Saturday 15th April - Debra's Visit

Having got the pictures lined up and of equal size (not easy for us beginners) I will now put in some text. Firstly, there were'nt hundreds of kids - it just seemed like it. But they were all very good and played happily together. Hardly any tears and then only due to tiredness. We had got up to a warmish pleasant morning and gone over to Sherwood around 10.30am, breaking our journey to pick up a cheese-cake from the specialist shop (Austrian) on Mapperley top. Talk about spotting a niche market. They were very busy. And deservedly so, their stuff is exquisite.

Then onto Tracy's and Ruby and Elli were a little shy with me to begin with. It is after all the first time they have seen me since Xmas. They see Yvonne more often due to her 'grannying stint' around once a month. All the food was being masterminded by Andy (on the right of the picture above) who, like me, loves being in the kitchen. He has a high-stress job and finds cooking a relaxing hobby. At one stage in the afternoon, in the middle of paella preparation, he had a spatula in one hand, a lager in the other and could see the footie-coverage on the TV through Tracy's hatch while his precious little girls played happily on the lounge-floor. Bliss. Before I leave the photos I must point out that Steven doesn't actually have a halo! It's the kitchen clock.

As well as all our people, we also had Ben who Tracy had agreed to look after, while her friend Sharon worked on getting their house ready for sale. Chris, who is a Chef, has got a job in Cornwall and is already down there leaving Sharon to sort things out up here. Sharon has 2 older kids and must have been so pleased that Tracy agreed to have Ben. He was no trouble but very quiet, and nowhere near old enough to understand why his Dad is missing.

When Steve and Lisa and Hannah, Miles, and Millicent arrived things really got 'swinging'. We had an Yvonne-made 'pass-the-parcel'. As popular as ever and whenever there's a get-together she has to produce one. Maybe when they reach their teens, she won't have to do it. I had a nice IT chat with Steve and he was saying he really likes is new Sony Viaio laptop. He also is pleased with the 'siteadvisor' prog., it certainly is an acquisition. David has installed it on his School PC.

We ate just before 7pm and Andy had done a fine job. After eating I decided to leave so I could drive home while there was still some light. I'm OK driving in the dark but, when I'm alone in the car, I find it stressful nowadays. When I arrived home I texted Y to say I had arrived safely because she is having a sleep-over so she can help sort things out in the morning. I booted up my lappy and answered some emails. Nice exchange with Bob who had sent my 'Hunstanton view' picture to Emma, and asked if that was OK. I was flattered that he had sent it, and it was courteous of him to seek an OK. He sent me some excellent pictures which demonstrate what you can do, painlessly, with Picasa. Also had a 'google-talk' exchange with Ray who has had umpteen probs with his PC. And I thought it was only novices like me who had them! We didn't discuss it but I wonder if it is anything to do with PCWorld fitting him extra memory?