This week I had a lovely surprise, I had an e mail from Lynn. Lynn was actually more my sister's friend than mine. Lynn's father was in the marines and they moved to Singapore in the very early 70's, when they returned to the UK the family settled in the west country. I haven't seen Lynn since the very tearful party her family gave before they left Portsmouth and they flew to Singapore. Denise once visited Lynn in Plymouth, but there friendship disintegrated at that point!
Lynn and I kept in touch by letters through the years, Lynn married & divorced and she had two children. The last time I heard from Lynn her partner had sadly died, this was about five years ago and then our communication sort of stopped. Last year I sent a letter to the last address I had and it was returned. I sent messages to a few young people via facebook, who I thought were maybe Lynn's children, but this proved futile.
This week I received an e mail from Lynn, she had found an old letter from me and I was absolutely delighted to hear from her. Lynn has a new partner, I certainly won't lose touch again, it's been nearly forty years since I saw her and I think I shall make an effort to go and see her.

It's more than a week since I have written here, a lot has happened including a trip to Lille. We had expected to have a difficult time as we were booked to go through the euro tunnel and expected disruptions due to the fire in the tunnel the previous week. We arrived in plenty of time and went to get a coffee in the departures hall. Unbelievably we were the only four customers, there wasn't another person who wasn't a member of staff in the building. An assistant in the cosmetics shop told us that hoards of people had cancelled their bookings since the fire. I wonder if they were scared, although I think it must be a pretty safe time to go, after all the safety procedures have all been tested!
We were staying in Elaine's son & daughter in law's flat, which is a ten minute walk from the centre of the city. After our arrival we wandered into the city where we sat & had a drink in the sunshine in a city centre square. It was the end of the working day and the locals were out enjoying the early evening sunshine. We had a leisurely meal, its so wonderful how the French restaurateurs do not rush their customers out in order to accommodate others coming in for tables. People who were looking for tables were sent away as there was no space. Here diners at the end of their meals are often rushed to pay the bill and vacate a table.
Saturday was another lovely day, lunch for the guys were 'Moule', neither Elaine or I like them, but we did have a platter of smoked salmon with Kir to drink. That evening we had another nice meal, followed by a drink in a bar owned by a woman from Dublin.
On Sunday afternoon, Steve began to feel unwell, oh yes, again his heart was playing up. Elaine and I had been to the local food market so we planned a meal in the flat. On Monday we visited the local supermarket to stock up on a few goodies before heading home. Fortunately we had put Brian on the car insurance so he was able to drive home as Steve's heart was continuing to be erratic.
Yesterday morning we attended the GP surgery and the GP arranged for Steve to be admitted to hospital, fortunately this morning after drug therapy Steve's heart returned to its normal rhythm and he was released from the mad house of the medical assessment unit, two of it's patients were definatly in the wrong category of hospital! Steve has been home and has been sleeping for a few hours, we are both relieved that the 'Cardio aversion' theraphy * that was threatened wasn't carried out. * heart stopped and re started by electic shock.

Tomorrow evening I'm attending a Pilate's class for the first time. Exercise isn't really my thing. I have never been athletic, my lack of coordination and my clumsiness are well known. Over the past few years I have done aqua aerobics, though walking is really the only exercise I enjoy doing and started regularly about ten years ago in my bid to loose serious weight. I have been advised by the consultant I have been seeing about pain from a nerve in my stomach to give Pilate's a try, in order to strengthen my 'core muscles'. I think these muscles are shot to pieces after carrying babies of nearly 10 pounds! I will take my place tomorrow at the back of the class where I hope I won't be seen by many people.e
Rebecca along with 5,000 people has lost her job with Lehman brothers. She is on maternity leave for the second time and was hoping that she might get a third lot out of them. Now she will have to decide if she is looking for another job or going to become a full time Mum to two or maybe three in the future.
Steve & I are looking forward to a long weekend in Lille with friends. Were due to go through the channel tunnel, although the fire last week has caused chaos and delays so we don't know yet if we will be driving onto the train or taking a ferry.

We have just returned home after a walk on the sea front, we called in on my Mum. It would have been so easy to have stayed at home and hibernate as its very wintery, well perhaps autumnal. I spent the morning cooking, not sure why I suddenly got the urge to fill up the freezer with sauces, casseroles and fish cakes, but I did. I really enjoy cooking, but on work days I find I just want to be able to prepare a good meal quickly. We have lots of friends who enjoy eating and drinking so there is plenty of occasions when I can cook for pleasure. Where did I learn to cook? Was it watching my Mother or the domestic science lessons at secondary school? I can remember visits to Pirbright where I was allowed to bake, Auntie Esther was more relaxed than Mum and she didn't mind the mess that we caused. Often people will say they can't cook, but my thought is that 'if you can read you can cook'. Perhaps I'm wrong, although I think you do have to enjoy food to be able to cook it. I love watching cookery programmes and I have a fair few cook books.

My oldest was a wedding present from my friend Kate's Mum. It has long lost it's cover, the pages are yellow, some are stuck together with remnants of cake ingredients. It is the one I use regularly, it holds the recipe for the Christmas cake that I make every year, I use many of the other cake recipes, no longer for children's birthday cakes, but mostly when I bake for the sailing club. In the front of the book are tables which convert metric into imperial and these I use often as I still can't think in metric. Thank you Mrs Edward's your present has given me many years of enjoyment.

Only one more working day left this week. Today it's been manic. 6 home visits. I have assessed babies development, advised on a four year old's behaviour and comforted a tearful pregnant, mother of two. Last night I came home from work exhausted, slept for two hours, went to bed at 10.00pm and still slept until 7.00 this morning. Most of my friends will be envious of the amount of sleep that I get. This evening I arrived home, again shattered, but decided that I would resist the desire to lay on the sofa which would have inevitably have led to slumber. Instead, I went for long walk along the seafront. I came home invigorated, cooked a lovely meal of Gnocci with salmon and now I'm on the sofa trying to stay awake so I can watch 'Who do you think you are' at 9.00pm.