A sociable day to remember

After Pete, Mas and I had a light breakfast and chats Jana arrived. Jana had not met Pete before, but said afterwards that she felt as if she knew him already as I have talked about him so much. Sadly Pete had to go off to Brighton so could not spend more time with us.

Leaving Mas to work on his computer Jana and I headed off into the countryside where we walked over fields from Alum Lane and through woods; the weather was grey and cold which was a shame. We neared The Waggon and Horses pub in Elstree (built in 1471), and decided to have a coffee there. We found that the pub was not open because the decorators were working in the back, but the barman kindly said that he would make us a coffee, so we sat and chatted, and there was a lot to talk about as we had not seen each other for a year; it was hard to believe that Jana had returned home to live in the Czech Republic four years ago!

We sat near this fireplace which had a lit fire in the grate.

Before long we headed off home because Oktay was coming to pick us all up around 1.30pm, to take us off to his home in Cheshunt.

As arranged Oktay called in for us and we drove off to Cheshunt; it was lovely to see Monika and the children, Milan and Talu who were both looking well and happy despite having recently been under the weather. Monika and Oktay are having a new garden made, and although there is still more work to be done it is already looking very interesting.

Monika made a huge and interesting dinner with many courses which we ate in a leisurely way, talking and drinking. Monika had taken a course in making cake decorations, and she made this cake and the decorations too.












Jana and I played with the children upstairs for a while, me playing noughts and crosses with Milan who was cheating, when I mentioned this he agreed and said he always cheated! Jana took him aside and had a quiet word with him about this, while I played with Talu. Milan then demonstrated how he can turn cartwheels!

When we went down later we had a glass of Slivovitz and more chat and snacks until it was time to go home again. It was sad parting from everyone and saying goodbye to Jana who will be off to Spain, and taking a weeks lessons while she is there.

Once home again Toby called and had a quick chat. A very nice but tiring day!

A day to remember

I woke up feeling a great lack of energy, and although I had been given tickets to watch a radio play being made at the BBC I thought I had better have a restful day instead. As it happened Glen called round for a few hours,and we had tea and biscuits and chatted in the conservatory.

We went to Stanmore for shopping and to go to the bank, this done we had a quiet day.

This morning I made some banana bread and an apple crumble, in the dish that Monika had left at our house previously filled with apple crumble for us . We had arranged to go over to Monika and Oktay's house as Jana came to stay with them last night. Monika phoned to say that Oktay would come over to pick us up as they did not trust us, and did not want us to travel to them via Manchester because each time we have visited we have always get lost! Despite protests from us, Oktay came round with Milan to take us over to their house in Cheshunt. I sat in the back with Milan and he chatted busily all the way back to his house.

Once indoors there was lots of talking, so much to catch up on, and Monika had prepared a huge and elaborate Turkish meal for us. The children were contentedly playing while we ate and talked, another unforgettable meal. We had a really lovely afternoon with them,but eventually it was time to return home again. Oktay took us back home, leaving Monika to calm down the overtired children, and Jana came with us too. Luckily Salty turned up on cue, and was duly admired by Jana, and we also had some time to catch up on a bit more talk while Mason and Oktay chatted about films and various websites.

We eventually waved goodbye to them, and Salty was outside too, so I gathered him up to take him indoors. At that moment Poppy and Ben arrived home, and Poppy told us that Salty had been sitting outside our gate meowing and would not be consoled on the night that we went to the cinema which seems rather sad.

It had been a really nice day.