Sea

Mommy’s Birthday

Friday 23rd May 2014Baggie

I find it very interesting that if I don’t update this website for a couple of weeks it becomes very easy to fall out of the habit and I have to struggle to sit before the keyboard and type. However, once I have got back in the habit then a wave of verbosity washes over me and you are treated to write-up after write-up, May has become a very fruitful month on Baggie and Lucy dot com. It helps that we are doing some interesting things and secondly, that I have evenings and weekends off now that the football seasons have drawn to a close. Before you say it, I know that there is still the matter of the Football League play off finals but I can live with that kind of schedule!

So what warrants another write-up before the end of May? Nice weather and Lucinda’s 41st birthday.

Lucinda always likes to go somewhere for her birthday. For many years she would go somewhere exotic, taking advantage of Air Canada or shorter flights into Europe. However, now we are with children that becomes more difficult, it takes such an effort to organise three little ones and squeeze all their paraphernalia into carry-on luggage. In addition, Lucinda’s birthday is mid-May. My job, as many of you know, very much revolves around the Premier League season and unfortunately this tends to end around the same time. This can make going away for a weekend a little difficult, indeed last year the last day of the season was the day after Lucinda’s 40th birthday, although we still managed to take a day trip to the coast. This year was a little different, with the summer break to be dominated by the Men’s Football (Soccer, for some people) World Cup the Premier League season ended a week earlier than usual meaning that Lucinda’s birthday weekend fell on my first weekend off.

Ruling out an exotic weekend left us with a weekend away in the UK. For once the signs for the weather seemed to be good, indeed the weekend saw temperatures top 25°C, so we headed to the south coast to a stretch of coastline we know well. We have made the round trip in a day many times before (most recently in the first week of the Easter holidays) but we wanted to stay overnight and make a weekend of it this time. Fortunately the nextdoor neighbour of Lucinda’s brother owns a chalet in New Milton, just East of Mudeford and Hengistbury Head that we have visited a number of times before; a chalet that was vacant for the weekend. So we booked the night, picked up the keys and headed down on Saturday morning.

New Milton is on the border of Hampshire and Dorset and the chalet in a holiday park at the top of a cliff overlooking the Solent. The chalet had a prime spot with and uninterrupted view of the sea and only a short walk to the clubhouse, playground and swimming pool. A little small and a little tired, but more than adequate for our family of five and because the weather was so nice we were not indoors for any length of time.

We arrived at lunchtime and so after unpacking the car and taking lunch we headed to the beach. It was a steep climb down to the beach (and thus an equally gruelling climb back afterwards) but we soon found a small deserted sandy place (the beach was mainly stones with small sandy areas close to the sea) and made camp. The girls thoroughly enjoyed splashing in the sea (although it was a little cold) and building sandcastles. Ezra wasn’t too keen on the dipping his toes in the sea, was a bit of a shock, I think; give him a few more years.

An ice cream each before heading back up to the chalet and swimming costumes on for the pool. Amélie didn’t want to go swimming so Lucinda and Éowyn went while Amélie and I headed to the playground while Ezra slept his beach adventure off. Amélie had collected rather a large stone on the beach and had carried it all the way back up to the adventure playground. It was her ‘rock baby’ and I had hoped that she would have given up carrying it on the climb back (she did try to offload it to the mother of another family halfway up). She still had it at the adventure playground and indeed took it back to the chalet and tucked it into bed when we returned.

For our evening meal we headed into Christchurch for pizza. Neither Lucinda or I had been to Christchurch and it was swiftly added to our list of places to return. We have been to its namesake on the South Island of New Zealand (prior to the 2011 earthquake that destroyed much of the area) as part of our honeymoon but for some reason we have never been to the original. The girls enjoy their pizzas and even Ezra demolished doughballs, pizza slices and chocolate fudge cake before we took a short stroll around the town and the return journey back to the chalet. After putting the girls to bed we sat up a short time watching the sea and drinking champagne.

Sunday was Lucinda’s actual birthday and we were joined by her parents and niece Lauren. The girls, as usual, were very excited to see their grandparents and cousin. We had spent the morning breakfasting on freshly cooked croissants from the park store and just slowing easing into the day, something we seldom do.

As it was approaching lunchtime (do you have the same feeling that the majority of this write-up is about food?) we headed to the local pub for Sunday Lunch before heading to the beach. It was a glorious day, hotter than the previous day and there was barely any free space on the beach. I was paranoid about keeping the kids topped up with suncream because being fair skinned I know how easy it is to burn and indeed the only person to catch the sun was yours truly: the top of my feet between my sandal straps. The girls made more sandcastles and splashed in the sea. Éowyn collected seaweed (which we brought home to put on the veg patch) but thankfully Amélie didn’t collect any more rock babies!

After a quick stop back at the chalet and the obligatory cup of tea we headed to the swimming pool. Éowyn has a real confidence in the water (when she is wearing her armbands) which she got from our trip to Centreparcs last winter; Amélie, however, not so. I managed to convince her to get into the water but she clung to me like a monkey-limpet (you know that there is such an animal as I coined the phrase last year in the aforementioned Centreparcs write-up!). Her vice-like tetrapodal embrace had not got any less intense. So with Mommy, Granddad and Lauren in the pool keeping an eye on Éowyn and Nanny relaxing by the pool keeping an eye on Ezra, it allowed a rare opportunity for me to spend some time with Amélie in a pool.

I wouldn’t say it was a complete success but we definitely made some serious strides forward. She went from clinging to me for dear life, to floating horizontally with me supporting her belly while she focussed on kicking her legs and doggy paddling. I never managed to completely let go but it was an enormous leap forward for her. Even Éowyn pulling her underwater (because Amélie was winning in a mock swimming race) didn’t completely put her off, especially as I made Éowyn have a time out at the side of the pool while we all carried on having fun. Éowyn doesn’t like losing – like her Daddy!

We returned to the chalet after swimming for another cup of tea and Lucinda’s birthday cake. Then quickly tidy up the chalet and pack the car up (it is amazing how much we had actually brought with us for effectively one night) before heading back home. Although it was a bit of a hectic two days it was well worth making the effort to get out of the big smoke and head down to the coast. The most important aspect was that Lucinda thoroughly enjoyed herself and we managed to do all the things that she had wanted to do for her little birthday sojourn and it was novel that we had glorious sunshine for the two days. That doesn’t happen very often if you are a Bagnall!

Now it has to be said that you have been spoilt with four write-ups in a little over a week, don’t get expecting another by Tuesday! However, now that I am back in the habit and my weekends are free from work there may be a little more regularity to the updates over the summer, and plenty of photos.

Peace and Love

Baggie

The Family Bagnall

That’ll learn ya!

Lucinda and her kids

Cheeky-boy!

I can see you

Mr McGee, don’t make me angry

Peep-Po!

Model!

Sweetie

A bit of sun on this leg!

Having fun

Just relaxing

It’s hard work

Only ones on the beach!

Incoming!

Mommy and Ezra

A kiss from Mommy

Mommy and Amélie

How do you drive this thing?

Sitting down nicely

Mommy and Amélie selfie

Mommy and Amélie

Sororal Love

My big sister

Granddad’s glasses

A piggy back from Granddad

Lucinda and Dad

A week in St Ives

Wednesday 26th June 2013Friday 28th June 2013Baggie

It is that time of year again, the Bagnall summer holiday. You may recall that last year the four of us headed to the Canary island of Tenerife, this was to erase the memory of a rather wet Kent from the year before. With Ezra only three months old and not in possession of a passport a return to Tenerife (which is something that we would like to do as we thoroughly enjoyed our week there last year) was not on the cards. Thoughts therefore turned to the UK and after eliminating some worthy resorts we opted for St Ives Bay Holiday Park and a six berth static caravan. Somewhat misleadingly (but nevertheless geographically correct) St Ives Bay Holiday Park is not in St Ives itself but Hayle on the eastern side of St Ives bay.

Lucinda and I have previously visited St Ives, although not since 2005, and St Ives was the Bagnall exotic holiday (every three years or so) when I was a child so it is a place we (especially me) know quite well. Cornwall is a peninsular county in the South West of the UK usually warmed by the Gulf Stream, the warm Atlantic current that keeps the UK warmer than its latitude should dictate, therefore, it seemed a good bet to provide the best weather for a UK bound holiday, especially since the week we chose didn’t coincide with Wimbledon or Glastonbury. However, as seems to be new paradigm for the 2010’s (what is this decade called?) this summer has so far proven to be cold and wet would it be for our week away? More of that later.

Our holiday started on Saturday and the early start that we had planned went by the wayside. Trying to usher three children into a car with all the associated paraphernalia is tantamount to herding cats and so we left two hours or so later than we had wanted. St Ives is close to 270 miles (435km) from Stanwell Moor and so with three small ones there was a need for a major pit stop. Rather than 20 minutes or so at a service station we decided on a familiar haunt: Lyme Regis. It is a town we know quite well and coincidently approximately halfway. This, in turn, dictated the route we would take to Cornwall.

We didn’t quite make it to Lyme Regis. The weather was poor, Ezra was crying (he was hungry), the girls needed the toilet and we had been caught in heavy traffic so with another familiar haunt five minutes away we took the detour to Hive Beach café in Burton Bradstock. A stretch of the legs, a refuelling and a walk along the beach that certainly blew the cobwebs away we were back on the road next stop Hayle. We arrived in Hayle at around 1800 and after checking in and unpacking there was only time for dinner before turning in.

We awoke to heavy rain, caravan technology has certainly improved since I last spent a night in one for in the older style one would have heard every single drop. It was also Father’s day but with the poor weather we decided not to head too far and instead headed to the local supermarket for supplies and scope the surrounding area. Driving through Hayle we spied Salt, a restaurant/ café/ bar that Lucinda had seen on t’internet that had received rave reviews. Father’s Day dinner was sorted and we headed there early. On our return to the holiday park we decided to check out the entertainment: Mr Bamboozle the balloon magician. The girls enjoyed it especially receiving a balloon creation at the end of the performance.

The weather was still poor Monday morning, so we decided to take advantage of the on-site swimming pool. However there was a break in the persistent rain in the afternoon so we decided to venture further afield and headed to Penzance. Not the prettiest of Cornish venues but the journey through the Cornish countryside certainly made up for it.

Tuesday was altogether a little brighter, not exactly blue skies but the rain did hold off and so we headed into St Ives. Now for those of you that have never been to St Ives, it is a beautiful seaside town that grew up as a medieval fishing village (the Sloop inn claims to date from 1312) but expanded in the late Victorian age due to the St Ives branch line from St Erth. It was this branch line that proved to be the most convenient way for us to arrive at St Ives. Medieval fishing villages were not built with cars (especially S-Maxes) in mind, hence with the car parked as Lelant Saltings station we took the scenic route (the railway line runs along the coastline and has to be one of the prettiest views from a train line, certainly in the south of England).

With buckets and spades we spent most of the afternoon building sandcastles and running into the sea (it was freezing), then as the skies turned threatening (although it still didn’t rain) we went for an obligatory ice cream and a mooch around the shops. On our return to the holiday park we decided to check out the facilities and after Éowyn challenged me to a game of table football and air hockey we tested out the adventure playground. It was there that Éowyn met her new best friend Lila (not sure that I have spelt that correctly). They were inseparable and played together most nights for the rest of the holiday. Indeed the next day we decided not to venture too far from the park just down to the beach so that if Lila was about Éowyn could play with her. Unfortunately we didn’t meet up with them until the evening, we had somehow been missing each other all day for Lila’s parents had had the same notion. When we were at the club or adventure playground they were at the beach; and when we were at the beach they were at the club. It was possible we were both on the beach at the same time but with over 3 miles of golden sand it would have probably been more luck that judgement that we would have bumped into them.

We did however leave the park for an hour or so to go for a cream tea at Green Pig farm. Half way between St Ives and Penzance it not only served a fantastic cream tea (and ice cream for the kids) but from its lofty position you could see St Michael’s Mount and the Lizard peninsular.

The weather forecast for Thursday was for heavy rain so we looked for something close that would entertain the kids yet at the same time provide shelter should we need it. Paradise Park in Hayle seemed to fit the bill. A wildlife park specialising in birdlife, mainly parrots, penguins and birds of prey with the added bonus of the Jungle barn a huge indoor softplay area for kids of all ages! We arrived just in time for the bird of prey display which was excellent. The Eagle Owl flew between the rows of seats not more that a foot (30cm) off the ground (as you can see from the photo below). Amélie and Éowyn were both fascinated with them and when they asked for volunteers to hold a barn owl both wanted to but were disappointed not to be picked, I promised them that when they are older that we will do it (any excuse for me to do it again!). As we were leaving the arena they had bought a male Bald Eagle for a close up photo opportunity, Amélie had other ideas: ‘I want to hold it‘. I explained that it was bigger than her but she was very insistent, so I took her as close as I dared for fear that she would try to stroke it and the eagle may have an unscheduled snack of her fingers. There seemed to be a mad rush at the end of the performance for places at the café and so to avoid the rush we walked around the mini farm and the girls fed goats and sheep.

In hindsight it was the correct decision for after lunch we headed into the Jungle Barn. We thought that we would be there for an hour or so and then finish off walking around the rest of the enclosures. No chance, the girls loved it that much that it was about three hours later before we left with two very tired girls straight into a downpour. Seemingly as soon as we had entered the Jungle Barn it had begun to rain and hadn’t stopped all the time that we were in there. Amélie was so tired in fact that she fell asleep in the car and didn’t wake until the next morning (good job she had had a large lunch). Éowyn on the other hand woke when we returned to the caravan and wanted to go and play with Lila. So after something to eat Lucinda took Éowyn to find Lila while I looked after a sleepy Ezra and a completely zonked Amélie.

Unfortunately Lila was not about but instead of returning to the caravan Lucinda and Éowyn decided to check out that evening entertainer: Wishy-Washy the magician. I am not sure that Wishy-Washy was entirely glad that they had. Wishy-Washy needed an assistant and Éowyn was the first to put her hand up and volunteer and so was picked. She thoroughly enjoyed being a magician’s assistant and thought that Wishy-Washy was hilarious and I think that Wishy-Washy was enjoying having such an euthusiastic assistant, indeed when she wanted to go to the toilet he paused the show so that she wouldn’t miss anything. Éowyn got so engrossed in the role that when she thought that Wishy-Washy was being too silly she would smack him on the bottom with his magic wand that he had entrusted her with – much to the embarrassment of Lucinda. Unfortunately they could not stay to the end of the show (they did leave at 10pm) as Ezra was due a feed. Éowyn was full of her role as a magician’s assistant and told me every little detail on her return, I think she was quite enamoured with the glamour of the limelights.

Our final full day came far too quickly and we decided that we would return to St Ives. We decided on a change of plan and that was to park at St Ives train station and spend the day on Portminster beach in the shadow of the train station. Unfortunately, the car park was full and so plan two was put into action, catch the train into St Ives again and then head to Portminster beach. This time however we parked at Carbis Bay train station. As we parked I decided to contact my mom’s school friend Teresa who lives in the area, to introduce my family and arrange to meet up in St Ives. By sheer coincidence we didn’t need to go too far for she only lives a stone’s throw from Carbis Bay train station and quickly walked down to meet us.

Friday was probably the best day of the week and we all thoroughly enjoyed another day building sandcastles and splashing in the sea. Again the girls were completely worn out and Amélie fell asleep in the pushchair as we walked into town missing out on an ice-cream; Éowyn had the good sense not to fall asleep until after she had eaten hers. Even though both girls were very tired Éowyn was determined to go to the adventure playground to see if she could see Lila for one last day and give her a picture that she had drawn for her. Fortunately Lila was of the same mind and the girls played together for one last time and both were upset that they would probably never see each other again. I am sure that Éowyn (and Lila) will get over it (as Éowyn did over Brooke who was her best friend that she met in Tenerife) but it was quite upsetting that she got so upset about leaving her friend and wondered if we returned next year whether Lila would be there. Bless.

We had to leave the caravan by 0900 Saturday morning, so most of the packing was done on Friday night and we were only 30 minutes late (well within the one hour grace period). Again to break up the journey we decided to head to Lyme Regis for we thought it would be nice to see Lyme Regis in the summer. To be honest I would prefer to see Lyme Regis in the autumn! There was a gale force wind (maybe a slight exaggeration there) blowing and it was bitingly cold, the British summer! After a brief stop and a bite to eat we were back on the road home and the holiday was over.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Cornwall and I am sure that we will return, possibly even to St Ives Bay Holiday Park for caravaning has certainly changed in the 30 years since I last caravaned. I think I have bored you enough (if you thought the last update was long this one is 20% longer!) so I will leave you with a selection of photos.

Peace and Love

Baggie

The joys of Caravaning

What’s going on?

Movie Star

It’s you!

Paddling in the sea

Sunset

Eagle Owl

Get off my pig!

Get off my laaand!

Not the camera again

St Ives

Baggie and Lucy

My little brother

The Bagnall kids

Daddy and his daughters

Mommy and Éowyn

Slightly surprised?

On our way to St Ives

On the beach

The sand beneath my feet

Daddy and Éowyn

Daddy’s scone

The girls’ ice creams

Mommy’s scone

I like my ice cream

Can I hold it?

Zonked!

Mother’s Day and Daddy’s birthday

Monday 26th March 2012Tuesday 27th March 2012Baggie

It has been a busy week and hence a second update in just over a week. It began on 17th March which is not only St. Patrick’s Day (the Patron Saint of Ireland) but my eldest sister’s birthday. It was also the day before Mothering Sunday and a couple of days before my birthday so what better excuse for a visit from Nanny Fran. Nanny Fran made the journey on her own as Auntie Liz was heading off to a JLS concert in the evening, but she was joined at our house by the birthday girl herself, Auntie Mary.

Éowyn gets so excited when Nanny Fran comes down that she will quite often wear herself out and so it was on Saturday. She was so worn out that she spent much of the afternoon asleep. This meant that Amélie managed to get a greater share of Nanny Fran cuddles. It saved arguments.

Nanny Fran and Auntie Mary saw a huge leap in development of Amélie since their last visit and it does seem over the last few weeks that she has grown from being a baby to a toddler very quickly. She now walks everywhere, to the point of not wanting to be picked up. She is interacting with many more things and her vocabulary is going through that rapid increase phase where there is a new word nearly everyday. She will quite happily sing ‘Old MacDonald’ to herself and jabber away to her toys. On Saturday we sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to Auntie Mary and Amélie joined in! She doesn’t suffer fools gladly though and Éowyn is quite often on the receiving end of her wrath if big sister is doing something that she doesn’t want her to do. She is also a little thief. She will ‘move’ (shall we say?) anything that isn’t out of reach and hide it somewhere. Lucinda’s camera was found in one of the saucepans in the cupboard; the remote control was found in her toy kitchen and my watch is still A.W.O.L. hopefully it will turn up soon. She has now earnt the name Swiper, (‘Swiper, no swiping!‘) from Éowyn after a character from Dora, the explorer.

The following day was Mothering Sunday (Mother’s Day) so we let Lucinda have a well deserved lie in before we made her breakfast in bed. If you can’t treat your mother on Mother’s Day when can you treat your mother? Now saying that, Lucinda’s mum had invited us all round for Sunday lunch (Lucinda and her brothers and all our families), which puts a bit of a nonsense on the previous sentence, especially when she prepared all the food and she wasn’t feeling very well. Nevertheless 14 of us sat down for Sunday lunch. It is always nice when the whole family gets together and I know Lucinda’s Mum and Dad really enjoy being surrounded by their decendants, and who wouldn’t be.

The busy week didn’t stop there. My birthday was on the Tuesday and so we decided that we would go away for a couple of days to get away from it. Lucinda booked us a room at the new Shoreline Hotel at Butlins in Bognor Regis (West Sussex – for those of you with poor knowledge of UK’s geography – still not helping? About halfway between Brighton and Portsmouth. Still not helping? Find Staines (just west of London) and go south until you hit the sea and stop. It is somewhere around there, if that still hasn’t helped maybe you watch a little too much CNN).

I went to Butlins with a little trepidation, it has to be said. Never really been tempted to spend any time at a Butlins (or alternative) and I had never been to Bognor Regis (although it was good enough for King George V) but we packed the car and headed south. I am not ashamed to say that I was pleasantly surprised by both Butlins and Bognor Regis. The Shoreline Hotel is excellent, it has really been thought through for kids. The room was divided into two areas, the main area that you would expect with a little seating area and a double bed with TV and DVD player (although I can proudly say that we didn’t even put the TV’s on in our stay) for Mum and Dad. Then separated by the bathroom (that included a child’s section in the seat so little ones can use the big toilet safely, without fear of falling through) there was a kid’s bedroom with bunk bed and their own TV and DVD player. Éowyn loved the bunk bed and immediately climbed the ladder staking her claim to the top bunk. We were a little wary of letting her sleep up there but she was perfectly safe going up and down the ladder and so we let her sleep there. Amélie is still a little small for a bed (even with a side on) so we hired a cot for her.

When we arrived we found that you could book a ‘Character Breakfast’ where one of the ‘Characters’ (i.e. men in big suits) would come and sit with you and have breakfast with your child. We thought that it would be nice for Éowyn and attempted to book it but unfortunately (or fortunately as it turns out) they were all fully booked for our stay. Nevermind we headed to breakfast the next morning and yes Billy and Bonnie Bear were there and having breakfast with a number of the children, but in between course they came and paid a visit to every child in the breakfast room. Now you may be forgiven that this would be something that Éowyn would like, but a teddy bear bigger than daddy ambling over to you when you are eating your Coco-Pops is not what our three year old thought was a pleasant experience. Amélie, thought it was brilliant but Éowyn cowered by her Daddy until the furry freaks had moved on to another table. We were glad that we hadn’t shelled out for the ‘Character Breakfast’. However, because we didn’t know that the characters would visit every child we hadn’t taken our cameras down to breakfast (why would you?) but we rectified that the next morning, when it was the turn of Bob the Builder and Fireman Sam to paid us a visit, with pretty much the same results. Although we did have photographic evidence this time!

I think we chose quite a good time to pay a visit to Butlins for it was out of school holidays, still early in the season and, for once (for one of our holidays!), the weather was fine. This meant that we could easily get on the all the facilities in the children’s play areas and the swimming pool was relatively empty. The swimming pool was the big hit of the holiday. Éowyn has never been very confident in water and it is one of the things that we have promised ourselves this year to get her to enjoy the water and if possible to begin swimming lessons. Part of Éowyn’s issue with swimming is that it gets your hair wet. So before we entered the swimming pool this time we put her hair up with a hairband, something that she usually will not allow you to do. Whether it was this lack of fear surrounding her hair getting wet or the fact that the pool gradually deepened from nothing to 4 feet (1.2 metres) or so (it was the toddlers’ pool) or even the confidence of holding her daddy’s hand she wading right in until the water was up to her chest. I then supported her and slowly dragged her into the deep (relatively) water. I got her treading water and then dogging paddling, with the support from dad and the armbands. Initially I worried that I had done it all a bit too quickly but the next day she wanted to go swimming and grabbed my hand and said ‘Come on, Daddy, let’s go into the deep water.‘ The challenge will be to continue this, before the newly gained confidence ebbs away.

There wasn’t a lot of time to exploring the finer areas of West Sussex, although we did have a quick nose around Bognor Regis. One place that we did find was just along the coast, east of Butlins, a small café called The Lobster Pot. In the neighbouring town of Felpham (not to be confused with Feltham) The Lobster Pot serves the most delicious café food, if perhaps a little pricey. However, if you are in the vicinity I would wholeheartedly recommend the walk along the coast. I think we went there every day and the staff were extremely friendly especially to a nosiy little three-year old.

Lucinda’s Uncle David and Auntie Sally (Lucinda’s father’s brother and his wife) live in Middleton-on-sea which is just a couple of miles from Bognor and as I had never visited their house we decided to pop in on the way home. Éowyn and Amélie charmed them, as of course they would. Éowyn, especially took a shine to Uncle David and had him playing in the garden with her and then started calling him Granddad. In fairness to her, Uncle David is a lot like Lucinda’s dad, they are brothers after all and I think there was definitely some of the ‘Kin knows Kin’ subconsciousness type thing going on. So it would be perfectly natural for her to equate them as the same, I think that it shows the love and trust that she has for Lucinda’s dad that she was so familar with a man she has hardly ever met, for she is usually so shy around people.

So back home Wednesday evening, only to prepare for my Uncle Roy’s funeral on Thursday and a round trip to West Bromwich. We took Éowyn and Amélie for it was only a small funeral and I had not seen many of my relatives in such a long time, it is shame that it takes something like the death of a family member to bring us all together. Something that I must try and rectify this year (if only I could get this cloning thing to work). It was nice to introduce Éowyn and Amélie and in some case Lucinda to my wider family, especially since there doesn’t seem to be many of us left. We were slightly delayed leaving as swiper had been up to her usual tricks and hidden mommy’s purse. Fearing that we had left it in Bognor Regis we phoned Butlins, The Lobster Pot, Uncle David and Auntie Sally and the local Bognor Regis Police station. Lucinda then cancelled her bank cards before she noticed where the little thief had hidden it. We will have to watch that one.

So the clocks have sprung forward, we have warm spring-like temperatures and the lawn has finally been mown (or should that be mowed?); summer is on its way and I have detained you long enough, go and enjoy the sunshine.

Peace and Love

Baggie