T & T a shaky start.

Monday 10th December. (In the T&T calendar it is Christmas Eve)

Well, what a fiasco the start of this Turkey and Tinsel trip turned out to be. First, the luggage labels went to someone else and it was only because the person in question came to a work party at Langley Mill last Friday that we received them at all. No itinerary was forthcoming so we had no idea what time the taxi would pick us up to meet the coach at Eastwood. A phone call to KM Travel on Saturday and a time of 9.15am to 9.45am was mentioned. Monday morning and after a leisurely breakfast we walked to The Great Northern Pub in readiness for the taxi, t'was a tad after 9am. No sooner had we opened one of the two gates that needed unlocking to get to the back of the Great Northern when we spied the taxi taking off along the road. Blooming 'eck it had arrived early! A good job for us that he turned left from the pub and had to spin around to come back because in doing so I managed to attract his attention. What became of the 9.15/9.45am pickup? Anyway, we arrived at the coach only to be told they had been waiting for nearly 30 minutes and still had another 10 people to pick up in Ilkeston. Oh dear, we were not in their good books. But I blame the lady at KM Travel giving us the wrong time so in a way, I feel we should be exonerated.

After roughly 5 hours we arrived at Torquay. The hotel Belgrave Sands is by far the best we have ever stayed in. The room was big, on the ground floor (a first for us) and best of all a huge bathroom with an extremely large shower for Ian and a bath for me. Since moving onto the boat 12 years ago I haven't had a good soak in a bath so this is going to be pure luxury. The test tomorrow will be if I can get out of it though. Not as agile as I once was, I have visions of me being stuck and Ian having to try and lift me out. Hope this doesn't come to fruition as I don't want to give him a hernia! All will be revealed tomorrow.