This evening we are having friends around for supper! We will all be cooking our own meal and I made it very clear that its more like an indoor BBQ and not 'cordon bleu'. We were given the raclette by our German friends, having enjoyed meals cooked on theirs when we had visited them in Germany. So far it has always been a success! I enjoy the informality and the pressure that is lifted when I don't have to plan an exotic menu, spend hours in the kitchen or worry about how the food will turn out! After all spending time in good company is the important aspect of the evening. Jane and Tim are new friends that we have made since moving to LOS nearly two years ago, Jane is an excellent cook and for the past year she has managed the catering at the sailing club. Tim is a very quiet man, who has a gentle humour, he is a keen sailor and gets on very well with Steve.
Last night we were again at the sailing club. We enjoying a delicious meal(more food) with an Irish theme prepared by Jane. Were getting to know ppl at the club quite well and were thinking of joining another couple on a sailing holiday in Croatia! 'Thinking' long and hard about it at the moment, as anyone who knows me will know that 'sailing' isn't my thing. I know it won't be at all like dinghy sailing and I'm being persuaded that I would really enjoy pottering around little islands, stopping for swimming in little bays and relaxing, social evenings in tavernas and bars! Phil and Sandy have said we can share their boat, but as we don't know them too well, we will probably go with the option of a smaller boat each, that is, if I'm talked into going. I think we will all need our own space and I wouldn't consider sharing accommodation that small with anyone, other than my nearest and dearest or oldest and best friends: the ones who already know all my little .idiosyncrasy's:).
It's now the day after the night before as they say and a really enjoyable night it was. Thankfully our guests enjoyed the novelty of cooking their own food. We didn't go to bed until after midnight and it was 9.30am before I awoke, it really is becoming rather an enjoyable habit and something I could get used too.
Its a glorious sunny day, we have been shopping in Southampton to buy a new cooker at John Lewis, it will be delivered in five days time. We stopped on the way back at the car park at the far end of Lee beach, 'The Shack' has just started opening at weekends again and as it was now 3.00pm it seemed opportunist to sit and have some refreshment sitting on the beach. What a beautiful site, there were a lot of large sailing boats in the distance, the IOW was looked like you could reach out and touch it, the gliders were out from Daedalus and were gliding gracefully above, while below the ski jetters were showing off their fast machines. After our appetites were satiated, I abandoned Steve to walk home, he was happy to take the car home as he wanted to get on with preparing his boat ready for the sailing season which begins on 1st April. I called in on my Mum on the way home to give her a list of the shipping which is due to sail down the Solent in the next year. Steve had picked it up at The shack and knew that she would like it, perusing the list, it contained so many of the ships that she and my father had sailed on so often. Mum was sat in her little sun lounge, trousers rolled up, door open enjoying the rays. I wandered home with a box of fudge that Mum had made.