OMG Soooooooo Many Presents

Following on from Friday ....... it was such a relief to finally get home from Southport, not to get away from it or from our beloved Seaside Karen and Pharmacy Michelle, but let's just say that changing trains a total of five times was somewhat taxing, especially when everyone was also accompanied by a suitcase that had to go somewhere!  Thank goodness for reserved seating. 

However, after a very large mug of hot, sweetened tea and a whole packet of chocolate Hob Nobs, it was soon a very dim and distant memory .........

....... especially when there was a whole pile of, as of yet unopened presents, from our aforementioned beloved friends, that we'd saved chiefly to help buoy our spirits after such an adventure.      

What can we say but a huge heartfelt thank you, as we were totally overwhelmed when the unwrapping began. From Seaside Karen there were mementoes from her Cunard half way around the world cruise .......

..... a new, real life Cunard i-pad cover, perfect to replace our ancient and very tatty one ........ won by Seaside Karen during a game of Cunard Disco Bingo!

Plus, a lovely China Southern Airlines pochette containing all a traveller could possibly need, but may have forgotten in all their anticipatory cruise excitement, to wit earplugs, a collapsible  brush, cotton buds and wipes, a toothbrush ........

..... and Eric's very favourite, which was nabbed straight away, an Eric sized tube of toothpaste, which are neigh on impossible to find in any chemist or supermarche!

Alice's choice was a beautiful beaded rendition of the rare and beautiful quetzal bird, at present hanging from the horns of a bull magnet we bought back from Spain, but she says she's working on an idea to use it as one of her signature hair adornments for "posh" occasions!  What is she like?

And then, there was enough foreign confectionary to keep our reviews from never going stale, from Sao Miguel in The Azores, Portugal ........

 ...... not not forgetting the now obligatory local St Anne's freebie magazines to peruse, to see what they've got and we haven't and vice versa. What can we say, we were unbelievably soooooooo spoilt ......

But there was more, from Pharmacy Michelle, all wrapped up in an actual NHS Pharmacy carrier bag from the very hospital she works, making up all the medicines, drips etc. for people who are suffering from cancer.  In our eyes she is a TRUE TRUE HERO! 

In delicate tissue, she'd wrapped up a small bottle of prosecco, perfect for sneaking in our Greek Oddity suitcase, to quaff as our traditional toast to our holiday and memories on our last evening as the the sun is setting, Pharmacy Michelle will be there too in our hearts.  There was also a box of our very favourite Southport clotted cream fudge, which will be very much nommed during our next Saturday night televisual viewing.

And then last, but by no means least, she'd given us a beautiful Southport tea towel, with beach huts, deck chairs etc. ........

...... which was commandeered straight away by Darrell, to hang, resplendent, on our cooker door, with strict instructions that it is not for wiping mucky hands, it is strictly for display and memories!  

Goodness me, how truly blessed and incredibly spoilt we are ....... the journey home?  What journey home!!!!?????

Eurovision, Nul Points Before We've Even Started This Year ......

As you can see, we've made it home, safely, in one piece from our glorious and emotional Southport meet up, with soooooooo many wonderful memories still whirling about our heads. It's going to take quite some time to come back down to earth, it was just too magical for words. 

And, you'll also note, that we are back, just in time for Eurovision, which used to be our ultimate televisual highlight of the year, before, in our opinion, "it went a bit off" ..........

........ so, it has to be said, that we're not as obsessed as we used to be and obviously, while we were away enjoying the pleasures of Southport, we were far too busy and otherwise occupied to even give the ensuing semi finals a second thought, so we return knowing nothing, except perhaps that Boy George is making and appearance and someone from Neighbours????

AND, believe it or not, we're away again, leaving first thing tomorrow morning for a longish weekend away, May being quite a month for us, therefore it would obviously look exceptionally rude if we curtailed all activities on Saturday evening in order to catch the multi lingual warblings from Europe, and as such, we don't think we're going to catch up on any of it until at least Monday night, if we're even up to it and by then, to be honest the boat will have sailed and Eurovision will be yesterdays chip paper! 

Sooooooooo for this year at least, it's highly unlikely that we'll be giving any of our reflections or insightful opinions on the event.......

......  but, if the UK does actually lift the trophy (let alone manages to get on the left hand side of the score board) we'll eat our collective "kiss me quick" Southport hats!

A Bit Of A Failed Southport Mission .......

Last night we had planned to feast greatly on fish and chips at the acclaimed Swan Fish and Chips restaurant, washed down with lashings of dandelion and burdock pop, as enthusiastically recommended by Pharmacy Michelle ........

 ..... however, in our last ditch effort to catch a twilight glimpse of the Southport sea .......

 ...... we found ourselves very hopelessly lost ...... 

...... despite Darrell having early boasted of having earned the prestigious compass badge when he was in Scouts!

When we eventually found the beach, let's just say the sea was miles away, just about visible on the horizon  ........

..... far to far to walk for Eric's intended cheeky paddle, so after taking a few wistful photos, sharing a few memories, the plan was supper at the aforesaid Swan .....

..... but we got lost yet again! We took all the wrong turnings, backtracked goodness knows how many times and most probably even walked right past the shop, until in the end we had to admit defeat, calling at another establishment, which was just closing its restaurant, so haddock and chips had to be duly purchased to be eaten back at our hotel ......

...... by which time the batter had gone very soggy, although the fish itself was really meaty and delicious!

And, did you get an ice-cream I hear you ask, Southport being the seaside town of a million and one exotic flavours?

Well, unbelievable as it may seem, no ....... time was running away with us and not one of us could actually decide from the huge range proffered for fear of making the wrong choice and having instant buyers regret or envy of others.  To be honest I think we were all incredibly tired and overawed by the excitement of our meeting with Seaside Karen and Pharmacy Michelle and subsequent sad goodbyes, coupled with all the travelling. We were tired and emotional, no wonder we got lost and not able to choose between a simple Snickers, Bounty, Irun Bru or mango to name just a few ........ but still very incredible, very happy days.  At the back of our minds we knew we needed to hold a little something back for tomorrow, when we travel back home catching five different trains ...........

Embracing The Pleasures Of Funland Southport

Coming down from the humungous high of meeting Seaside Karen and Pharmacy Michelle in real life for the very first time was just too emotional and wonderful for words, after we'd said our tearful, hankie soaked farewells, waved our last wave, we all fell back down to earth with an almighty bump. 

However, as we still had some spare time in the evening, we knew we all needed to get out to buoy our flagging spirits, after all this wasn't going to be our first or last meeting!

So, it would have just looked plain rude for us not to embrace one or two extra of Southport's finest pleasures, to wit Funland, on the cusp of Southport's currently not in use pier. 

Alice was very enamoured by the galloping horse carousel, hoping for a romantic and picturesque Mary Poppins type moment, however, being quite early on in the summer season sadly it wasn't actually running.

Darrell was drawn to the free Hall of Mirrors .......

.... although I'm not sure what he made of it all, especially the almighty gust of air and loud siren that went off just as he was about to turn the corner ......

.... the shock of which made him almost jump out of his skin and I'm sure his hair stand on end!

To help the ever fragrant one get over her carousel disappointment Eric treated Alice to a ride in Cinderella's carriage, the phrase "to the manor born" springs to mind, it really suited her!

In the meantime Darrell and I took a spin in a rather snazzy sports car, at which point I think we all started to all our spirits soar "up where they belong" and, it has to be said, it was nice to roam the arcade while it was so quiet.

It goes without saying that several tubs of 2p's were deliciously squandered .......

I'm not sure if Alice's pre-trip YouTube research trying to hone her skills and knowledge of winning big time in the art of the falling 2p ......

..... but she certainly kept Eric busy collecting all the won dropped coins, to be put safely in a bank coin bag ........

....... ready for our skirmishes in the arcades of Dawlish with our beloved niece and nephew later in the "proper" summer.

Eric tried his best to perfect his claw grabbing skills but to no avail.  How proud young Bertie would be if Uncle Eric could actually grab and keep hold of a much yearned for, but incarcerated Squishem in said claw and then swing it confidently to the open hatch to be released into the awaiting arms of a deliriously happy nephew!

I think, for the moment, such an event is still well within the realms of fantasy, but you know Eric, he's not one to give up without a fight, while limiting himself to two tries per session at £1 a pop, otherwise if he went all gung ho with his coins, he could probably buy the same toy from the shop next door for half the money he'd put in the machine!

Still, a very happy day, with many, many happy days to come and a million memories to make!

A Truly Joyous And Emotional Meet-Up ....... And A World First"

First of all we need to cut to the chase immediately and address the elephant in the room, when we say that "someone" decided to put an old SD card in our camera and as a result we sadly lost quite a few pictures from this momentous occasion! heads haven't quite rolled yet, but it's come close!  Let's just say that the mood round our laptop as the format of such pictures was found to be "unrecognised" was sombre .........  however, the really, really important ones were, thankfully, still there and those we simply can't recover, well, as Eric so succulently put it, at least no one can erase those from our minds!! 

So, here we are at last, after months of planning, all dressed up in our finest, finally sat sitting with Seaside Karen (on the left) and Pharmacy Michelle (on the right) for the very first time. I cant tell you how nervous we all were .........

.... but within seconds we were all taking ten to the dozen, like we'd known each other forever .......

..... well, I suppose we have, after many, many years of comments and via email and the post, we couldn't even remember how long, but never actually in real life, up close and personal.

To say it was emotional is putting it mildly, but we all managed to hold it together, which was something of a miracle in itself!  

A multitude of presents were exchanged, but we decided to keep ours for when we got back to The Towers, knowing that we'd all be on a proper deep downer as soon as our suitcase hit the floor in the hall......

....... so opening wonderful, mysterious, tissue wrapped packages would be a most excellent way to lift our spirits back up where they belong!

Our afternoon tea as per Darrell's rigid instructions (no egg mayo or tuna) was to die for too, a little bit of everything, although with all the nattering, it took quite a while for us to nom through. 

 And our world first?

Well, we only went and did our very first colab confectionary review together, to wit  Aero Pistachio, as found by Darrell in Manchester the other week!

Would we all agree ........

 ....... or would there be the need for robust and vigorous heated debate?

Fortunately we all agreed ......

The gentle aroma of pistachio was subtle and enticing ........

...... with the texture of the bubbly centre adding a certain je n'sais quoi .......

...... however, we all agreed that the chocolate surrounding the bubbles was just far too sweet .........

....... overpowering the pistachio flavour completely.

We concluded that if we could have just the naked, unadulterated bubbly centre as a bar in it's own right, without the chocolate, it would be perfect.

Therefore, in the end we scored Aero Pistachio pretty low, between 4.50 and 5.00 on our world famous Richter Scale of Noms (4.75 then????), which was disappointing, but what wonderful experience, as we've never shared a review before.

And then, when it seemed we'd only just got started, it was time for Seaside Karen and Pharmacy Michelle to sadly wend their way back home, making us realise there were so many questions we still needed to ask and explore (but not in Parliament) following some very interesting snippets of conversation, we're just plain nosy I suppose.  

However, in a very dramatic, but in the end quite fortuitous error when originally buying our first set of rail tickets, we mistakenly entered the wrong date in August, which can't now be exchanged or refunded, so rather than be let them go to waste, well, it would be rude for us not make a return visit and do it all over again?????  A very, very happy day, none of us will ever forget, cementing our friendship even further.  

Next meet up?  Seaside Karen, Pharmacy Michelle and Jan the Fan all meeting up with Mr D when he next returns to these shores????????