September Weekends Away

WEEKEND ONE
Sept 12th-13th. Surrey.

I trained it up to New Malden on the 12th after spending around 20mins trying to get the ticket machine to issue me witht the correct ticket! So it was the train to Clapham Junction and then the little urban train to New Malden. Sarah met me at the station and we headed back to hers straight away! I got to see Archie again, which was good. I was shocked to be reminded just how small he is - it must be because I live with a giant doggy here at home!
We chatted for an hour until Tom arrived - and then continued chatting!! Twas so good for the three of us to be back together again and catch up - just like our dear old days in Connaught (to which Sarah will return when she goes back to Soton to study!). Tom and I gave Sarah our presents there and then, because mine was a bit too delicate to take in to Kingston!! Tom got Sarah the brand new Monopoly - Monopoly City, which is all fancy and fandangled (and, I'm afraid, over my head as a non-board game player!) The two of them had a great time examining it until we had to leave.

We headed to Kingston for 6.30pm to meet the others at the train station. Dave (Shearn), Jo (Sanderson) and Georgie met us there and our destination was straight across the way! Everyone got stuck in to chatting and catching up and getting to know one-another, so that by the time we reached Frankie and Bennies, there was a good old rapport established.
We were seated in Frankie and Bennies and immediately got stuck in to examining the menu, chattering away and another exchange of cards and gifts. Sarah had a few essays to read in her cards too! We ordered and drank, ordered and ate starters, ordered and ate our main course, ordered and ate desserts and then felt very full up indeeed!
I started with cheese and bacon skins, then had a lamb shank with mash and veg. By that point I was stuffed. I did consider dessert, but decided there wasn't room!! Some of the others had desserts and Dave put the sparkling candle from his in to Sarah's, to make it special for her birthday!!
Sarah's parents were very kind in paying the first £20 for each person!!

Well stuffed and very happy, we headed downstairs to the bowling alley, where Sarah had pre-booked two games on a lane WITH BUMPERS!! The boys seemed to think that this was below their dignity, but they did end up benefitting from them rather a lot!!
I actually can't remember the scores but the boys did rather well and it all got a bit confuzzled when Georgie had to leave near the end of the first game and Dave and Jo had to go mid-way through the second game, leaving Sarah, Tom and I with 2 goes per round - we all ended up doing better on the other peoples' goes than our own!
However, it was nice to have a small and then a smaller group to hang out with and just enjoy ourselves! I hadn't been bowling for years, and for years before that, so it was nice indeed.

We said goodbye to our third muskateer soon afterwards, as he had to catch the bus back to Ashford and go to work the next day! Sarah and I were picked up by her Dad (and Archie) and headed back to her house. We watched the News and then all turned in!
The next morning, I thought I'd actually had a lie-in and was up quite late for being in someone else's house. I stayed in bed for a while, then showered and dressed. Then I went to find Sarah - she was still in bed and, unfortunately for her, I got her up rather earlier than she was expecting! We had a lazy morning, chilling out with Archie etc and then when Sarah's Dad got back we had a delicious lunch.
Later on, they drove me to the station and we bade each other farewell, with a promise to keep in touch (cos I'm terrible at it!). I took the train in to London, then the Tube to Oxford St to do a little shopping. When in London as they say..... I popped in to UniQlo and Primark and a few others - most notably, the Disney Store - and spent a rather enjoyable afternoon browsing! I didn't spend anything though :-(

Then I headed back to the train station at Waterloo, to head Hastings-wards! On the noticeboard however, I noticed the next train (to Tunbridge Wells) said change for Hastings on it!! Confusion. So I asked the guard - he told me there were no trains to Hastings that weekend due to engineering works - which had also been a problem on the Tube!
In the end; I got the train to Tunbridge Wells, a Rail Replacement Bus from there to Wadhurst and then a train for the final leg of the journey to Hastings! So, after leaving Sarah's in New Malden in the early afternoon, I didn't get home until near on 7pm!! But I did have a nice little jaunt in to London aaaaand, when I popped in to KFC, I got this awesome thing called a Krushem, which was Malteaser flavoured - its a sort of cross between a Shakeawy and a McFlurry.

At the end of the day, I got home in one piece, before dark and it hadn't been too bad an end to a very lovely weekend!

WEEKEND TWO
Sept 19th-21st. Suffolk.

And so, the weekend after that saw me heading in the opposite direction - to Suffolk. Mum and I went to weekend with Alison & Geoff, old friends of ours from way back. We drove. It took 3hrs, there were no incidents - as opposed to the Southbound carriageways of both the M25 and the A12, which were at a standstill. The weather was nice. I was ill and had lost my voice. Having set the scene...

Alison, Geoff and their dog, Shadow, live in a little village called Holton. Its nowhere near any big towns. They live in a little cottage that they're doing up and its all very country-fied and peaceful.

We spent most of the first evening chatting, catching up etc and we had a BBQ, it was so warm! Very nice indeedy.

On Sunday, the only full day we were there, I spent most of the morning playing on Alison's DS (which is pink!) in bed. We finally walked to the Farm Shop in the nearby town of Halesworth in the early afternoon to get some veggies and cake! We walked Shadow there and I waited outside with her. People came up to coo over her and stroke her etc - as is to be expected because shes a rather cute black Labrador x Retriever puppy!
We had a late Sunday lunch: roast chicken, roasties, yorkies, veggies, gravy etc and then had a lovely tart for dessert. It was incredably warm, but cos I was ill and my bodytemperature was all over the place, I kept taking my jumper on and off literally every two minutes!

That evening we went with Alison to walk Shadow over whats called "The Round". Basically rolling hills, lovely countryside etc - she's a very good dog off of the lead! I took a fair few photos, of which I may add a couple here later. The weather was still gorgeous.

We left around lunch time on Monday, having had a late and lazy breakfast. We stopped for lunch at a Little Chef somewhere in Essex. I'd like to give a special mention to the waiter there who coped - wonderfully - on his own for most of the time we were there. Finally we got home at 5pm. I'd recovered half of my voice by this point! I couldn't believe we'd bought the warm weather with us from Surrey, twas very nice.
Alison's coming to stay with us at the end of October!

Right, phew, I'm finally up-to-date! Now I need to go to the Post Office before it shuts... See you in October!