A wonderful trip to Brighton

Well as you can imagine every trip back to Brighton is wonderful for me. I get to see Mark and Frankie, and their partners Chris and Callie, and sometimes my uncle Charlie if he can hear me knocking at the door that is, and often my dancing girls, and the stroke clubs members, where I used to help out at the Haven Stroke Club. This trip though was extra special. Although I had not said anything in my blog previously I was about to become a grandmother. My darling daughter Frankie had told me on mothers day. Unfortunately see she not been keeping great, but hopefully soon that willl change. This trip back was the first time I had seen my expectant daughter!

Frankie and Chris met me at the airport as they often do, Frankie and I were sure we were both going to cry, but no, we were both pretending to be grown up and were surprisingly ok! They took me to Barbara and Grahams house, my good friends that always allow me to come and go, as though I was in a hotel. Thursday morning was a big day. Frankies very first scan, and I felt very priviledged to go with them, although I did say to Frankie that it was a very special time for her and Chris, but Frankie said she wanted me there. How lucky am I! The scan was a great experience, the radiographers were kind and made it very special for us all, and I was shocked! I know it has been 21 years since I had a baby scan, but wow how technology has improved. I am sure at Mark and Frankie's scans I probably pretended to understand what parts of the body they were pointing out to me, whereas in a fraction of a second, there was a baby! It rather took me by surprise and I tried very hard to disguise the tears in my eyes, and boiled egg like lump that appeared in my throat, I think I did an ok job of it!

Frankie's 12 week scan

That afternoon I went with Frankie to her own dance class in a school in Eastbourne where she has been teaching, it was a lovely little school, and the children and teacher seemed to be very fond of her. After that we went to the City Dance classes in Brighton, and saw Kelly and my lovely dancers. OK well there are not exactly mine any more, but of course I am stilll very fond of them. Simon met us after dancing as did Mark, and we all went out for a bite to eat together, what a lovely day! I spent a most of Friday with Mark which was great, he has grown into such a lovely young man, I am so proud of..... sorry Mark :) I had arranged after this, to have a little get together with some dancers that had left dancing and had wanted to meet up. We had such a laugh reminising about our dance weekends at Butlins and as usual, with them, there was never a dull moment. I should probably keep some of our hilarious meeting private but I could be persuaded to divulge but email hehe!

Saturday was a beautiful sunny day, I spent the morning at dancing with Frankie. Once again it was so wonderful to see the children that are still dancing. It was also so lovely that Dorothy, Melanie and Lucia came into see us, and also Julie and Elicia too. We had a little treat and had our hair done after. The weather being so beautiful, we had an invite to join our good friends Cathy and Rich on the seafront. Rich is an extremely talented artist, that produced our logo for us. He now has an art gallery on the seafront and we spent a lovely afternoon, on Brighton seafront, with good friends and a glass of wine

Lovely sunny day on Brighton seafront

Freddie!

Saturday evening I went out with Mark, Frankie and Chris, poor Callie was working, and we met up with a few dance mums. It is always lovely to catch up and have a good ole chin wag.

On the Sunday we were invited to Louise, Mark and Renee's, Alan's auntie, uncle and nanna. As always we were made so very welcome, I feel so lucky to have them as my new family. Well the weather once again was kind to us, we met their new chickens and of course their beautiful "rag doll" cats and had a lovely barbeque. Thank you for such a lovely day!

One of their beautiful "rag doll" cats

Renee
Louise with "Tikka"

Bank holiday Monday we spent yet another day with good friends. We popped into see Jo and Nick at lunch time to catch up, and Wendy and Richard during the evening and had dinner with them. It's funny but I am sure I see more of some friends now, since I have moved away. I guess we all make more of an effort. Later in the evening I went to see my good friends Ron and Maureen and stayed with them, to go to the stroke club on Tuesday morning, a place that is very special to me. Everyone there seemed well, and all going about their normal tasks eg jigsaw puzzles wordsearch etc.

On Tuesday evening I visited one of Simon's line dance classes, what a great class, he really has done well, good luck to you Simon, and all the ladies love him! Asusual he had wine and a buffet for my visit, but he loves an excuse for that! During the evening Mark and Callie, and Frankie and Chris and I all managed to have a meal out together. We had a really great night together, full of fun and laughter, and made the most of our new camera. Home on Wednesday and once again it was a very tearful goodbye.

Mark and Chris

Chris and Frankie

Mark and Callie
Frankie and I

Alan goes to sunny Eastbourne

Alan had a trip back to sunny Eastbourne at the end of April, to join in the celebration of his grandads 80th birthday. The family had arranged a little get together in a hotel in eastbourne. It was lovely for Alan to meet up with his family and friends, and he even managed time for a little kick about, with his footie mates!

I was pleased, I coped admirably, although I say it myself. I remembered to feed all the animals and no one escaped either. I had one night with no TV as it was pouring hard, therefore we can lose our satelite signal. However apart from that, all went well, and it was very good to have Alan back :)

Good friends come

Well Kelly and Neil were supposed to be our first PG'S. Luckily they are friends of ours, and when we had a problem with the supplier of our solar system for the new apartment, luckily they were happy to "bunk in" with us.

As Alan said they were the perfect guests, the weather was not particularly kind to them, but they did quite a bit of sight seeing in Cordoba, and Sevilla, and had a chilling day at the lake. They cooked us a gorgeous meal that we now make ourselves every week, thanks for the recipe! They even insisted in taking us out for a meal. It was so lovely to catch up. Neil is an excellent photographer and we have used quite a few of his photographs in our web site, plus on this blog too. I would like to share a few of my favourites with you, I hope you don't mind Neil!

Neils photos from Cordoba Zoo

The night we all went out for a meal toether, as I went to open the gate, I noticed the four alpacas standing in a row, with their ears pricked up. Much to my surprise on the other side of the fence staring straight back at them were a little group of goats. Alan is rather a goat lover, and was trying very hard to encourage me to bring them in, however I know what goats are like, and they would have got absolutely everywhere. For once I put my foot down and assured him they would be ok, and if they were still there the following morning that we would phone our vet to see if any local goat farmers has lost any goats. Alan was rather disapointed that the goats were no where to be seen when we arrived home that night, nor even the following morning.

Well Kelly and Neil had decided to have a lazy day on the day that they were leaving, and maybe just have a walk. Around mid morning I saw one of our neighbours Ramon looking for something around our land ..... GOATS! I told him, as well as I could, that I had seen them two days previously and the direction they had headed off to. About an hour or so later we heard the clanging of a goat bell. Sure enough the little goat gang was back. For some mental moment I thought maybe we should go and try and help, maybe give Ramon some alfafa to entice them with. We could see him on the hills and he beckoned us over to help. Neil took to his heels and was gone, rather like an SAS man, trying to get in front of the goats, whilst Kelly and I followed on up the rear, whilst a Ramon flirted with us. Showing us his shock of dark hair, under his cap, and saying how much fitter his was than Miquel, whose hair is white! Kelly and I had to jump over the stream, well I landed in it, I am not sure about Kelly.

Around an hour or so later we made it, to Ramon's house in the campo. He had telephoned his son who drove up the last stretch tooting to encourage the goats to keep on the move, he had also picked up Kelly and Neil who had decided to gather up some speed, leaving me panting behind. When we arrived at Ramons, he showed us his horses, that always disapear too, plus a beautiful black stallion that seemed to live in a little shed, sadly, along with lots of chicken, and rabbits, and of course there were a few other goats too.

Ramon was extremely grateful for all of our help, and first he wanted to give me a dog, for helping him. No I was adament! We have four already! Eventually he accepted that, but brought out a beautiful white rabbit, holding onto it with one of it's little legs, and put it into my arms. My first thoughts were "Oh my goodness, he is going to kill it and give it to me, to cook and eat!" No he just wanted me to have it. Kelly said my face was a picture. Apparantly as I was adamently saying no, my face was saying something else! But I was strong, and did not take the rabbit either hehe!

Ramon and his son insisted on driving us home, about 3 kilometres I think, it was much quicker by car than walking up and down those blooming hills! They tried very hard to encourage us to go and drink beer, and eat with them. Thank goodness Kelly and Neil had to get to the aeroperto, I think they must have been exhausted!

Working our lil socks off!

Well the month of April was mainly WORK WORK and even more WORK! With the aid of a sparkly new camera, and some photographs that friends have taken, I shall give you a little tour of the place! Thank goodness for a little break at the end of the month, when Alan and I both had trips back to Brighton, and we had a visit from good friends too!

Huge meet and greet, and communal kitchen

One of our courtyard gardens

A view of the pool

MARCH - Mark worked with us

I was so happy when Mark agreed to come to Spain for five weeks, and help Nigel through the week, and us at the weekends. It was great to spend time with my son, at 25 years old, mums can’t always do that. He worked his socks off bless him, and only had one or two days off during his stay. It was lovely to spend time with him, we did n’t get into any deep meaningful discussions, or anything like that, I just enjoyed spending time with him. Below are some of the projects that Mark worked on, and also other projects that were coming to an end whilst he was here. I hope you enjoy the photographs!

This is the work process of our "indoor outdoor garden"

Final photographs next month!

Geri's operation

Geri had ruptured her cruciate ligament two months ago. The vet did not want to operate on her as she is 10 years old and a little over weight (aren’t we all), and therefore we played a waiting game to see if the knee would repair sufficiently on its own. Unfortunately the knee did not heal as well as they hoped, so an operation was needed to give Geri the best chance of enjoying life.
The day the decision was made, the vet immediately set to work and x rayed the knee and hip, monitored her heart and tested her blood, for which the results were known 15 minutes later! Our vet also described in great detail the three types of operation that could be used to fix Geri’s ligament and why he was using the specific technique that he was. The appointment was made and we took her back the following week. Our young vet that translates for us, has been with us all the way, so she changed her plans to be there for the operation, so we all, including Geri understood what was going on. The appointment was made for 10.00 am. When she got in she was given an injection to relax her we waited and chatted for half an hour, to be certain this had taken effect. I then thought we would go…………. oh no! Alan went to check on the car, as we were parked right outside for ease with Geri, and waited in the car. I thought I would be following him soon after ………. oh no! The young lady that translates told me in no uncertain terms that it would be far better, and less stressful for Geri if I was with her until she was asleep…… “what about me“, I am a coward! I did not want to see my little dog, that was brought home a tiny bundle go through any discomfort. It was not up for debate, I was staying and that was it!

Wow I felt quite honoured to be there, FOUR vets, and a vetinary nurse, fussed around her, and chatted to her in English and Spanish telling her to be tranquila. Within a minute or so her tongue was out and she was asleep, they even asked if I would like to stay and watch the operation. No thanks! Thank goodness, I could run away now! Alan and I got toast and hot chocolate to cheer ourselves up, and we had to go back at 1 pm. We arrived back to be told to come back 15 minutes later. I thought that maybe she was just coming around, and they wanted to give her a little more time…. oh no! When I walked in, they were taking a rather large tube out of her mouth and her tongue was still out, basically they wanted me there as she woke up too! Again so very different from a trip to the vets in England.

The main vet who lead the operation telephoned our vet Andres to ask him to check Geri the following day, for swelling etc. This was also the day that Arthur’s stitches were coming out so it was all timed very well. Alan collected Andres who was very happy with Geri, he felt no swelling and so was happy with her, and Arthur was a big brave boy, so all was good there too. Carlos however felt rather left out and lay on the floor doing his party piece “showing his willie” to the vet, which he used to do, when he was being bathed after his castration. Andres took the opportunity to describe using Carlos the different techniques used to castrate a male dog. So everyone was happy!

Just home!

Trying to get about

Sunbathing with Carlos

Having a cuddle

The bandages are off

Sunbathing together again
Best friends!

Arthur's no longer a "he man"

Poor Arthur… we had decided to have him castrated as it was a far less difficult operation than having Blue sterilised. As he is such a huge great lump, plus gets so travel sick in the car, Andres the vet was happy to come here to do the operation. Of course we had to be on hand to help, and he was not a happy Mastin! He was given a sedative first of all to relax him whilst Andres set to work giving him a little trim. That was ok! Then came the time to put him to sleep, and he needed an intra muscular injection, he was not having that without a huge fight! He was so scared, and did not like the injection that he put his mouth around Alan’s arm, just to prove a point…. So Arthur got muzzled! Andres managed to get most of the injection in, and the decision was made to let him go to sleep then give him the remaining dose.

Mark, Alan and Andres lifted him onto the table and I was happy not to be around whilst the surgery was happening, and disappeared off somewhere. I was called when all the gory stuff was over and came down to look after Arthur. It was horrible when the poor big boy was coming round, Andres did explain to me that sometimes they hallucinate after the anaesthetic, and if he began howling or crying, not to be alarmed, he was not in pain but just hallucinating. He was not too bad, but was shaking badly as though he was in shock. He obviously had to have a large dose of anaesthetic being around the 50 kilo mark, and he did not really start to come round for about five hours, when he dragged himself along the floor for a while… aww bless him, then managed to get up on his long legs and stagger out like an old drunk man. Alan spent the night down in the bottom apartment and kept Arthur inside to try and reduce the risk of any infection. They both slept soundly and Arthur was like a new dog the following morning. Alan bathed Arthur’s little bits three times a day and the incision healed perfectly.

I was very worried when the stitches were taken out a week later and we dragged Mark and Nigel to help pin Arthur down, (whilst I decided Blue needed a walk, and made a hasty exit) but the big fella hardly flinched, good boy! Phew that’s over!

Arthur gets pampered

Blue wants to be next

Getting a big kiss from Mark