Golden wedding meal at Adamo’s winery: Roger, Chrissy, David, Barbara and Dot

We went to the Greens – insanely or not – and had a very interesting evening with Greek orthodox priest Brendan Pelphrey and his wife Sharon, plus Carrie. Lovely meal and good conversation. Carrie gave us  lift home afterwards.

On the Wednesday we drove to our hotel near Gatwick, and for some reason missed it at first, but found it easily enough when we went back. Quite a pleasant hotel: we had an evening meal there despite reading bad reviews online, and it was fine. Good breakfast in the morning and caught the hotel shuttle to the airport. We were the only people on the shuttle.

We went through all the airport procedures easily enough, had a drink at Starbucks and bought an improved adaptor while walking through to our gate. The trip went pretty well – watched a couple of films – but on leaving the plane Dot must have left her phone behind, because despite many efforts we have been unable to locate it since. She fell over on the way to customs, but we don’t think she dropped it there, though it’s possible.

Baggage reclaim took a couple of hours because of “extreme weather conditions” (rain), and it was at this point that Dot discovered she didn’t have her phone and reported it to Air Transat. No luck, so we eventually emerged into the rush hour with the thousands of others, to be greeted  by huge crowds including Roger and Barbara. Back at Palgrave Circle, we had nibbles outside. Very nice too.

A surprisingly good sleep followed, and in no time at all it was our actual Golden Wedding Anniversary. It was a pleasantly warm day. Dot and I walked to the mailbox in case the airline had sent her phone, but no luck of course. I gave my first lot of completely wrong directions when  a driver asked where Palgrave was (to be followed a couple of days later by the second when a guy in a truck asked me the way to Highway 50, which someone had apparently moved).

Later we drove to Adamo’s winery, about half an hour away, and had a really nice meal with David and Chrissy, who had driven much further. Great to see them. The winery experience included a singer (a blonde with a guitar) and a really nice rosé which Dot and I shared. The cost of it all was shared by David and Roger, which was nice. We swapped cars, so that D & C had a seven-seater to convey all the children home from the airport on Tuesday. Meanwhile in Norfolk it was apparently raining. Quite hard.

The following day (Saturday) was quiet, though I did have a cooked breakfast. Later I walked to the mailbox again (second misdirection), and we had charcuterie, though not at the mailbox. Later we watched a couple of films – Mercury Rising, which I thought was really good, and Miss Sloane, which was less so, though it had its points. We then started watching W1A. We have not finished it yet. Three series.

Sunday was almost entirely dry despite forecasts, but a little cooler. Lyn and Jim came for a a rather spectacular lunch, the details of which now elude me. Jim is a really nice bloke – very upbeat despite having cancer badly in his sinuses and then his arm.

The next day (30th) was pleasantly warm, and we went for a long walk around Island Lake – about six miles plus. The heat made this tiring towards the end, and my legs and feet were having trouble moving at any speed. Fortunately Dot stayed with me as the others forged ahead. Happily we went straight home afterwards, stopping only to buy fruit at a farm shop. I don’t think I could have managed the suggested walk in Orangeville.

August dawned still warm and brought with it the start of an action-filled few days. The children arrived in Canada on the 1st while the four of us at Cedar Mills drove into Toronto (well, as far as York) fairly  late on for a meal at the Cheesecake Factory, which wasn’t bad. The wine was very good. Following this we walked to the cinema for a showing of Mission Impossible: Fallout, which was of course totally impossible but extremely entertaining. Meal and viewing took place in a huge mall which vastly increased our number of steps walked.

Yesterday we drove to Niagara on the Lake, where it was warm but windy. We are staying at the Harbour House Hotel, which is very pleasant in many ways, but has a very loud air-conditioning system, which kept me awake last night. We walked into town and had a drink at Starbucks, then strolled back by the shore of the lake, with the USA a short distance away on the other side (New York state). Later I walked down to the end of our road by the water and took some pictures of baby geese.

At around 5pm we drove to the Two Sisters winery, where we had a first class meal (I had steak and vegetables with croquette, all just right) and excellent wine. Service was very slow, however, and we had to rush to the Shaw theatre, where we saw the musical Grand Hotel, which was set in Berlin in the 1920s and had definite echoes of Brecht-Weill. Extremely well done indeed. We had very good (and very expensive) seats.

It is now late afternoon and I am typing this in the hotel, hoping that Dot will return soon. I can’t contact her, of course. We did a winery tour this morning in the company of some people of a Chinese persuasion and led by Corey, who was excellent in a very enthusiastic way. Barbara was also enthusiastic. We bought her some wine.