Fond Farewells

We said goodbye to David and Jane Haworth today. We've had a great few days in their company and were so pleased that they were able to join us and enjoy a taste of Suffolk. The weather was kind to us today and we travelled to the coast under a cloudless sky. 

We started off at Aldeburgh where we enjoyed a stroll along the beach, had a look at the shops and checked out the coffee at The Brudenell Hotel where it was so fine that we were able to sit outside and enjoy the drinks in the open air to the accompaniment of the gentle sound of a calm sea.  

From Aldeburgh we drove down to Orford. The castle looked magnificent in the late autumn sunshine and we were able to explore the village in the autumn warmth before having a snack lunch at the fabulous and award winning Pump St Bakery where we were again able to dine al fresco. 

We've packed plenty into the three and a half days that our friends spent with us but there's so much to do around here that we'll still have plenty more to enjoy with them if they are able to make it back again. We hope that they can find time for a return visit in the not too distant future.

All the eating and drinking we've been doing in enjoying our new location has resulted in us piling on a few more pounds than we would like. Three years ago I wrote on my Instanta blog that I had reached my target weight of 12st 3lbs after spending several months and losing 35lbs on the Tesco Diet. I'm pleased to say that I haven't put all that back on but I have drifted up by about a stone in the last twelve months and it's time to rein the weight back in so I've signed up again with Tesco. I feel a bit of a failure to be signing up again after I thought I had cracked my weight problem but at least I'm only aiming to lose about 10lbs this time and not two and a half stone.

I mentioned problems I'd been having with House Of Fraser online the other day and said that I wasn't hopeful of getting my problem resolved. I was hoping to buy this new overcoat. It's a really nice coat by Paul Smith but it was sold out on the Paul Smith site and House Of Fraser was the only place with one left (they had three in my size). Unfortunately some security issue came up and I was unable to order. Thanks to Ian in the HOF security department I was finally able to resolve the issue after three days and luckily the coat was still available. House Of Fraser (understandably) couldn't discuss their online security with me but it seems that by buying three things from the company in different transactions within twenty four hours I had raised alarm bells with my bank and my bank had refused the third transaction. To make matters worse the bank had my old mobile number so couldn't query it with me when they tried to phone. The coat arrived safely last night so it was a happy ending. I understand that banks and internet sellers have our security as well as theirs to consider but the House Of Fraser system was so secure that I couldn't even use another bank's card on their site without a twenty four hour delay and even Marion couldn't use her card on the site as our address was effectively blacklisted for twenty four hours. Whilst I was happy with Ian's assistance I do feel that a bit of common sense could have been applied by others in customer services a few days earlier and saved me hours of phone calls.