The Inn for 30 - Wednesday October 24th

[lucky 2.0]

The Inn for 30 - Wednesday October 24th

Sounds very fun- especially the burning of the effigy! Count me in!

[Cinders]

The Inn for 30 - Wednesday October 24th

I'm grabbing my sweatshirt and tennies!!

Be right there, guys!!

(Please have some chicken dogs, I hate the real ones..)

Cindi

Lucky, I'll bring some hummus and pita for you and the rest of the vegetarians. My hummus recipes ROCK!!

[lucky 2.0]

The Inn for 30 - Wednesday October 24th

Thanks DB! People @ The Inn sure are nice!

[Finding My Self]

The Inn for 30 - Wednesday October 24th

Oh boy! I'd better get writing!! Or would you rather have a proper author?!?!

(I'm a bit concerned about the way the weiners are roasting - TMI for a south east England girl!!!!! I've suddenly gone veggy!!!)

Right, are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin....

Yesteraday was 19 hours long and wonderful.... I woke at 6am - the baby in me too excited to sleep!! Checked in here to say hello and had my coffee.... It was just getting light and promising to be a glorious day just as the forecast said.

We, my daughter #2 and son...18 and 14, left the house at 7.45 and walked down the road to the bus stop in town. The bus was a bit late but that was OK... until all the li'l ol' ladies (even older than me!) shuffled on and off all through every village known to man... 1.25 hour journey that would have taken 25 mins in the car...! (We had to bus it as there were only 2, not 3, seats on the return plane journey so we were flying home to another destination...more later! We didn't want to have the car marooned in the wrong place!)

Fortunately, the pre-booked 'taxi' (large bus!) had waited for us to take us back a quarter of the journey(grr!) to the airport.... ! Bearing in mind Newquay International (?!) Airport has barely grown from a potting shed into a single garage, we still had to abide by crazy rules - I think they like 'playing big'!!! (There were about 15 of us in the entire bulding!)

Half an hour later we walked over the tarmac to our little 17 seater plane (only 4 passengers!)...propellers and all... flying in the raw for us and a little bit scary!!! 1,500 feet and smack at the level of the few clouds...bump bump! But a stunning view of the coastline, Lands End and the lighthouse that signals the last point of England before we hit you guys over the Big Pond!!

35mins later we were over The Scilly Isles... a stunning archpelago of hundreds of little islands that some of you guys 'take for granted' but for the UK....wow!! Blue, tourquoise seas, totally transparent... silver beaches... There are 5 inhabited islands...one with only about 30 people on it. And one which only got electricity in 1986!

We landed on the runway and mercifully didn't fall over the cliff at the end of it and arrived at the 'Terminal' (a real potting shed!!). We were met immediately by a chap with a minibus to take us into the main 'town'.... We passed a beautiful bay wth a little church in the corner of it where there's a guy buried standing up so he can carry on appreciating the view!!! Wise man!

When we got to the town we actually went to the Tourist Office (we HATE being tourists - why? Coz we were but!....) and a trip to the next, most beautiful island was suggested - the boat left in half an hour... so, within an hour of getting off the plane we were on a boat with 15 other folk going across blue, blue water through the little islands to Tresco... (A quick Google back in your rooms says it all!!!) There we walked the 2 miles to the end of the island (!) and admired the amazing flowers...everything's in 'BIG' as my daughter said! Coz of the wonderful climate. (We even came back with a bunch of daffodils - normally grown in March!) There was an amazing lifesized sculpture of two older children throwing a young child up in the air - such openess and freedom...

Then we came back to the beach (and picked up your shell, MM as promised!!), took pictures, 'borrowed' some sand in a bottle to bring back to join all my other 'beaches' in bowls around my house!!, and caught the boat back to the main island via one of the even smaller islands....the locals run around the islands by boat all day every day.... Tresco has no cars, only golf buggies - JOY!!! (And an amazing shop that was an exhibit in itself! So beautifuly done and gracious and deli and full of (probably) London stuff/deli food for the tourists but what the heck; it was a really good look around!!) Oh, one thing that amazed me - along with their own glossy 'Tresco News' full of all the local info and gossip! - was a beautifully ring bound, glossy prospectus for 'Learning on the Islands'....about 3/4 of and inch thick it had everything....business courses, open learning, 'Lifelong Learning Courses' in everything from Steel Drum Orchestra (my son's been dying to find one of those on the mainland for years but to no avail!) - choirs, jazz improvisation, kayaking, life-saving, navigation, dog-grooming, yoga, show-jumping, and on and on and on.... puts any town on the mainland to shame - and society in general.... How much we've chucked away through complacency and thinking we can dispose of community!

So, back on St. Mary's we went to find grub - of course, out of season everything bar a Deli had stopped doing food and my daughter was a bit upset by that; she wanted me to have a great meal and was, with her terrible cold that she'd only had 3 hours sleep with the night before, feeling really rough. (I nearly didn't book because of her ears and the flying but she insisted bless her...) But a cup of hot choc and she was up and running again; the wind had just got to her ears and throat and it was windy, especially on the boat. We ordered a pizza each (great for me - the whole thing was being so great and food doesn't really 'do it for me' anyways - I know! Mad!) They were HUGE and we decided to take one box with us to bring the remainders home as a doggy bag if we could.... (more later!)

At this time we had prezzy time.... that's special; on The Scilly Isles! Daughter has given me a lovely cream, long Cashmere cardigan....delicate, warm and gorgeous!! And son a wonderful cross - hammered silver with a tiny gold heart set in the middle of the 'cross'.... Made in Cornwall and one I had been 'after' since I saw it in February! The jeweller only sells at craft fairs but D#2 had been to 'get it' in September but the lady had sold it! She remembered me though and said she'd make another....so it's almost a commission!! And its beautiful...I'm very lucky.

So, pizza gobbled (and son getting a sweatshirt he had really wanted only from the islands half price in their end of season sale!!) we went back to be picked up by the minicab again to get back to the 'airport'.....

There we 'checked in'.....great! Two tiny desks side by side. We had to be weighed (they didn't tell us what it said (!) and just had to add every body up to check we would stay air-borne!!) There's a wonderful sign on the wall saying, "From March 2007 everyone must carry some form of ID with them...even if we know you..." !!!! Love it! Then we had to dispose of the, by then, collapsed-all-together-soggy-heap-of pizza-box that was stinking us out!! The tiny bin in the ladies had it squashed in mercillessly!! Sorry, I hate waste but it was becoming revolting!!

We then went and bought a little 'picture' from the cafe (home from home mugs and milk in a jug!) that turned out to be made by the guy at the counter.... about 6" square with a little circle made up of tiny pieces of old blue and white china found on the beaches.... he had made a stunning 15"square framed 'shape' made up of 'stuck-end-in' shafts of old clay pipes....all found on one beach on St. Marys over a few months... The clay pipes used to come free with tobacco purchases and thrown away after each smoke....over the sea wall by all accounts!! I think he said there were nearly 1,000 pieces to his picture! (Not mine!)

Then we were ushered into the 'departure lounge'....an area with 8 seats in it! There, out of tte wondow went 'the baggage truck'..... a very little version! With my and one other small handbag on it! In the 'hold' they went. And out we went....suddenly realising that this little plane was very little indeed! D#2 commented that the plane number, G-SBUS looked liked 'Bah-Jaysus'!!!....something we immediately said when we realised that this was going to be flying in the ROUGH!!! 8 tiny seats! The pilot shook our hands and said not to lean on the door handle by mistake (!) and then turned the key!! We trundled over the GRASS and threw our selves over the cliff like a seagull and went up - very fast! I had to get a grip and not yell out so took hundreds of pictures..... of anything.....ground, walls of plane, back of daughter's head (!) until we were up and there was nothing I could do but......clench my bum, jaw, teeth, toes and knees!!! It was amazing - and very funny when the pilot took his hands off the 'wheel' to fill in his clip board and D#2 nealy died of fright!

Landing at Lands End 16 minutes later is hilarious....you come in on 'visual'....literally. The sea is below you and then just about the beach at which point we took a dive and gripped tighter! We know that he would aim for the building with LAND'S END painted on the top of it...but couldn't see it! By the time we were picking flowers with the undercarriage we were *&%'~@ ourselves! But suddenly there was a patch of grass with little piles of sand running down the middle of it...and we were hitting it...and down.... We pulled up like a car, he turned the key, (blissful) silence and we got out. Thanks, we said and walked 20 feet to Baggage Claim....the little truck with my bag on it (the only other passenger had left even more quickly - it was nearly our own private 'jet'!). I picked that up and walked straight into the next minibus....by which time I was shaking!! Adrenaline overlaod I fear!

I acutally at this point felt quite sick....a tendency to" Mal de Disembarque" always mine...well, we had embarrked and disembarked that many times already! I mention it as it was always such a trigger to have 'that settling drink'..... I thought of you'all....smile!

Anyways, 15 minutes later we were dropped of at the train station and got on to a train....and 30 minutes after that we stumbled off to the nearest cab even though our house is only half a mile (up hill!) from this station.....we were knackered!! So, 7.15 pm we got home - very happy!

Thank goodness we had nothing booked for the evening! It was great....after my tum settled down (all on its own!) we decided to have what each of us wanted for supper.....D#2 had fish-fingers, chips and peas, son had ham, egg and chips and I had cheese omlette and chips!!! Yea!!! All had nursery food! Way to go for 50! (I mean it!) Then ice cream and home-made caramel sauce... Yum! And watched "Blades of Glory" on cable/satelite! Seriously un-demanding....! Phew!

Then S and D#2 brought in a little cake with Eeyore on it and 5 candles! (I could 'do' those!) Sooh lovely!

The evening ended though with poor D#2 beside yourself as you are with one of 'those' colds that fells you - it's been 3 weeks now and I've been worried about 'Mono' (G. fever to us!)... But probably not...not quite the right symptoms. But she was over-tired, beside herself and not daring to go to bed to not sleep again, cough crazily and suffer pain on every breath.....so I moved her bed out into the middle of her room, lit a lavender aromatherapy thingy, put soft music on and propped her up high with loads of pillows. Then I stood behind the bed and face-and-head-massaged her to sleep.... it seemed to work as she slept well and relaxed a bit.... such a relief! The 18 year old 'baby' still as they always are to us, eh?!

So, then it was 1am, I had a quick check in here and picked up your beautiful message, Rob, and all your kind (crazy you might now be thinking !!!) expectations of this post!! The post of 2 buses, 3 minibuses, 2 boats, 2 planes, 1train and 1 horse (Shanks's Pony - the final taxi!) plus foot work!!! And two beautiful islands, two lovely 'kids' and glorious weather.....lucky, very, very lucky me!

Sleep was good and I am now officially 50......! Nah....who me? Far too childish!

So, hope you've enjoyed this little (?!) story.... time for ghost stories now!! Woooooooo! Thanks for listening - wakey wakey now to everyone bored rigid!!! But I hope it ws OK - I know a lot of it will be nothing special to some areas of the world but to rule-manic UK, it was fabulous!!!

Love FMF xx

PS I just got a very 'cool' (cold) card from D#1 and SIL.... hmmm. Very sad....Never been like this before. I hope it all works out. It's her Bday today and I can't even get hold of her....sent a parcel etc and texts etc... but she's not responded to any of the three of us..... Hope she's OK.

[Cinders]

The Inn for 30 - Wednesday October 24th

FMF,

Hilarious post!! I laughed my way through much of it. It does sound like you had a glorious 50th DESPITE D#1 and her "cool" card.

Hey, we are mums, right? In time things will be right between you two again. Have no fear.

I am so happy you had fun on your 50th B'Day and that your daughter and SIL were with you and made it special.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY girl!! Now you and I both get to look "forward" to our 60ths. sigh.

Love,
Cindi

[wonderworld]

The Inn for 30 - Wednesday October 24th

Oh FMF-
What a wonderful adventure story - and so beautifully told. I loved every detail. When you got to the parts about the cardigan and cross, I teared up. When the Eeyore cake came out, well, :upset: :heart: . This was the perfect fireside tale. Thank you for sharing your birthday story with us so vividly and with such care.
This is the best weiner roast ever!!!
I'll need a few minutes to recover before that good-for-nothing greasy rotten stinky hairy slimy AL gets burned in effigy. I'm really looking forward to it.......... can you tell? wonder xxxooxx

[Finding My Self]

The Inn for 30 - Wednesday October 24th

Thanks Wonder and Cindi.....

Just to say just got a 'tepid' text from D#1...but it was a text!! Yea! Yes, she's lovely so I am sure (I think!!!) it'll all come out in the wash....her prezzies arrived to her anyways...that's good!

Hey, where's the sausages!?! (This IS England after all!! Might even call them bangers or snorkers!!!)

Have a great roast wont you?! I think I'll be piling up the zeds by the time Hannah (Hi hon!) and co. check in! Yes, get those wodnerful guardsmen (Don and co.) partying too...I'm sure they'll keep their sword arm free though for everyone.... B. OFF AL!!

(Um, if anyone's looking for Horatio....um, he's checking out older women....womAn!!! I'll put him on a 'plane tomorrow.....!)

Love FMF xxx

[Finding My Self]

The Inn for 30 - Wednesday October 24th

Babygirl - I hope you're OK? If your thyroid's down....hmmm. Boosted thyroid without making sure the adrenals are up to speed can make the symptoms worse...so, get the doc to support your adrenals.... (as long as my adrenals are kept up (diet and glandular adrenal from 'Nutri' on web) my thyroid copes fine... Thyroid UK and Dr. Barry Peatfield - a life saver.Check out the adrenal exhaustion questionaire on the above site....might help?)

Good luck and a big hug....
FMF xx

[lucky 2.0]

The Inn for 30 - Wednesday October 24th

FMF- loved spending the day with you through your post. Thanks!

[madisonmay]

The Inn for 30 - Wednesday October 24th

Hi FMF

You seemed to have had a fabulous great 50th, don't forget 50 is the new 40. Your discription of your day I could see it all, have you ever thought of taking up writing?!!! Can we see a new author with a best seller coming up? Anyway glad you had a beautiful day.

Mary :l