Who knows? We haven’t left yet have we? But most of you will know that pork pies, martini, soppy films that make me cry, the terrace out the back of The Bull at Linton, bacon sandwiches with brown sauce, Pepper the budgie, and electric boogaloo dancing will all be sorely missed.

Actually, I don’t think we’ll miss any of this apart from Pepper (and the brown sauce, but not together). The really difficult part of going away for our little JWalking trip is that we will miss our boys and their girls dreadfully. In all honesty they are the only reasons that could have prevented us from going but their unconditional support and encouragement have made it much easier for us.

We’ll be back for the odd week or two at different times as we take breaks from JWalking and obviously email/skype/whatsapp/carrier pigeon/etc as much as possible but we will still miss them all so much.

Trying not to be too soppy here so need to move on quickly……………..

The weekend saw us with a houseful as Shaun and Katie, Sam and Tabitha, Ryan and Ella all came over for a few drinks and a meal out and something a little bit strange! After arriving we got them settled in the living room before we started ‘The Great Ringwood Tombola‘.

This involved the bulk of our remaining belongings being piled up high in the middle of the room for those invited to choose what they wanted. Everything had to go! Storage boxes, ornaments, christmas decorations, crockery, clothes ……. everything. The serving dishes for sunday lunch went as did the jumper that Jo was actually wearing, along with my treasured subbuteo and favourite novel. There were a few minor ‘discusions’ with their partners over why on earth they wanted that ‘stuff’ but a lot was gratefully received (I think). The funniest moment was reserved for a little later when after carrying all of his tombola goods out to the car, Shaun actually reversed over the top of them! Not sure he’ll ever hear the last of that.

So everything that’s left will either be dumped at the weekend or charity-shopped including the furniture. By Thursday next week we should just have a suitcase and a backpack each to take JWalking. Let’s see how that goes?

Anyone want a chest of drawers? Oh no, sorry. Jo gave that away yesterday and now all of my socks and pants are stored in Tesco carrier bags!!

May 2015