No ginger beer at The Boot Inn

As usual we drove up to St.Albans and had lunch at Sazio's, after having an emergency ginger beer at the Fleur de Lys, the Boot Inn sadly did not have any ginger beer. Our friends could not meet us as Robert has another exam tomorrow. After lunch we got our usual shopping from the market, and loaded it into the car.

This is the view from the car park roof.


















Once home and rested I spoke to Diane and Pete.

Back to our routine

On Wednesday and Thursday we did our routine things, shopping, housework and gardening and sending emails, and I am trying to go for a walk everyday. The weather has been grey and overcast all month, to see any sun we have to watch TV, so I hope it will all change soon and we will have a bright September. I took this photo as it makes such a bright picture.

Mas and the Mouse

Today we ventured out and went to the pub for lunch, I was surprised how tottery I felt walking down the road, but felt better after a meal. I was pleased because the range of what I can bring myself to eat is gradually expanding. We got a small amount of shopping, but when we got back I had to rest, the pills I am taking actually make it quite hard to hold my eyes open most of the time, and my eyesight seems to be slightly out of focus.

I spoke to Pete on the phone, and managed to email Ruth before we watched The Bill on TV, and I went off to bed again.

On Sunday I felt a bit better, and actually managed to do some gardening. The field mouse is now living in our garden shed, and has eaten a hole in the bird food container; sometimes we see him in there as well. Mas was a bit concerned that there would soon be lots of them in there, and decided to tidy up the shed and give the mouse his marching orders. After this talk I was surprised and amused that Mas had instead put a dish of food for the mouse, and a container of water beside it!

Gardening and Pan's Labyrinth

Yesterday was so spring like that we went out and got shopping, then had lunch at The Man in the Moon. Later I did a little tidying up in the garden, and looked at how all the plants were coming along; it is such a pleasure pottering in the garden.

In the evening we watched a very strange Spanish film called 'Pan's Labyrinth' which was very violent, interesting and rather disturbing, but at least we had not seen it before.

Socializing, shopping and car maintenance

We have been fairly busy; I have painted two more pictures (but still have not managed to do a significant one) and Mas has been working on his web site. In between we went to St. Albans and had lunch with Tania and Robert in the Thai restaurant, and one evening we were invited to a party by Margaret and John who had prepared a lovely buffet with tempting food for a variety of different tastes, and it was fun seeing friends again.

On Saturday we went to Boreham Wood to get some shopping. We walked past one shop window where an elegant young boy mannequin was dressed in smart but casual clothing with a nice jacket over his shoulders; then he moved! We watched him for a while, saw him arranging his pose and then startling people in various ways. He was probably about 10 years old, but very good at it. I think he must have seen the mime artists that sometimes perform in Leicester Square.

Today we went to Watford where I bought a new swim suit (which I hope I will be able to squeeze into) and had lunch at Yummy, a Chinese restaurant that we eat about once a year, but the owners always remember us. On the way home the sound from the exhaust (or muffler as Mas would say ) meant that we had to replace it immediately. We had a downpour of rain driving home, and I saw another double rainbow.


















Romy relaxing in Belize.

St.Albans Market and lunch

We drove off to St.Albans to visit the street market and buy some fruit and vegetables, and also to meet Tania and Robert for lunch. The weather was a bit cold, and some people were wearing their overcoats.

We got our shopping, and went off to meet our friends at the Thai restaurant that we often go to. As usual we had a very tasty meal, the generous owner bringing all kinds of things for us to try as well as the food we had ordered, she then decided she wanted a photograph of us, but when I returned the complement, she ran away saying she was too old to be photographed.










Our shy friend.









After chatting a bit longer we went our separate ways, planning to regroup, before we set off on our holiday, to finalise our plans.