Happy birthday Di! We Skyped her this morning and it was great to talk with her on this special day. Unfortunately, Di, Liam and Hayley are all suffering from the 'flu and so were rather hoarse, particularly Liam! Lots of love to them and our prayers for their speedy recovery. Julie, thank goodness, has recovered from her persistent cough.
A little later, during breakfast, we received a text message, from two Australian friends Rhonda and John who are holidaying in Paris. We've arranged to join them over the weekend for a trip on the Seine (as you do!).
After breakfast, we went back to St Albans with John and Denise for unfinished business. Although the day started off sunny naturally, as soon as we got out of the car, it started to rain!
We had morning tea at a lovely olde worlde Tearoom we had found yesterday - a cosy place, with a great ambience and also good coffee. We all had a toasted tea-cake just to add to the mood. The walls were covered in sets of cigarette cards (remember those?)of various subjects and, had the weather been kinder, we could have sat outside in the lovely courtyard.
In the same arcade there was a small shop selling, amongst other things, delicious looking hand-made chocolates and sweets and John bought us a each sugar mouse - none of us had had one for years and we all looked forward to eating them. Sadly, Ron and I forgot to get them before we left for Sam's, so we've asked John and Denise to enjoy them on our behalf! After leaving St Albans, we had a walk around Harpenden, John and Denise's home town. It is bigger than Bundanoon but just as nice, with a village green, some great shops and an interesting sculpture entitled Tete a Tete. They really do live in a lovely part of the world.
Home for a nice lunch before saying goodbye to John and Denise - we had really enjoyed our weekend with them and they had looked after us with warmth and wonderful hospitality.
We left for Leamington to stay a few more days with Sam, reaching there around 5pm. Later that evening we went with Sam and Stacey to see the movie The Dark Knight, in which Heath Ledger played The Joker to Christian Bale's Batman. We all thoroughly enjoyed it, especially Heath Ledger's performance which was excellent - he was a marvellous Joker, really creepy, although it was rather poignant considering his premature death several months ago. The special effects were amazing and it made a change for Ron and I to see a movie so soon after its release!
Amazingly, we're more than halfway through our holiday, only about 5 more weeks to go! It has been unbelievable up until now and our trip to Paris at the weekend will really be the icing on the cake. Huge thanks to Di, Julie and Sam for treating us to that!
