Our (Mud) Island Adventure: A winner weekend!

Hello Dear Friends,

This last weekend was a special one for us. Our dear friends Mark and Jo got married in a really lovely service, on the Isle of Wight in a quaint town called Gurnard. Its always wonderful to see two special people tie the knot and this was no exception. We popped over to the Island after work on Friday, making a mad dash from Poole down to Lymington to catch a car ferry. Arriving back on the island was wonderful as we love the place (as we keep telling you). From there we popped in to visit Mark and his family, before going over to Conan and Kerri for a late braai.

Saturday morning was a bit overcast and drizzling but this did not deter Conan from washing his Pajero before the wedding. My car was parked directly behind him and so his two boys decided it would be a good idea to wash my car too. Hmmm. The net result is that Conan and I had to finish what they started, as being boys under 4 years old, they have the attention span of fleas. But that did mean that the cars were nice and shiny for the wedding. No other dramas to report, just that the service and the reception were excellent. It was a long day as the wedding was at 2pm, the main meal at 5pm, then snacks at 9pm. The kids were taken care of in a Wimpy/Spur type soft play area, and the adults were taken care of by the table wine and a bar on the premises serving ice cold beers. Needless to say the end of the evening saw the usual mix of YMCA and other wedding numbers being danced to in a frenzy of wine and beer fuelled enthusiasm. In tribute (or stereotype) to the South Africans, we were treated to some Johnny Clegg and his famous tunes including Impi. The sight of a couple of us trying to do the whole gumboot leg over head thing must have been a little odd for the rest of the wedding. Sammy drove us back to Conan's home safely and the kids co-operated by only waking us up at 8am.

The social butterflys we have become, it was a quick bath and then off to the ferry again to go up to London for lunch. It was our friend Denise's ~~edited~~ birthday and we had a great tappa's meal at a Spanish restuarant in Walton on Thames. Its always such a pleasure to see her and Paul, and we hope to have them down here in Bournemouth for a weekend soon. We were pretty exhausted by the time we got home, but it was a fabulous weekend.

On Monday I had to drive up to Northampton for a meeting. It was a seriously warm day for Mud Island, I was showing 29 degrees on the car temp guage for most of the drive. So on the way home I called Sammy and arranged with her to go down to the beach at Boscombe after work. I got home at about 6.30 and by 7pm we were walking on the beach. This is something honestly I didnt think I would be saying about Mud Island! I mean, we even went and said a special goodbye to the sea when we visited my Dad in Durban in March. The sand is super soft and fine, and the beaches are nice and clean. It was still very busy with people, not bad for a Monday evening, and lots of people were using instant braai's to cook their dinner right there on the beach. That may be taking things a little too far for us, but we are planning a picnic soon, before the summer ends. Having said that, its amazing to be able to walk in a forest next to our home, and then be on a nice sandy beach less than 10 minutes drive from our front door. Its a win! Chat soon to you all, much love, Rich and Sammy