Have Duck, with bubbles.

No, this is not a recipe for marina-ted duck in champagne, though come to think of it, that could be rather nice (if I could afford the bubbly).
I could say we’ve been away for a dirty weekend, but in truth we’ve been away for just one night in a hotel (without the dog) so that I could wake up in a strange bed as an old woman!

We dropped Maggie off around 11 o’clock yesterday morning, and as we couldn’t book in until 2pm, decided to have our celebratory meal at midday.
We decided on a Harvester, and after being shown to our seats, went up to the self-service salad bar.
So much choice, including crutons and warm bread rolls (even though we didn’t have soup) and this ‘kept us going’ until our steaks arrived.

Hubby and I have not had a steak dinner for years.
It was served with chips (chunky ones, not the skinny fries like you get in McDs) a flat cheesey mushroom and large parcel of watercress wrapped in a section of sweet pepper.
Not being drinkers, Hubby had the bottomless cup of tea and I had a soda and lime.
Our steaks were just how we like them (well done bordering on cremated), but neither of us could eat the pepper parcel as it was a bit too oily for our palette. As I’d had plenty of salad, I left most of my chips so that I had room for dessert. Hubby had an ice cream sundae, and I had something similar with honeycomb pieces.  THWTC

Suitably stuffed silly, we did some nibble shopping in the town (fresh strawberries, jaffa cakes, prawn crackers and wine gums to ‘wash it all down’), then drove to the hotel and booked in.
Our room was on the ground floor at the back, and all we could see out of the window was trees. It was lovely and quiet, though a blackbird was to serenade us later from one of the higher branches.
We made ourselves a cup of tea, and Hubby ran me a bath. Our friend looking after Maggie had given me a parcel for the evening, which contained bottles of aromatherapy bubble bath. I used half a bottle, and Love a Duck floated very nicely on top.

our ducks from the knick knack shelf

Neither of us has had a bath since our trip to Lincolnshire to sort out our storage. The smell of vanilla wafting up out of the water was heavenly.
It was a bit of a tidal wave getting in, so I had to let some of the water out before flooding the floor, but oh the bliss of lying there up to my armpits in fragrant bubbles.

What, you thought you’d get a picture of me? Ha! Be glad you got the duck!

About forty minutes later I emerged from the sauna bathroom wrapped in a huge fluffy bath sheet, suitably lobster red, overcooked and pruny.
I flopped on the bed and it was Hubby’s turn.

Apart from him going to reception later to ask for more teabags and milk, we stayed in our room, which was at least one and a half times the length of our boat and three times as wide. We had a five foot bed and made the most of it, draped across the pillows eating strawberries and all the other ‘bad stuff’ like something out of a z rated movie.
We had a comfortable, if rather hot night (no air conditioning and the thermostat was set for 18º though it was over 23º when we switched off the lights).

Breakfast this morning was everything.
We were allowed a mixture of the continental and full english cooked breakfast on offer with fruit juices, tea, coffee, muffins, pastries, cereal and croissants. We stocked up our tummies, and it was like the old days when we’d have a good breakfast and then want nothing else for the rest of the day.
We spent the rest of the morning in town going into the shopping malls together as we didn’t have the dog to worry about, and then made our way to the Cathedral to light candles for our Dads. We lit them in two places so that they could ‘have a look around’ somewhere new, so I hope we didn’t disturb their spirits too much.
These are some photos I took today.

Coming home, we had some basic shopping to do, and included a large triple chocolate birthday cake and some doughnuts.
We came straight down to the boat having emptied the mail box (lots of letters, all addressed to me!!), then sorted out the washing. Armed with a slice of cake and some flowers for our friend, we walked up to collect Maggie.
She was pleased to see us, and by all accounts has been very well-behaved. As expected, she has also been thoroughly spoilt.

In all, I had 18 birthday cards, and 7 anniversary cards.
I cut up the cake and put the slices on a plate, then ripped off a dozen or so pieces of kitchen roll. The doughnuts had already been given to the marina staff, and the cake was for all our friends here. Out of the 18 slices, there was just one left, and Hubby and I had that between us.

It has been a lovely few days, and the night away has done us both good. It’s gone 10pm now, and we’re still not hungry ( oh, and THWTC is to hell with the calories).

We shall be going to The Abbey tomorrow to light another candle for the Dads as it’ll be twenty years since mine left us. He visited me in my dreams last night, and I awoke with tears in my eyes as I miss him still so much, but know he’s with me always, not just on my birthday.

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