Autumn Holiday, Caister by Sea, UK

Sunday, September 13th, journey to Suffolk.

I know I've been a long time. It's so daunting when I have too much news and fear my blog will be miles long and take me hours. Still, I have to start somewhere.

I had to catch the plane to the UK at some dreadful hour of the morning, about 6am. It shouldn't be allowed. Still, the clouds from the plane were weird and I took some photos which turned out rather well. The one above was an industrial scene which just appeared through the clouds.

This looks more like a snow covered landscape rather than clouds.

Finally a power station's cooling towers loomed out of the morning mist.


I went arty with some airport trolleys.....

All the benches were empty as it was so early!

Outside, Sam, Jack and Rene were waiting to pick me up. Jack was full of it as usual. We went to Lakeside, a huge shopping area just outside London. I found this rather fetching circular bench:

Rene (Sam's Mum) and Jack found some massage chairs to sit in. We shopped til we dropped! Jason had Kitty for the day so it was lovely for Sam to be able to have some time in the shops alone. Rene and I looked after Jack.

We spent time and money in Primark, a splendid clothes shop with many bargains! These hats caught my attention:

All these photos and we haven't even gone on holiday yet!!

Monday September 14th, First Day in Caister, Norfolk.

We met up with the rest of our party at the Haven Holiday Park where we were staying from Monday until Friday. Ivor and Maureen had one caravan. Ivor is my first husband's father and Maureen is my first husband's first wife. Ivor and Maureen then married!! Keep up, all of you. In another caravan was Paul and his children Brandon, Connor and Gracie. Paul is the son of Ken (my first husband) and Maureen. Rene and I shared a caravan and of course Jason, Sam, Jack and Kitty were in the forth one. 7 adults and 5 children.

We explored the site, which had various entertainment venues, a great swimming pool, lots of places to eat and various parks and play areas. It was right next to the beach, which we popped onto, but not for long as it was rather windy!

Maureen looking out to the sea. The beach was sandy with dunes at the back and some pebbles.

The sea was pretty rough. To the right of centre are some wind machines. There are lots of wind farms along this part of the coast.

Connor and Jack having fun in the 'Mash and Barrel' where we ate most days.

In the evening we went to the Neptune Bar where there was entertainment from the very talented Haven staff. For the children they have characters in costume, Anxious the elephant, Rory the Tiger, Ned, Polly and Greedy the Ape!! Jack loves them all. Here he is enjoying their show:

Though he did get a bit fidgety after a while!!

Polly, Ned and Anxious doing their stuff on stage.
Tuesday September 15th

I can only surmise what we did from the photos! We ate too much, played Bingo, played on slot machines (well, Jason and Sam mostly) and watched shows, swam and ate some more!

Oh - this is me with one of the entertainers. I was happily sitting chatting to Gracie when one of the ladies came over and dragged me up onto the stage. I had absolutely no idea why I was there! I had been joining in one of the dances by our table and they had to choose the best adult dancer and I was picked!! I had to choose a prize from Lee's bag and picked a pin badge of Polly, which I gave to Gracie and she was thrilled!

I was 'interviewed' on stage. 'Where are you from?' 'Ireland'. 'You don't have an Irish Accent' 'I have a house in Worthing too'. Lee took the Micky out of me then, 'Oh, she has a house in Worthing' in a posh accent. Cheeky devil. He asked me if I was married. 'Yes, three times', which he thought was hilarious!! When I eventually headed back to our table he said 'Hold on to your husbands everyone'. The photo's a bit fuzzy as Sam took it with her mobile.

During the day (or it may have been the next day), Jack and Gracie went to a cake decorating activity. They both enjoyed it enormously.

Jack concentrating

Just testing the icing!!
Here's my cake!
Yummy!!!
This is Gracie with her cake. It was much more delicately decorated then Jack's!!
Connor, Gracie, Paul and Brandon

I think that's enough holiday for one post!

Building Work

While I was away, the barn was demolished. I haven't taken any photos yet, I'll leave that for a day or so but it does look amazing. It's so much lighter. Also the plumber has been today and put in the bath, basin and toilet. I spent yesterday evening grouting the tiles. He is coming back tomorrow to do some more work so things really are happening at last. The builders concreted the paths along the extension today too. They had some concrete left over, which Jim and I used to concrete in the poles for the poly tunnel, a job we have been meaning to do for ages. It was jolly hard work but we managed to get all the 8 holes dug and the posts concreted in. We were both exhausted tonight.

It will take me a while to catch up with all your blogs, so do forgive me.