From The Maldives to The Midlands

John and Brian (the other Brian) working hard at the village set  build

We got the ferry back to the airport at 20.00, for our 23.40 flight to Dubai. Four hour wait at 04.00 is not ideal, but we boarded our second, Emirates, flight on time, sadly however we didn’t take off. The plane had ‘gone tech’ and they couldn’t fix it. Everyone off, come back in 3 hours, but you can eat, your boarding cards will get you a meal anywhere, they glibly said. Not strictly true, MacDonald’s or the sandwich shop where you could have a choice of 3 wraps, which we only discovered after asking at half a dozen other establishments. Anyway, on to the new plane for an uneventful flight back, luggage (hurrah) Uber and home. Moment of truth with the car….. nope nothing. Not really surprised. John came round with his charger, we’ll leave it overnight.

Some work did get done

Up on Tuesday, still nothing. Still not really surprised, we’ll get the AA out then, who after some confusion finally turned up just before 16.00. New battery and we are off to Aldi, which was important as we’d completely emptied, and turned off, the fridge and freezer, and worked on limiting dry goods in the pantry, before we went away. Despite shopping, we then went out. I had 40% off at the Red Lion till Thursday so a steak and a bottle of wine, two things we hadn’t had in 3 months. Yum.

Everyone got stuck in. That's Jude and Jan painting a prop

With that it’s back to the humdrum day to day life, sorting, washing, more washing. Brian went to the doctors about his ear infection, she gave him some antibiotic eye drops for it! They don’t seem to have done much so he was back today, he’s got more antibiotics and they took a sample of the gunk which may lead to further antibiotics when the tests come back. In the meantime it’s still painful and he’s still deaf.

Wednesday we were back walking with John and Brian in the Black Country. Here we are having just got off the train at Old Hill

Although Tuesday was a ‘non’ day while waiting for the AA it could have been far worse, if we had returned on Tuesday not Monday. At the time we landed at Birmingham Airport an Aer Lingus flight was turned back to Birmingham with a suspect package on. This closed the airport for 2 hours. There was also ‘a bit’ of rain in Dubai. 2 years worth of rain fell in 24 hours causing massive disruption and cancellations. People are still there waiting for a new flight to bring them back, so , on balance, our 3 hour delay was all ok!

Jackie remembered to take her duck food with her today and those two ducks knew it. Look at the speed! Their legs must have been a blurr under the water

We want to put an oven back in the kitchen (the old one didn’t work and mum had decided that an extra freezer for when we were away and the combination microwave/oven were better for her), this sounds easy, but like everything has a chain of events. To put the freezer into the utility we need to move the shelves, to move the shelves we have to empty the cupboard in the passageway. We dumped stuff in there 11 years ago when we went travelling, on top of whatever mum had dumped in there when she moved in nearly 25 years ago! 2 trips to the tip later, does anyone want stamps, Brooke Bond card collections or newspapers from the death of King George and the coronation of Queen Elizabeth?

We had to walk to this bit as it's where the walk started at this tunnel. Nice echo here that we all tried out

The shelves are now in the cupboard and the 2 kitchen wall units we acquired, ‘free to a good home’ are nearly on the wall. Just need to ‘acquire’ a section of work surface and the utility room will be much better utilised!

Elephants were here! The sign says they were visiting from a circus in the early 1900's and frolicked in the canal

Saturday we went down to the Village Hall to help erect the set for the drama group play this weekend. Haven’t done anything like that for a long time, but it is good fun.

Yesterday we went walking with John and Brian. They are collecting stamps for the Black Country Ale Trail again so we ticked 4 off, along with an extra pint of Bathams for good measure. I can’t believe John made it to the pub, we made it up the stairs to bed! Have a look at our Relive video of where we went. There is an extra section on the end of the first train journey back from Old Hill to Birmingham New Street, owing to the fact that I forgot to stop the app having consumed 5 pints (5 pints! We haven't done that for a long time!); click here

Now that's a rhododendron (identified by Helen S)! In Haden Hill Park

We’ve been dancing, our first Argentine tango lesson on Saturday morning. He’s a strange teacher but we’ll give it more of a chance. Sunday we went to the ballroom lesson before the social dance that we went to a couple of times in January. We learned a new sequence dance which is fine, but I really wanted to improve my technique, not sure it’s going to happen there!

And that's Brian taking a photo of the rhododendron, while John sends a message to Helen S for identification)

As soon as the cupboards are up we are going to collect Ted, to bring him back and empty him. We’ve got someone coming to look at him on Sunday. It would be really easy if they have him, it’ll be sad, but we haven’t been making the best use of him at all, so fingers crossed.

Haden Hill House. Lovely old building built by the Haden family over hundreds of years in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It's now a museum and wedding function location

Haden Hill pond

The wild garlic is looking good - and the smell is heavenly!

A mistake was made at one point and we had to backtrack, but us just following it wasn't a problem (mind you, they didn't seem stressed, except it was pub opening time!

First pint of the day. Brian and John are happy as they got another stamp in their books. These Black Country Ale pubs are fabulous, they have about a dozen cask ales on, so it's a good opportunity to try different beers. Not sure which pub this was, think it was The Whitley at Halesowen

Pub number two. Think this was the Waggon and Horses (don't know why they have two g's in Waggon)

Interesting pub this one, it has a slight lean to it from subsidence, so I've tried to illustrate it in this photo and it does feel quite strange. You can see the bar in this shot - look at all those hand pulls!

More walking between pubs, it never seems too far once you've had three pints

Pub number three. Possibly The Swan at Halesowen

Jackie got the munchies

Don't know which pub this was and I forgot to take photos. My app tells me we visited the Old Bush Revived at Rowley Regis for our fourth pint and then finished off at The Waterfall in Cradley Heath for a pint of Bathams - very nice too! Finding the train tickets on my phone for the train journey home was a challenge and we don't remember much of the evening! Mind you, I could blame the hangover on ear ache when I visited the doctor next morning for some more anti-biotics!