WHAT I DID ON MY HOLIDAYS!

I've been to England - where else could I have taken a photo like this in an otherwise sober museum?
We had planned to go on Brighton Pier but it was raining heavily, so Brighton Museum in the grounds of the Pavilion got our vote instead.
The first thing my elder grandson noticed was the grey metal chair just inside the entrance. It looked fun but the question that popped into my mind was "Why?"

There are various rooms filled with thousands of things, including ethnic outfits from New Ireland. No, I had never heard of it either, but the map showed it to be an island somewhere near New Zealand.


The coat was more like a rug, and heavy enough to make a child sag at the knees.


The boys loved the fact that you could actually try things on without getting into trouble.






In the Local History Room we learned that the Palace Pier was preceded by a Chain Pier that succumbed to a storm just as the West Pier did some years ago.
There is an Egyptian Room where you can help to embalm a mummy by removing it's insides - only on screen, of course!
Lots of lovely china, ancient and modern, and so many artefacts that we will have to go back. That's not a problem, even with a family, because it's FREE!

And then, to [please my family of addicts, we went to help the Lego shop celebrate it's 10th birthday.

When I returned to Tenerife people asked, as they do, "How was England - cold and wet?"  Well, yes it was for a couple of days, as this bedraggled dove bears witness, but we didn't let that stop us enjoying ourselves. Most of our fortnight was lovely.

URGENT! - missed the post!

UNLESS I get my finger out I shall have failed in the last stretch of the A-Z Challenge. It was only because I was reading other blogs that I realised somewhere along the line I have lost track.
Of course it could be because I have had absolutely no inspiration for the letter U.

USELESS -As you will know if you've been following my ramblings, I am in the middle of a rewrite, and my brain has be totally USELESS today. Typing errors on every line - and my fingers used to spell so beautifully - so if I don't pull my socks up the book will come to a grinding halt.

UK There are many advantages to living in Tenerife. The climate is kinder on arthritic joints, for one thing – we know of one man who arrived here on crutches and within months was teaching badminton again. The cost of living is lower, as long as you go native and don’t do all your shopping in stores that import everything from the UK. We have fleeces but no winter coats, we don’t even possess wellies, and the beer and wine is cheap.

The downside is that we left friends and family behind – it is ironic that the first long word we learned from our flash cards was desgraciademente = UNFORTUNATELY. The space we left in the UK has filled up now, of course. Friends are pleased to see us when we go over, but we don’t share the minutӕ of daily life in common any more, and those friendships are fading.

We left six children there too, and four grandchildren. Since then three more grandchildren have been born and are growing up without us. So when people ask, “Do you regret moving?” obviously expecting the answer to be “No”, we tell them this - if we had the money we would go back. Our hearts are still there.

UNSOLD. 

There is a veritable rash of unsold apartments everywhere we go. “¡Oportunidad!” the posters scream from the balconies. We know it means another family has lost the battle to pay their mortgage. It also means that our property had lost value and we are unable to raise enough to return the the UK.

UNEMPLOYMENT in Spain is around 26% - in Tenerife it’s worse, and el paro (dole) doesn’t cover the mortgage for long. No wonder the camp-sites and caves are filling up. Out by the basura at night, it’s not just tramps you see dumpster-diving for food, or clothes, or anything that might raise a euro or two at the Sunday flea-market.

and for those who appreciate a laugh - here is a photo I took yesterday in Las Gattetas.

STILL HERE

A quick post from England just to prove I'm still alive!
Simply to be woken up that first morning by a grandson saying, "Can I come in with you, Nanny Liz?" was worth the trip.
Yesterday I walked up to the village in the rain - a rare treat after the drought in Tenerife - and stopped in a very English tea-shop to wait out a downpour. You enter this shop through a florist and step carefully over floral arrangements to enter the cafe half of the two-woman business. You can choose where to sit from a variety of odd tables and chairs, or sit in the overgrown garden when the weather is nice. There are huge home-made sponge cakes under glass domes, and the slices they serve are enormous. Last time I was there I had a sandwich with smoked mackerel pate, made by the fishmonger next door, and it came in fresh granary bread from the baker next to him.
I have picked out a couple of houses for sale - all I need is a lottery win!