Our Week at Sal's House by Martin & Julia

[Apart from my Mum and Dad being here, this has been a slow news week, and while I'm not given to blogging just for the sake of boosting my numbers, it's nearly the end of April and I've only posted 5 times ;). My parents don't have a blog, but if they did, their post about this last week might look something like this...]

We arrived at Sal's a week last Thursday, and on Friday we stripped the wallpaper off the wall in the spare bedroom. On Saturday the three of us bought paint for the walls, and Martin painted the ceiling while Julia and Sal sanded the woodwork, then we put one coat of paint on the walls and hoped for the best. Unfortunately it did need a second coat, but we did that Sunday lunchtime and painted the woodwork in the spare room and the ceiling in the en suite on Monday.

Tuesday was an historic day for Southampton, which is the UK's main cruise ship terminal and the home of the Cunard shipping company. All three of Cunard's cruise liners (Queen Elizabeth 2, Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria) were in port that day, for the first and last time. We went down to Mayflower Park to have a look. Victoria, the newest addition to the fleet, and QE2, which is being retired later this year to become a tourist attraction
and floating hotel in Dubai, were docked next to each other, while QM2 was docked a little way away, meaning it was practically impossible to get all three in one camera shot and still be able to tell what they were. If only we'd taken Sal's new lens with us! We got some pictures from Mayflower Park of the two boats together, then we took a trip on the Hythe Ferry to get a better look at the QM2.

On Wednesday we drove up to Newbury to visit Paul, Martin's friend from University, and his wife Collette. Colin, another University friend and Martin's best man, and his wife Jen also drove up from the New Forest to spend the day with us. Then on Thursday, we spent the evening with Fiona, the then-girlfriend of one of Martin's colleagues while he worked in the Scottish Highlands 40 years ago, who now lives a mile away from Sal in Hedge End. Small world.

Friday we put the spare room back together, and after Sal got home from work she and Julia put pictures up on the walls and got a couple of photos before Sal messes it up again...



It was great to see Sal and Rob and they were very grateful for our help with the decorating! We're off to Bedford today to spend a week on a houseboat. We've hardly spent any time at home in the last year - the South of France last April, Prague in June, Poland in August, Spain in October, Australia, New Zealand, Bangkok and Singapore earlier this year. It's great being retired!