Reality - grey and gloomy as it is

The grim (or should that be truly gruesome) winter weather in the UK continued unabated. Rain, gales, storms, depressing grey skies. If Brexit hadn't limited us to 90 days in the Schengen countries we would have been very tempted to just escape somewhere further south  and warmer / less soggy.

We had some fun things to do as well  - like a root canal treatment on a pesky tooth for the captain. By the way it rained that day too. We did a few bits of house maintenance in Toddlerville then returned to the neglected boat planning some inside work in preparation for the summer season, if one ever comes. 

However, we had a phone call after Mrs Toddler had a fall that prompted a quick return to Hythe so the boat bits got parked. Once things stabilised, we headed west again but with a very nice stopover, courtesy of Izzy's mum. Anne had booked a rather nice hotel (that we'd used before( as an overnight and dinner thing but then could not use it. So, it was gifted to us and we very happily accepted the offer!

We've mentioned the Berwick Lodge just outside Bristol before and it hadn't changed much. Still a lovely place with excellent food. We complimented it with a rather nice bottle of wine as a wind down event after several stressful days. The rooms are all pretty quirky - ours had a bathroom that was probably bigger than the bedroom area as you can see from this little video:

The old house that the hotel occupies has some interesting features - this is the celling above a back staircase that would have been for servants to use. You can imagine how much posher the main one is:

Well before the kind offer of a night there, we'd arranged to have Sunday lunch with Simon and Nikki in another unusual setting. An Indian restaurant in Cardiff. So, we headed back to indulge in an 8 course tasting menu at the rather naff named "Purple Poppadum". We'd seen a special deal on this and had wanted to visit for ages - the place gets excellent reviews even though it is buried in one of the less than salubrious areas of the city.  We now know why it wins awards. Here is the tasting menu:

Luckily every course was small(ish). The flavours were just wonderful. 

After a seriously food orientated weekend, we collapsed and took stock. We had three days afloat to try and wash off the grubby boat and do some of the postponed tasks. Only continual rain and very cold temperatures frustrated most of those things. We still have rather a lot to do.....

However, we'd arranged to go and house / cat sit for friends so we duly headed off to Sarisbury Green (look it up!) to become slaves to Bella the feline:

Ann and Martin were off on a cruise to the frozen north, courtesy of the Fred Olsen lines ship Balmoral. Only the ship had an outbreak of Norovirus and lots of sickly people on the prior cruise so departure was delayed for a "deep clean". How they cleaned the infected crew isn't really clear but....  The weather forecasts had one rough day and Martin, who is not a natural sailor, had bought every seasickness cure known to man, including these rather tasteful glasses:

Luckily they avoided the Norovirus and Martin didn't need to call on the glasses. We felt honoured to have seen them being worn. Or was that amused? Meanwhile, Bella settled us in:

We had rather a busy time whilst staying there. Dropping Ann and Martin to the cruise terminal, meeting up with Tina (long overdue) who came over by ferry and train, having the little folding bikes serviced, seeing the Nordhavn Europe folks and, finally, getting the chipped windscreen in the car replaced after a stupidly long wait and many phone calls to Autoglass who have some major process issues going on. No choice but to use them thanks to the insurers though. A busy but good week was spent Bella sitting.