Blog revival and Croatia

I am regretting not keeping my blog alive.

Croatia 24th September 2019

Both Martin and I were awake well before the alarm, so we got up early and finished the last minute packing. After a cup of tea we loaded everything into the car and were off on the first flying holiday since America (2017). It was raining hard so we had to grab our wet weather coats at the last moment. The M25 was down by one lane due to an accident so we were half an hour late, and when we did get to Gatwick Martin told me the wrong address for the carpark so sat nav lady led us to a set of offices and not a car park. Searching for the correct place to leave the car set us back another half an hour. This meant we only had time to grab a coffee and a croissant before heading for the departure gate.

We were first on to the plane but this didn't mater because the bad weather had slowed everything down and we sat on the tarmac for another half an hour before we could take off. The flight only lasted 1hr and 38 mins as it was TUI's dream line, but while the flight was quick, loading the coach for the transfer to Poreč seemed to take an age to leave Pula airport.

Our coach took us to Poreč bus station and we had to collect our luggage and put it onto the mini van, then follow the TUI rep across the road to the harbor where we waited for the ferry boat to take us across to the island of St Nicholas and the Valamar island resort Isabella Hotel.

                                                                      Our TUI rep Sue

                                                Walking from the coach station to the harbour

                                                       View across to the island
                                                         

                                                                    Ferry

Registration was very quick and in a minute we were looking out of our balcony at a beautiful sea view, the town of Porec and the swimming pool below us. 

              Views from our window

Once we had claimed our luggage and unpacked we quickly changed into our shorts for a bit of an explore, in search of food and a drink. We had a toasted cheese and ham sandwich in the pool grill not realizing they were huge sandwiches complete with salad and chips.

At five oclock we went to have welcome drinks with the TUI rep. We dont normally do this as we know their main theme is not to give out information but to sell the expensive excursions. However the receptionist had gabbled so fast we had no clue about meals and facilities so had little choice. As it turned out Sue was pretty good and didn't ram the excursions down our throats too much, and gave out some good info about other things we could do/go,

Our next port of call was the local Spa shop in the town to stock up on munchies and tea/coffee (not available in our room despite it being 4 star). We also needed to get some more Kona from the ATM as the cheese sandwiches and drinks had been a tad expensive. Sadly the hoards had got there before us and there was no tea or coffee to be had, so we settled for beer, lemonade and crisps.

One of the beaches (the only sandy one) 
on the island.





                                                                                                                                        


Going back across on the ferry.

One of the many crafty stalls on the harbour

Finally we ended the day back in the main dining room for a buffet style 4 course meal and then forgoing the evening entertainment collapsing into a huge king double bed.

Snowy days and time to blog

So once again I have been away from my blog for quite some time, despite wanting to get down to some serious regular posting. The reason is that I have been very poorly.

In a final bit of celebrating for our joint 60th's we had booked a fantastic trip to San Diago ending in a week in Las Vegas with Laura, Wayne and the boys. We arrived to find a fantastic villa complete with swimming pool, water fall, hot tub, mini golf, climbing wall, slides outdoor kitchen, telly and bbq!  I enjoyed it for four days before falling seriously ill and having to be blue lighted to the hospital. 

It turns out I had pancreatitis caused by gall stones blocking the pancreatic duct. The pancreatitis had attacked practically every bit of my body including my lungs and in total I spent 4 days in ICU, another 17 days in the hospital and had to have my gall bladder removed whilst in the USA (thank goodness for good travel insurance). It took a while to be allowed back to England and then it turns out I still have a very large cyst on my pancreas but the NHS moves very slowly and I am still waiting to hear about my referral and although I have managed 2 days back at work, am still in pain and not any where near recovered. 

So blogging has really been the last thing on my mind.

However with all the snow we are having at the moment there is little else to do than spend time in my craft room.  Kelly and I have been having mini crops together and joining in the virtual kits and classes run by ATDML. As we were unsure what the kits would be like we had contrived to do the classes sharing the kits but I think next month we are going to have whole kits to ourselves, as although we have managed, it has taken some thinking through and we have maybe lost a little in the attempt. 

Here are my efforts from both January and February. 

January class 2 Ann.



I didn't have a kit for this one so used whatever was to hand. Me at my husband's 25 year service award dinner.

January Class 3 Debbie Jewell. 

Because Kelly and I shared a kit it took some time to work out how to cut the paper so we both got enough each for the class. Unfortunately we didn't take into account the directionality of the print on the blue tree paper so I ended up doing my LO mirror image. I still like it though. 

My mum throwing snowballs at Laura and the dog after taking Laura to physio for her back injury (I bet a snowball fight really helped lol)

February Class 1 with Mel

 I loved both these classes, but again cutting the paper proved a challenge and because I wanted the flowers to show but discovered my triangles were cut back to front again the LO was mirror imaged. I also put my photo in the middle as I felt it caught the eye better there. I also threw in a few of my own chipboard letters and stickers.

My dad and Finley enjoying a joke together.
Finley playing cars, both photos taken during the time that he and his parents lived at our house.

February Class 2 Tricia 

I loved the look of both these classes,  but realise I do really dislike fussy cutting. Those swirly flowers took forever. All my LO's seem to be of Finley this time round but that is because I am working on my 2013 album before we were graced with Beckett so this time its a sleepy Finley and then a girly picture to fit in with the pink and flowers of my big girlie and a new born Finley. 

Not a class

This one isn't a class from ATDML but a pagemap sketch with some papers in my scraps drawer, and yes another Finley photo for that '13 album.

August, holidays, airshow party and all that jazz.

Our summer did not seem to be as rammed packed with events and outings as usual but then I went to write this post and realised we had actually been quite busy.

Start of Martin's two week annual holiday

Yet again we were staying at home for this -  firstly we are off to the states for a big birthday celebration later in the year and secondly we wanted to see the South East (formally Herne Bay Air show.

We started with the boys staying for a sleep over and a meal out at the Rose in Bloom. Lovely pub grub meal spoilt only by the fact that most of the play equipment was broken leaving the boys with only the swing to play on (although they were quite facinated by the trains passing by) and Finley made a friend with the older girl playing there too.

Much of the first week was spent getting the house and garden ready for our 60th birthday garden bbq and party but we managed an 'adventure' with Laura, Wayne and the boys in a trip to Hastings. Worried about the poor weather we opted for the Sea Life centre there but as it turned out the weather was amazingly hot and sunny. After the sea life centre we had lunch (which again was tasty but took nearly an hour to get served) in a pub which had seating on the front pavement so we watched the world go by. Then we (stupidly?) took the boys on the peddelo swans!

We let the train take the strain back to the car park as some of us were wet from our boating experience and all had tired leggies.

As we still had some time left but had run out of change for the car park we took a slow drive back to Folkestone Lees where we found the most amazing playpark. 

The stone maze

The climbing frame

As much sand as Beckett could possibly want.

On the 12th it was the big party day. Kelly and Laura had been put in charge of decorations so there were lanterns, helium balloons )and apparently bunting which they forgot to put up). It all looked very festive. There was way too much food and plenty of drink. The boy's bouncy castle was put up by the hot tub and chairs were dragged from every room into the garden. The weather even stayed sunny and warm so we could all stay outside.  

Sadly there were many friends and family who could not join us but there were still plenty who did manage to come and it was fantastic to catch up with people from our past we had not seen in many years, to touch base with my cousins and to get to know the neighbors a little better. Everybody seemed to have a good time. 

One week down

The first week of the summer holidays seems to have flown by. I am having a hard time keeping a grip on what I have been up to. Now Laura and family live so much nearer they seem to be popping in and out or we are over there and its hard to not get the days mixed up.

As well as our trip to Wingham Wild Life we took the boys to the Fun in the Park Day. Originally this formed part of the Herne Bay Festival and was really a stage for the annual dog show, then a problem with dates meant that a few years ago it became an event in its own right. The first year we went, we had only just moved in so we strolled down with our little 2 year old Finley and had quite a good time as he climbed on the fire engine and enjoyed the hook a duck.This year we again went down the hill with high hopes of a good time.

The kids were enthralled by the sight of the Vintage Cars and the bouncing castle as we entered the park and looked down the hill. They became less enchanted when they came to realise they were not allowed to touch the gleaming polished-to-a-mirror finish cars or tractors and quickly turned away to look for more exciting interactive fun.

They wanted to go on the bouncy castle but since we had only bought about £15 with us we said they must look first and then choose the one thing they wanted to go on. Then we walked to the other end, glancing at the stalls. 

There wasn't much to excite the boys, most seemed to be promoting something and so only had leaflets to hand out, or were selling stuff like books or jewellery. Finally at the top end of the park was something for children,  no not the play park that Beckett wanted to go in, but a long queue for free face painting (too long they wouldnt have the patience to wait) and Pip the magician. At first Beckett wanted to stay and watch and Finley didn't. Then Finley sat and watched for a while but Beckett wanted to see some more stalls. I took Beckett, Laura sat with Finley. 

Beckett and I passed a 'throw the tennis ball into rubber bucket' stall, a bread and cake stall, a biscuit stall, another jewellery stall, a hook-the-duck stall, another biscuit stall, the beer tent, the brass band. He cried, we walked back.  It seemed the boys were right, the main choice was the bouncy castle. So that's where we went.

Enjoying  themselves whilst it lasted.

There were already 5 children on the bouncy castle but no one queuing so the boys had their shoes off and were on before we even got our purses open. £1.50 a go, reasonable I thought .... until I discovered they only got 3 mins for that price. And despite the fact that one of the bigger boys bumped heads with Beckett and left him in tears for some of that time, and the fact that unlike the others it took him twice as long to get back on his feet after being bounced over him being so little and all, and the fact that there were no more customers waiting for a go, the woman timed them all on her phone and made them all get off on the dot of 3 mins. I know they have to make their money back to cover costs but throwing them all off didn't get her any more customers and I wasn't the only person disgruntled by her attitude especially since there was nothing signed to tell us how long they would get.  There were tears from several of the children.

We relented and said they could have a go on something else (we were hard pushed to find anything though). Finley wanted a balloon. Both the hook-a-duck and the throw-a-dart stalls were giving away balloons just for having a go. We lined up. We asked the price. £3 a go!! Okay maybe I am out of touch but £3 to hook a duck with plastic 50p toy prizes? Admittedly the dart stall was giving balloons with teddies inside away but .......

We went to the white elephant stall where Finley was happy with his £3 Lego action figure and Beckett was happy with his £1 teddy. 

We went to the play-park!!

Start of the summer holidays.

The holidays have started (not that I have noticed since I have had no work all term) and typical the weather has closed in after all that hot sunny heatwave throughout June. I knew it would the moment we went out and bought a 3.5m banana parasol to put over the new patio furniture. Oh well.

Its not stopped us from being outside though. 
So far I have managed to walk up to Laura and Wayne's new house without getting caught in the rain, and on Tuesday Martin finished the final part of the new patio and dug out and laid the block standing for the refuse bins. The sun has not been good enough to dry off the very wet bag of kiln dried sand needed to fill in the gaps so that still has to be completed, plus I have a (very large yet useless for the job) whacker plate machine sitting on the lawn but I am very pleased with his efforts.

We have still been having fun with the boys too. Yesterday they took me to Wingham Wild Life park (we all have yearly passes) and we had a lovely time looking at animals - they always like to drag Nana through the reptile house as they know those are my least fav creatures,  digging in the sand for dinosaur bones, climbing in the soft play house (a chance for the grown ups to have a quick coffee) and chasing each other up and down the sand hills. We were also fascinated to see the penguin keeper salting the water for her charges comfort. 

 The sand hills are always a popular play area.

Fascinated and maybe a little nervous of the butterfly on mummy's finger.

Laura and I are also finally finding time to get to grips with our holiday together later in the year. We had already booked a pretty decent villa earlier, panicked that all the good places would be booked up. Although it was a large place with plenty of outdoor space, it was a bit of a car journey every time you needed a pint of milk, and the pool was not gated which with our little terror was a worrying thought. We had a full refund on cancellation clause so we were still vaguely looking, but finally, throwing a little more cash at the problem we have now booked a huge place right in the centre of all the activity, a mile from the beach, with its own pool and hot tub (gated) climbing apparatus and wall for the boys) its own putting pitch, bar, and outside kitchen/bbq/firepit with tv! Now we can start to look at all the other little bits and pieces we need (car hire, transfers, hotel accommodation for the final four nights before we fly home). We are getting excited.

The rest of half term.

So what else did we get up to over the rest of the week that Martin had off? Well we actually managed to pack quite a bit in.

Sunday

After his usual round of sunday morning golf, Martin and I were going to have a chillaxing afternoon, but the kids phoned to say they were coming up for a cup of tea. Next thing we know we were scrabbling around in the freezer to find food for the bbq! We ate so late that the boys ended up staying for a sleepover. 

Monday

We wanted to start tackling our list of jobs but we found we couldnt even start them before clearing out the shed as we couldn't find any of the tools we needed amongst the tangle. The boys had a great time as we tried to keep them amused with footballs and tents at the same time as sorting rubbish from good.

Once the boys had gone home and we had put everything back tidily, Martin had several trips to the tip to get rid of all the unwanted shed stuff and accumulated junk from the attic. 

Tuesday

The main job we wanted to tackle was to finally properly lay the patio outside the back of the lounge. When we moved in the man selling the house had bought lots of block paving bricks to redo the hard standing for the cars. We had used most of them instead to create a patio on the left hand side of the garden, but we still had quite a number left over.  In removing the decaying decking we had discovered quite a bit of concrete under it, and although we had removed most of it and grassed over, there was still a substantial bit on the right hand side of the garden. We had taken out the built in cupboard in the conservatory to allow access into the garden (who makes a built in cupboard across a conservatory door?) and had temporally put the blocks on top of the concrete but this all needed properly laying. We were also short several bricks to cover the whole area, so it was a trip to travis-perkins to order some more.  

We took the opportunity to also stock up on our weekly groceries before taking ourselves off to the cinema to watch Johnny Depp's next Pirates of the Caribbean adventure which we thoroughly enjoyed.

Wednesday
Martin set to laying the bricks we did have while I spent the day in my craft room sewing up a storm and researching where we were going to go for our Finley and Beckett adventure the next day.

Thursday.
Finley had asked for another garden/picnic adventure and I had toyed with the idea of Hole Place until I discovered they had no picnic areas or facilities. At the last moment I opted for Riverhill Himalayan Gardens. It was a great choice. Lots for the boys to do and plenty of walking and exercise for the grown ups. Little in the way of formal gardens but a wonderful day out all the same.

 

First stop the maze.

Then some tree trunk climbing. You could go into the woods and make your own dens if you wanted too. The boys next choice was the play park though.

Laura did have to use her teacher voice at some particularly obnoxious boys who kept bloking the tunnel slide by climbing up from the bottom instead of using the ladder.

Of course the whole point of the exercise is the picnic. Finley decided he wanted to go 'up' for this, and although it was rather a steep bit of a walk it was worth the effort as the north downs suddenly blossomed out in front of us. 

 

Sorry not the best photo but I was too busy enjoying to snap. 

There was still plenty to fill our afternoon too. 

Wandering paths through the woods to explore, 

The hidden boat swing

The formal garden

 Complete with water feature

And a stick making craft activity which I think Laura got most out of since she made a hedgehog, and a stick..lady. 

As if our day had not been full enough, we had agreed to meet Wayne who had stayed home for a parcel delivery, and go out for a pub meal with the boys. Randomly Laura chose the Royal Oak at Nonington. The weather was still beautiful and so we sat in the huge garden while the boys climbed on the climbing frame and just generally had a brilliant time. The offical time for food was after 6 and since we had forgotten to check this, we turned up a full 2 hours too early! The landlord was fantastic though and agreed to cook ours a tad early as the boys were getting hungry. And tasty food it was too!

Friday
We had to stay in for the block paving bricks to be delivered, so we pootled about and once they did arrive Martin started to lay them.  We were pleasantly surprised when two little boys heads appeared round the garden gate. Before long more fun was being had by all, a lot of water followed by home made pizza teas.