!
Back onto “Blinkbonnie” with each of us having a turn on Spotify to pick a tune – accompanied by yet more bubbles for the girls and Fuggle beer for the boys – Dave & I finally disembarked gone 1:30am…
For once (as I’d also been drinking water) Dave was more “the-worse-for-wear” than me – and the (supposedly) 15 minute return journey – trudging uphill in the drizzle – seemed to take much longer – with Dave asking “Are we there yet ?” every few seconds !!!
But a good time was had by all 😊🛥 🍾 🥂 🍺 🥘 🎵🕺💃 🥴 xxx 💗💋

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Isle of Wight – Whoop Whoop 🙌 !!!

We got up, showered, breakfasted, packed, loaded up the motorbike and then locked up The Van ready for our few days in my beloved Isle of Wight 💗

I’ve been visiting since I was a child and love the place so have been really looking forward to this part of the trip… We WOULD have come across in The Van BUT – as Dave informs me – “it’s the most expensive strip of water in the world” – and a 40 minute crossing from Lymington to Yarmouth would have set us back around £250.

So THIS trip we opted to come over on the motorbike 🏍 for 1/5 of the price…

My sister Maria, Paul, Sophie & Mikey are also here this week – using their yacht as a “floating caravan” moored up in East Cowes so I booked (the only available) B&B in East Cowes and we arrived a little while ago and it’s directly across the road from Osborne House (former residence of Queen Victoria) – aptly named “The Prince of Wales” !!! 👑
AND – take a look at our room – HRH Princess 👸🏼 Helena – yes !!!
And private bathroom opposite…

I think I might get Dave to put named brass plaques on our rooms at home !!! 😂😂😂

My Dave’s had a little nap (whilst I’ve been updating the blog) but is awake now so we’ll get ready and wander off to meet Maria for pre-dinner drinkies on the boat 🛥🍾 🥂 …

Laters 👋 💗💋 xxx

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Lymington…

So Tuesday we had a lazy morning then bibbed off on the push bikes to Lymington early afternoon.

As we entered the town I realised that we’d left the face masks in the bag I’d used for the pub the night before so we stopped at a chemist and I went in (with my cardigan tied around my face looking like a special person about to rob the place 😐) and it was £7 for 2 masks (they didn’t have disposables) and the girl was really nice & advised me to go a little further down the high street to Poundland – where I purchased 2 for £1 !!!

Lymington is a pretty, little market town with cobblestones and a quaint harbour with nautical-based tat shops. So we had a wander then cycled over the bridge to the IOW Ferry ⛴ then stopped at a pub on the way back f Continue reading “Lymington…”

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Anniversary 💖 Dinner 🥘 & The Moon 🌓

So we showered and glammed-up and did a 15 minute walk through the fields to Chequers where Dave managed a steak and I had the salmon fish cakes (which I really enjoyed ). Bit ‘spit-and-sawdust” and not fantastic service but an enjoyable couple of hours and a lovely photie of the moon rising on our return….

Also It’s the largest and first campsite that I’ve ever stayed on where they actively encourage camp fires 🔥 so it was nice walking through the fields with fires dotted all over the place…

Caught up on Corro, had a cup of tea & a Viennese Whirl (Dave had a whiskey 🥃 ) and watched the first episode of The Fall on Netflix – which has Gillian Anderson trying to solve a serial killer case – Jamie Dorman (Christian Grey from 50 Shades) as the nutter – I’m hooked !!!

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Milford-On-Sea…

So Dave couldn’t keep his eyes open last night & tucked up just after 9:30pm.  As it was Sunday (and the WiFi wasn’t strong enough at Richard’s last week) I watched a re-run of the day’s usual Mass that I normally attend online 🙏 accompanied by Dave’s snoring 💤 😴 😂

I turned the light off at 11:15pm but was woken in the night to see Dave moving into the lounge area, & pulling the sliding door to… I thought as he was just having a bad night but it turned out he’d forgotten to lock the electric bikes 🚲 – and after he’d gone outside to lock them- THEN he apparently had a bad night and couldn’t get back to sleep !!!

Anyway we eventually surfaced, and I went to book the ferry to the Isle of Wight for Wednesday (but the morning crossings were full so it was either 5:30am or 2pm… we selected the afternoon crossing…)

Brekky outside then bibbed off on the push bikes to Milford-on-Sea.  Last night as we came back into the gravel entrance of the campsite, I skidded so this made me a little wary (and slow 🐌) on the (mostly gravel) path to Milford-on-Sea today so Dave went ahead and kept stopping for me to catch up (and at one point I lost him altogether and had to ring him to see where he’d gone 😐)

I think it took all of My Dave’s strength not to just yell at me to man up and JFDI !!!  Mind you – as it is our 24th wedding anniversary today – then that was a good move !!!

Milford-on-Sea is not what you’d call “buzzing” – there was ONE (open) tea ☕️ shop – doing takeaway (somewhat chaotically) and I waited (a long time) for our order whilst Dave bagged a bench on The Green…

We tried NOT to order too much (and thus be full tonight for the meal I’ve booked for us at Chequers Inn) – but My Dave is like Joey from Friends and doesn’t share food…

So one (very nice) chicken mayo & tomato sandwich 🥪 on brown, one (small – thankfully) slice of banoffee cake & a tea (and Dave had a cheese & onion panini, a very large, rich millionaire’s shortbread (which he didn’t eat all of) and a coffee) and I’m hoping we’ll be hungry again by 7:30pm…🤞

We cycled the return journey via Hurst Spit (124 tonnes of massive boulders brought over from Norway in 1996/97 – which protect the marshlands (with rare species of wildlife) from flooding. So that’s a photo with me sitting on one of the boulders with The Needles (Isle of Wight) in the background…