Escapisms

The match on Saturday was once again watched in The Royal Oak and I had reserved a table again for the 5 or so of us. I went into town prior to the match and so on to go and pick up my boots that I invested in and did a couple of other bits and pieces in town that I needed to do before I leave. Thankfully the boots fitted and I got a new pair of the orthopaedic innersoles that I use in nearly all my shoes as the others that I have are all in need of binning as the top layer is peeling off and they hum!! Despite the heat I wore them for the rest of the day to start trying to wear them in, I can just see that I will be covered in blisters if I don’t!

I was starting to head back up to start walking down to The Royal Oak and I heard some fantastic music coming from near the Abbey and went to investigate – there was a group of African singers and dancers from Zimbabwe outside the Pump Rooms and they were fabulous, in the warm sunshine and less than 2 weeks from going out to South Africa and on route to the next Lions match against the Western Province in the pub the timing could not have been more perfect. I stood there for quite a while listening to them and soaking up the beauty of the beats. I ended up in actually buying one of their CDs as I was starting to run a little late and the others were nearly at the pub and I was still stood there just listening!

So once again we were in the back room on the skittle alley and it was lovely to spend another match in the company of Jimmer, Stace and HG but also Paddy who had come down from London to join us for some rugby watching and was clearly getting withdrawal symptoms from not being amongst us all! We all got the food in and the pitchers – mine of Pimms theirs of Fosters. God that first beer is going to taste SOOOOO sweet! It was another sweltering Saturday and I remembered that the last time we had no through flow of air and so I opened the door at the back as well as at the front of the room and it certainly helped.

Another interesting performance which was pretty close to put it mildly. Not too impressed with Mr Powell after todays match I have to say. Mighty relieved that Shane Williams never actually made it off the bench as a scrum half (Blair was injured and so he was there as a last min replacement). We won but the skin of my teeth, the weather in Cape Town looked awful, that really nasty swirling clouds and with the heat I can’t see how it really made a very good playing surface, but hey ho – we won – 5 from 5 now. Please let us be able to complete the rest of the series with the same record. We stayed on for a few more drinks after the match and catch up on all things Bath rugby and life in general. I made plans for next weekend with Stace and Jimmer as I really don’t want to watch the first test on my own and I am meant to be going to Ellie and Greg’s BBQ in the evening which I have said temporarily maybe to as I am taking Sky back to Granny and Grandpa so as I am not having to chase her around the house on Wednesday evening or even Thursday morning. I can’t fit her and Simon in the car anyway on Thursday morning. But we are going to watch the match together and then we will all go over to Ellie and Greg and,bless them they will drop me home after. None of us really want to be too late and they won’t be able to stay too late because of Blue. Brilliant. That means I don’t have to worry about not having enough time to pack and so on and so forth and STILL get to see my friends. I must remember to email Simon at the Royal Oak to see if he can squeeze us in on a table somewhere, I have a feeling not at this late stage – if so happy to watch it at home with the Jimmer and Stace really!

I had a really nice relaxed evening catching up with this (obviously – see previous entry!!) and writing a list of all of the things that I wanted to do on Sunday. Cooked supper – that was a first and caught up on tv curled up with Sky on the sofa. What fabulous company. Made me think that I am really going to miss not having Sky around whilst I am away – sad isn’t it! Just in case anyone thinks I might miss them – NOT A CHANCE!!!! Sunday was spent hoovering, cleaning, washing, ironing, de-fleeing, gardening, reading, cooking, sewing and of course packing!!! – God I am getting old!! I felt way chilled come the evening having had a productive day for once and got a hell of a step closer to actually being somewhat ready to go a week on Thursday. Cor the time is flying by now! I had a lovely long bath too and noticed how stupid my tan lines looked after wearing a vest top rather than a v-neck and it stang – like big time. Lets hope it goes down later in the week when I hit the pool again!