Mmm, there’s a thought

I suppose the question now, other than which local fuel station has petrol, is, what crazy thing should we do next? It’s a tricky one. There are some blocks of stuff in the programme. Certainly we would hope to ski for most of January. And I think we’d look to do the Baku trip next autumn. But that leaves some gaps.

C’s nickname is Doris, so I couldn’t resist snapping her Czech cousin’s truck

We’re with Mary at the mo. She has a lovely guy called Jim who does her garden on a Wednesday morning. Jim, by his own admission, works to go on holiday … ‘you only live once’, all that sort of stuff. Leaving aside covid, which blunted his holiday ambitions, this year he’s been on a round-UK cruise and pulled out of another recently due to sickness. Him and ‘his missus’ then quickly booked an all inclusive to Kos. He flies tomorrow. It’s £450 each … for everything.

We did Tunisia all inclusive a couple of years ago and loved it. And, just now, C and I had a quick discussion about whether we should just book somewhere. Tui, for example, would fly us to Greece for £350 all inclusive this weekend. It’s really tempting. But, as C pointed out, doesn’t that rather run against our so-called green credentials? She’s probably right. But, if I don’t get warm soon, I’ll be booking that flight.

That does leave us with a bit of a hole between now and Christmas, and a larger one next Spring. I think we have a block of ‘Doris’ away, possible later this month, or more likely in the run up to Christmas. We both fancy the Norfolk coast. Lots of wild, deserted, long sandy beaches … framed by the grey North Sea. And then there’s the Spring. Now that’s interesting.

We have a number of things on our bucket list – one of which is to winter in Spain on campsite in Benidorm (or similar). It’s a motorhome cliche, but I’d like to give it a try. There are many more, but one which particularly takes my fancy now is flying (I know, Greta wouldn’t be pleased) to Central America, landing with only a hotel booked for two nights. And then finding a shack by the beach for 5 weeks. Just us, endless cocktails, a jungle backdrop and a hired scooter. I can see us there in March next year. In fact, I can’t wait.

But, in the meantime, I have a book to write. And I have an audiobook to publish. My narrator has wrapped the first draft. Now I’m waiting for the technical editing to be complete … followed by a long edit and hey presto. I really hope to have something out before 1 December. We’ll see.

audiobook is on its way …

We’re here at Mary’s until Friday and then home. I have a full tank of gas and neither of us can wait to unload and get back into our Bradley Stoke routine. We do have a lot of niff-naff and trivia to sort. And then Norfolk, then skiing … and then the beach. What’s not to like?

Stay safe everyone. And I’m looking forward to His Borisness saving Christmas for us like he did last year (created by the delay in preventing the delta variant from crossing our shores, followed by more unnecessary death and hardship). Brexit, of course, is central to where we find ourselves. So he is, to all intents and purposes, saving us from himself. Come on, let’s give Keir Starmer a chance … please.