Shalfleet, Isle of Wight

While the hardy crew of Thursday’s Child pushed north to Cascais, Harry, Isabelle and I flew home to the Isle of Wight for “Granabelles” 82^nd birthday party. It was a shock to realise that in just about 2hours of flying we had returned having spent so long getting to the Algarve.  The children absolutely loved the flight and all three of us had a silly grin on our faces as the plane accelerated along the runway for takeoff.  Certainly travelling at 530mph is a lot more comfortable than the sail through the Atlantic swell around Cape St Vincent. The birthday party was a great success and it was wonderful to have a chance to see everyone again.

We have also been luxuriating in the comfort of our hot running water, showers, a washing machine in the house, and huge beds (that don’t move). “Trampus” our useless (but very affectionate) cat cannot believe his luck to have Isabelle back. Initially, he gave me the ‘cold shoulder’ but today spent most of the day curled up on my bed apart from about an hour where he followed me around the house.  When I last checked he was curled up next to Isabelle who is fast asleep.   Sadly, he is about to have a shock when I put him out for the night in a minute.

Since our return Harry has been hurtling about in the garden on his bike and dive bombing me with his radio controlled helicopter.  He has also had fun with friends who we have not seen for months, but heard we were coming back and dropped in this morning to hit a ball about together.  Isabelle has been inseparable from her friend Jessica and they have been playing happily since we arrived back.

We are waiting and watching the weather forecasts on an almost hourly basis to see when Jojo and her crew will be able to make the next step north and closer to home…

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