Back To Reality

We got back from our wonderful break in Ile De Re on Sunday evening without a hitch. It's been a long time since a holiday passed so well without problems - we usually return home to some sort of niggle like the time that the fuse box fused resulting in a defrosted freezer leaving a soggy, stinking mess that took hours to sort out. But no, our neighbours Jeff and Mo had kept an eye on everything for us and all was well.

A big pile of ironing is a long way from cycling in the sun but it had to be done and, now that that's out of the way and the garden has been weeded we're ready to get back into the retirement swing - when we've lost the weight that we piled on in France that is. We each put on about eight to ten pounds which, considering our input of food and drink during the last three weeks was a reasonable achievement. We've now got to lose those pounds again so it's back to eating sensibly (chicken with brown rice tonight) and drinking no alcohol until we're back to our target weights and the shirt buttons are under less of a strain.

Marion has been invited to a hen party on Friday. I say hen party but they don't really do just hen parties or stag nights any more do they? This one, for our dear friends' Dave and Jane Haworth's daughter Kate, is being held at Center Parcs Nottingham where they've taken over a number of chalets for the whole weekend. Knowing Marion and Jane it's likely to be a pretty tasteful event and anyone who has booked a weekend at Center Parcs needn't worry about an invasion of raucous scousers in nurses', nuns' or bunny girl uniforms screaming innuendo at passing males and throwing up in the swimming pool.....Or should they? I've just seen Marion staggering in from the car with a case of champagne.

So I'll be all on my own. Ahhh I hear your sympathy. So I've decided to go out and try and find some new fields to search with the metal detector. I've booked myself into a B&B in Yorkshire and hopefully I will have a bit of luck. The local farmers are very friendly and if I have no success there's a very decent pub quite near the B&B. I haven't been away on a break like this alone before and it will be an interesting experience seeing how I am treated at the restaurant that I've booked for the evening meals. I'll never forget taking the kids to a cafe in Southport once on a weekend that Marion was away and listening to a couple of old women on the next table nodding in my direction talking in hushed tones (but not as quietly as they thought) disapprovingly about how all these poor divorced dads had to take their children out on their own on Saturdays. I'll let you know how I get on.

Remember this? If you used to read my old blog you will know that I wrote my first novel in late 2009. I printed a few copies and gave them to friends and family. I knew it wasn't a masterpiece but I enjoyed writing it although my son's savage but honest criticism stopped me from trying to find a publisher. I recently had the novel appraised by an expert (and I do mean expert - a senior figure within the industry). He too was very critical but within the criticism were words of real encouragement along with some extremely helpful writing advice. Since writing"Give Your Tomorrow" I have had time to read many more novels and I am starting to rewrite using the expert advice and experience gained form the reading. I may put an extract on here and see if it brings any comments.