Countdown to India, Sri Lanka and The Maldives - Day minus 6

Whilst we housesat they all flew to the Canary Islands for a cruise and here is youngest granddaughter Jenny trying out the captains chair on their aircraft. She has just got a job at RyanAir to train to be an air stewardess, which she's delighted about

We had a lovely week with Oscar. He was a little sniffy with us for the first day, well he probably thought he’d gone deaf as we think we are much quieter round the house than he is used to! He very quickly warmed up though and we got into a great routine…. Wherever we were, with glasses of water we had to ensure that we also had his bowl, with water in or else his head would be in the glass before you’ve even blinked. Obviously he has his own regular bowl of water, but bedroom water or living room water is MUCH better!

Not to be outdone, middle granddaughter Becky got a go too

We went to Bury St Edmunds for the day on Sunday, which Oscar was probably less than impressed with, though it was on our return from that that he thought he’d come and snuggle so perhaps he was scared we were going to leave him too. We had a good day with Jonathan and Lucy visiting Margaret and Ron. Ron was very chatty which can only be a good thing as he’s really not very well, and Margaret on her new hip was also much improved.

And so did eldest granddaughter Abbie

We went out for a ‘business lunch’ with Terry and Sue. Thoroughly enjoyable to catch up with them as ever. You know it’s good when lunch is till 18.00 and involves more than one bottle of wine!

Oscar got left behind, but he was OK with us. I wish she'd warn me when she's taking a photo, I could at lest pose a bit better!

A pleasant walk at Draycote Water on an extremely crisp, but sunny day (see our short Relive video of the walk with photos: click here). Shopping for new trainers (my old ones were 20 years old and falling to pieces so I left them on the ship) and approach shoes for India at Go Outdoors where Brian finally bought a lightweight down jacket after years of me saying he needed one! Chatting to Fi and James on their cruise and sending them weather forecasts, ordering ridiculous amounts of little ‘bits’ for India as well as confirming and paying and the time flew by.

Drinking water from his own bowl rather than our glasses of water! Look at the cushion behind with a photo of Oscar printed on them, we bought them all one of those for Christmas

Since we got back we’ve had a couple of Sunday clubs (this does mean Wednesday club too, but it’s all the same, though very different from Sunday Tea club!) Monday Club, in the flesh with curry at Diwans. Tea dancing on Wednesday. A full day at Abi’s yesterday involving lunch and sticking coverings on most of her upstairs windows and lots of chat. I’ve also done my first test pack and started on cooking slightly weird meals so we can empty the freezer to leave it turned off. (Coming back to a fridge that was no longer a fridge but just a box a few years ago was not the best welcome home!)

He did an awful lot of chilling out!

Tonight we are at a Burns night supper and tomorrow out with the Sunday tea club crowd, only because it’s Saturday not Sunday it was deemed curry not Chinese! It’ll just start the breaking in for the next 53 days I guess!

We chilled out too on a walk round Draycote Water near Rugby. The weather was clear and sunny, but very cold, actually really very nice.

It doesn’t sound like we’ve been doing much, but we’ve been jolly busy. Just now booking flights and travel insurance for a trip to Kenya in September with Fiona and James…. We can spend money, and apparently occasionally plan….!

We didn't actually walk right round as Severn Trent Water had closed off a section for maintenance, so we walked to the halfway point and then back again, the equivalent distance of a full circuit

And very pleasant it was too, as long as you walked fast to keep warm. The fully loaded hot chocolate and hot sandwich in the cafe at the end helped us warm up too

Fiona and James and all play a 'Spot the Cat' game between them where they take a general photo which has the cat somewhere in it and they have to find him. Occasionally we join in and here's one of our efforts (not as good as some of theirs)

I actually remembered to take a photo on one of our outings (I forgot to take one at Ron and Margarets and on our business lunch with Terry and Sue). Here we are in Diwan Indian Restaurant in Moseley on one of our Monday Club meetings. LtoR: Bill, Fiona (not my daughter), Mark, Tim and Jackie. Martina and Jill couldn't make it. I have to apologise to Tim for not mentioning in the last blog about his swift identification of where we were when I took the photo of the Class 37 train (see last blog entry). I sent him the photo of us at the Hewell Lane level crossing with no identification on and asked him where we were. He is an absolute train buff and within 2 minutes he messaged back with the correct location. He did grumble to me at this meal that I didn't mention it, so this is to make up. Sorry Tim!

Working together at Abi's (not my granddaughter) yesterday, installing some UV filter screens on her windows. She tucked it in at the sides, I cut it with a Stanley knife. Health and Safety first, what could possibly go wrong - no comments please Bill!

In case you're feeling at little stressed or anxious, just look at this photo. This is how to relax!