"Did you see that?"

Wow!

Continuing with tales from my festive break away with my friend, X, today I am going to tell you about something that we saw.

We arrived a little early to visit a castle (more on that next week) and decided to take a little wander around the area where the castle was. 

Finding a footpath, we set off and saw a pretty stream and some ducks. Then, X exclaimed:

"Did you see that?"

"Yes!" I replied, having seen a bright flash of blue in the sky.

"It was a really blue bird!"

"Like the printer ink cyan shade of blue!" I remarked.

"Yes!" X nodded back.

We stood still to see if we could see it again and to be quieter. I did catch another flash of it and tried to point where to X, but she didn't see it.

A few moments later, a couple and their dog came along and - clearly spotting our puzzled faces - said:

"Have you just seen the Kingfisher?"

To which we replied that we thought we had and that we didn't realise that is what it was or how blue they were!

It was, honestly, beautiful, and we were so pleased to have seen it!

We then continued down the path and (despite wearing cream coloured boots) X set off further down the muddy trail to take a photo of some sheep further down. I stayed back as the mud and puddles weren't something I felt the need to squelch in!

From where I was standing, I spotted a pheasant, watched some swans and then chuckled as X came back along, covered in mud!

I then helped her as she dipped her boots into various parts of the waterway along the path! NO WONDER we didn't get in the posh restaurant for lunch (see last week's blog post)... Only joking, we did a good job of cleaning her boots and the woman didn't even look at her feet and X was standing behind me at the door to the restaurant anyway.

Check back in next week for the tale of how lunch continued to go quite wrong though!

 

No room at the inn!

 How rude!

If you've read last week's post, you will know that X and I went on a girly weekend away in December and that our outfits on the first day of our trip caused a bit of a misunderstanding...

With X having some food allergies, I was pleased when she spotted a posh restaurant where she could have something from the menu that she really liked the sound of. We'd already eaten that night (and were still in our questionable attire) so decided the next day that we would luncheon in the posh place and make an effort with our appearance.

I kept my hair down (bit of a mistake as it was windy so I had to add a woolly headband) and X put her extensions in. We took another couple of selfies in the same location as the night before to compare our appearances!

At lunch, we rocked up to the posh restaurant and out came a member of staff (wearing a fancy jacket) and I said:

"Table for two, please."

"We have nothing until 2:45. I can go and double check but I doubt anything has changed in the past few minutes." Came the reply!

We decided not to wait for her to look and walked away with X noticing that none of the tables outside were being used!

After searching for somewhere else to eat and following a map on X's phone, we happened to walk back past the posh place and saw the SAME waitress offering a couple (not dressed that smartly, may I add) a choice of tables outside!

"Well, they can't be that busy then!" X noted and I agreed.

I guess the woman just didn't want our custom!

Lunch turned into a nightmare...tbc!

Check back here Tuesday to see what else happened that day... 

The hats!

Not our intention...

Before you read this, I just want to say that I have nothing derogatory to say about the homeless. For my A-Level media, many moons ago, I did a project on this area as I think it is something that is misunderstood. The information pack (it was before the days of internet research) sent by the charity Shelter was informative and taught me that there can be many reasons why someone can become homeless, and that we shouldn't judge. So, please know, that the following blog post is meant with no malice and is just a true recount of something that happened...

In December, X and I headed off on a girls weekend away. We decided to travel by coach and her husband dropped us off at the coach station (after nearly dropping us at the wrong location, but thankfully my sense of where I am etc is good) and we made our way to a location that we had chosen for its scenery and Christmas atmosphere/activities.

After a Carol concert, as it was rather chilly and we'd had a long morning of travel, we took a rest in some pews. X had got us light up beanie hats as the walk back to the hotel would be quite dark. Us being us, we took a selfie. As I waved at the camera to take the photo, I started to ponder upon what I could see.

"X, we look a bit like homeless people," I commented to her.

We took another photo and then X viewed them and replied, "You're right, we do...it's the hats!"

"Plus all the layers we are wearing - whoops!"

A while later, a man entered the part that we had chosen to rest in. He had a brief look around and then saw us sitting there. He looked at us, and then he looked like he felt a bit uneasy and left.

Immediately, X and I thought the same! We DID look homeless and that he hadn't known what to do. This echoes my initial opening paragraph... 

After discussing that our bags (we'd also been shopping) likely didn't help, we both commented that imagine if he had offered us money!

Looking back at the photos now - and having shown our families since - we still think it and clearly the man did too. However, in the image below, it's not so obvious due to the use of avatars over our faces.

Next week, read about the next day of our trip when we got all dressed up for lunch...then that went wrong too!

Happy 2024!

 A belated Happy New Year!

Blog posts and reviews etc will start again from Tuesday 16th as I have been busy with a few other things. Upcoming Tuesday blogs feature some hilarious tales from a girly trip away and funny tales from Christmas with the family too. On a Thursday, I will be reviewing Ruth Kelly's The Escape and Alice Feeney's Daisy Darker. Sunday Snippets, as usual, will feature a variety of writing.

If you have a suggestion for a book to read/review - then please let me know!