The first decision was to sell first and to buy second. This is much easier when you have another house to live in. There were decisions to make, however and this took some time and several visits to Cambridge.
However, first, we had to celebrate our wedding anniversary followed closely by John's 70th birthday and that had to be in style.
We went to our usual hotel at L'Escala in northern Spain, for our wedding anniversary.
As usual, we stoped to admire the band. A couple came along and stoped to look at them, but they were interested in just one person in the back row, third from the left - it was his grandfather and so we leant that the band was a real group.
John always takes me to one of the many 12th centre villages in the ares on the way back where we have lunch. This was no exception. This village is Viliamaniscle.
John knew that I had plans for his birthday, but not the details, other than we would meet his cousin Sandra in London, that we would spend his birthday with our grandsons and that there would be a 'grownup' get together.
However. just before we were about to leave, a second cousin of John arrived nearby and so we had a meal together in Valras Plage before they continued on their way home to Dublin.
A few days later, we flew to Edinburgh and were picked up by John's youngest niece, Katherine who lives near Glasgow with her family: Frank, Lauren and Louise.
We spent two days with them and particularly enjoyed a visit to the botanical gardens in Glasgow.
We travelled to London by train and checked in to a hotel in Covent Garden where Sandra always stays on her London visit. We browsed around the shops in the afternoon and then went on to a restaurant,Tredwell', where John's next surprise was waiting: our friends Jill and Terry who have a house near us in Thezan. The meal would have been excellent, if the main courses had been hot, but we had a very enjoyable meal together.
The next day, Saturday, we wandered around the shops in Covent Garden before Sandra arrived from Belfast. We were due to eat at the Yotem Ottolonghi restaurant, Nopi (Pat was working down on her restaurant list!) As the time to call a taxi approached. we could see from our hotel window that the journey was not going to be simple. We might manage to find a taxi, but it wouldn't arrive at the restaurant on time: the centre of London was gridlocked! Walking was the only option. We were there at the appointed time and the restaurant was relaxed that evening - many other diners could not make their booked time or had had to cancel. We sat back and enjoyed our meali
We spent Sunday with Sandra, at the British Museum, walking through the City and along the South Bank.
In the late afternoon, We left London and continued to Broadstairs were we had rented our usual flat for a week.
Monday was Lenny's second birthday and we were able to spend a lovely day with him.
The next day, October 3rd, had been planned since April but John only knew that he was going to meet friends at the very last monte. We were to meet John's school friend, Andrew, and his wife Elisa plus university friends Penny and Brian. We ate at the Plum and Split Milk, Kings Cross.
On Wednesday, we celebrated John's 70th birthday in Broadstairs with an afternoon tea at a local teashop with Helen, Ernie and Lenny.
We returned to the Plum and Spilt milk on Thursday with Cambridge friends Simon and Jacqueline Mitton and Rachel and Brian Omotani, then took the train with them to Cambridge for a little more sorting on our house.
The family celebration was at The Salutation in Sandwich. Nick and Helen had reserved a room for us and as we hadn't visited Sandwich before we took the time to wander around the magnificent gardens of the hotel and the town of Sandwich itself.
By the time we had seen the gardens and some of Sandwich, Jim and Sophie had arrived and were then followed by Helen and Nick
We then returned to France and continued the celebrations with our friends at our favourite restaurant in Beziers..
Unfortunately, one friend was unable to join us and so we had to celebrate separately with them in November.
We returned to Cambridge and Broadstairs several times to pack our possessions and make arrangements to leave the house as well as seeing the family. Ernie has developed an interest in golf.
Pat also managed a get together with three of the four 'maths girls' from school - it had been 50 years since we left school.
Although it felt as though everything was moving slowly at the time, from start to agreeing the sale was only 5 weeks and we completed in the first week in January, 2018.
We said our farewells to our home of 43 tears in November, and put only our most treasured items into storage. We also said goodbye to a horse chestnut tree that was planted as a conker by Jim when he was about 2 years old.
Before Christmas via Lyon where we celebrated Pat's birthday. We have rented our usual flat for an extended period. giving ourselves time to find a house near to Helen and family.
Both Jim and Sophie were with us at Christmas
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