It was a fractious four that loaded the car this morning. However we managed to get on the road by about 10:30am and apart from one road, the journey was straightforward and easy, stopping for dinner at Midland. Our home region is East Midlands and I thought we had nearly come home!
The Midland sign. Smallest and his new friend Charlie
The Little Toot boat.
The boys in the lake
Our place of eating was the Boatyard Eatery on the harbour overlooking the lake. It seemed perfect, though the food wasn't the greatest. Huffle said he thought because they had no competition, people went there because the setting was good and nothing else. Still, it did a job.
A brief stop at a supermarket to get some food and then we made our way to our new home for the next week. Nestled in a well loved garden with two huge sloping drives was our house.
This is their front garden. Will show photos of house tomorrow
No-one appeared to be at home to start with and Huffle and I contained our laughter because we knew the owners were Yugoslavian ex-celebrity hairdressers to the rich and famous and could only picture Borat in a tankini. Thankfully, Borat didn't appear, but the lady of the house did (they live on the top floor and rent out the bottom floor). She was amazed to see there was only four of us. She started to show us around. It was very dark and very wooden and scary looking as she lead us into bedroom after bathroom after bedroom after bathroom and finally the piece de resistance. The dance floor. Yes, you read correctly. We have a circular dance floor in the middle of the house where they used to have parties and entertain. Lady of the house said "awe we had many parties in our time but you know, everyone is dead now!" Huffle says it sounds bizarre but you could easily host a quiz night there. There is a central table (where the dancing used to be before everyone died) and seating all around the room, kind of working men club stylee.
Dance Floor (don't want to give too much away, too much excitement to show too many rooms).
The boys chose their rooms and were very happy with the fact they have a TV each even though they could only find a cookery program (still they avidly watched it). We have a TV in the Dance room too but the reception is absolutely dire, though MrOwner seemed very pleased with the channels he presented us with. One funny moment was when the owner grabbed a children's step and wobbled over to the stove. We wondered what he was going to do and then he stood on it and turned on the extractor fan. He asked if we smoked and was disappointed when we said no. He had put out many many ash trays and said we were the only ones that didn't! There is also a string of mosquito lamps outside which can be plugged in and some which work wirelessly and he said we could put these by our feet! There is a telephone that can call anywhere in America or Canada for free. Wow! Then we realised we didn't know anyone! Boooo.
After we unloaded the car, we went down to the beach with an ice cream (we bought some at the supermarket). The beach was busier than I had expected but then it is the Long Weekend (Bank Holiday to you Brits). It seems many of the cottagers (yes that IS what they are called here) leave their chairs and umbrellas on the beach which makes perfect sense. Our walk was across the road and two minutes away which is ideal. The boys went straight into the water which was very shallow and unbelievably warm. It was a gorgeous sunny day and we stayed there until the sun set. Smallest found a dog friend and threw the ball to him a lot. He also swam with th dog and the dog stood up on its hind legs just like a person. The dog (Smallest named him Charlie) kept shaking the lake water off himself, mainly over Huffle!
Smallest digging for water. Small trying to catch a plane
The boys footballing. Catching water in a cap!
Everybody started to relax and we sat on the beach waiting for the sun to set. What a lovely place. Huffle has put our music in place for a bit of a boogie later when the kids have gone to bed. There is a huge mirror but no disco ball or flashing lights, though we do have a Les Dawson piano.
Unfortunately the sunset was ruined by the boys getting into an argument about a hole one of them had made and the other was in it! Then it progressed too a full on fight where Huffle and I refused to get involved and then we left the beach and went back to the house.
Some sun-nearly-setting photos
The boys had their showers and got into their beds (watching TV though they ended up in each other's rooms trying to check which channels each other got). Huffle and I sat outside and fought off the mosquitoes. We had four hanging bug zappers above our heads, a burning citrus zapper by our feet and five rechargeable zappers around us. We still got bitten, but we did get to see some fireworks from a nearby beach wedding. The owner was very helpful and kept bringing us more and more zappers. In the end we came in but we sat in our bedroom as we didn't feel like dancing tonight!
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