An amazing weekend.

 

Dear family, friends and followers.

I am doing my best to climb down off cloud Nine, but after the weekend I have just had it will be very difficult. Most of us know that Storm Alex came in on Friday, bringing us copious amounts of water. I reckoned that the angels had had enough showers for the rest of this century, with the amount of rain we had. The rain however did not stop the excitement and fun to come on Friday, with the arrival of my brother Tim and his wife Melba.

Tim and Melba drove up from the south in the lashing rain. They came across two lots of accidents and a caravan on fire, so their journey was not without incident. Having got themselves settled they came and met us and we all walked to The Cape of Good Hope pub, where we were booked in, because of Covid-19, I had to book a table and we had to wear a mask until we were seated at our table. If at anytime we left the table, we had to put our masks back on. They supplied each table with hand sanitiser and you could either order on their app or someone would take your order and they were all masked up. Having been seated at our table, and our order taken, we had one heck of a lot of catching up to do, because Tim and I had not seen each other for 35 years, yes I did say 35 years. It is a long and sometime very painful tale and I will not bore you, except to say family issues. Anyway we have been in touch with other for years on Facebook and then with the death of our wonderful Mum, it spurred us into action and a meeting was arranged. We both say it my Mum's last act of love for us, to make sure we got back together. We had a wonderful evening, of chatter, laughter, beer and a fantastic meal. After two hours we had to leave to allow the next customers in who had booked our table, because the table and surrounding area had to be sanitised before they could sit down. Back onboard the boat, we carried on the chatter until gone 10pm, Tim and Melba then went back to their hotel for the night.

Saturday the plan was to take a walk around Warwick and the sights, but as you will see from the photographs it was extremely soggy, but we did not let this stop us. We donned our coats, picked up the umbrella's and off we went.

We wandered around the market, whilst Keith picked up his glasses from the Optician and then headed off to get a coffee at Coffee #1. We then thought we would take a walk down to the bridge over the River Avon which gives you a great view of Warwick Castle. 

By this time the rain was lashing down and the motorists were playing a game of soak the pedestrian. I can honestly say we were well and truly soaked and so decided to call it a day and head home. Tim and Melba went back to their hotel to dry out and change and we sorted ourselves out on the boat. I was wet from head to foot, mainly due to motorists splashing me. Later in the afternoon, Tim and Melba came back to the boat, where we enjoyed an amazing Thai takeaway from our favourite restaurant Totally Thai.

We even opened a bottle of Champagne and gave a toast to Mum. It was a bottle of champagne bought for her 82nd birthday, but she could not drink it as she was in the hospice and very poorly, so we drank it for her. Yet another wonderful day getting to know my brother again and his lovely wife. Tim is Fourteen months younger than me and is over a foot taller than me, which always makes me giggle. It was once again late before they left to get to their hotel.

This morning they came back to the boat for breakfast, because Saturday's breakfast at the Premier Inn was not at all good. I cooked us a full English breakfast with toast and coffee and we were all set up for the day.

It was sod's law that about fifteen minutes before they left us to travel home the rain finally stopped and we were able to take some photographs outside.

So happy to have my brother back in my life and we both know that Mum would be over the moon and then some.

Melba is such a delight and so good for my brother. It is wonderful to have her in my life and I cannot wait to get to know them both more over the coming weeks, months and years. Being estranged from ones family through no fault of your own is just the worst thing and makes you feel as though you are totally worthless. I missed out on so much because of it and I will not let it happen again, even if someone else has other ideas. I am so grateful to have this chance with my brother and his wife, we are going to bring so much joy into each others lives and hopefully at some point they can meet up with my family and we can celebrate again.

Having family issues is something we probably all go through at some point in our lives. It can wreck the love that you had for those you love. If you are going through a similar thing and really wish you could be back in touch with your family. I will say do not leave it too late. Just do it, even if some in your family try to stop you, because one day your loved one will be gone and you will never get that chance again.

Pop back soon xxx