Wednesday 17th April 2019

With the caravan safely stored at Monte Parc, we set off on the 29th of March for Malaga airport to catch our British Airways flight to Gatwick to commence our house sit back in the UK. Mark & Jacqui were off to Thailand for a much needed holiday and we had agreed to house and cat sit for the duration.

Departing Malaga

A near 3 hour flight and 40 minute train ride later we arrived at our new ‘home’ for the next 2½ weeks or so.

On arrival the weather was good and our charges were relaxed and waiting for us 🙂

Frank, resting in the sunshine

Later in the day, Ralph by the wood burner

A walk along the beach toward Climping over the weekend to visit the café for lunch revealed coastal defences that were on land a year ago and now stand isolated 30 feet or so out to sea.

Ruined Coastal Defences (picture courtesy of M. Nash)

We waved off Mark & Jacqui on Tuesday morning and spent the next few days with domestic chores and ordering some caravan spare parts that I needed and replacement flip-flops that were stolen from me in Camping Las Lomas 🙂

With Elliot present at Cottage Farm for the weekend, we made our way up, in Jacquis’ Mini (loaned for the duration, thanks 🙂 ), to Matthews flat to give us the  opportunity for visits to family in the area. Unfortunately, Matthew would not be there because he was attending a stag do in Las Vegas.

Matthew in Vegas

Most of the weekend passed with Kim spring cleaning Matthews place whilst I binged watched the new Our Planet series on Netflix on Matts’ new 65 inch 4k TV 🙂 Also a couple of visits to Kims’ folks including a Sunday roast with Paul & Jenny.

Back to Middleton-On-Sea  on Monday in preparation for a visit from my son Paul and the kids on Tuesday.

Paul duly arrived and we walked on the beach and then retired to The Beresford Arms, narrowly avoiding a hail storm, for dinner and the odd pint or three.

Grandad, Ben, and dog Winston on the beach

Next day we embarked on a long walk down to Climping but the cafeteria was closed, so, with more hail threatening, we diverted to The Oystercatcher for lunch, and, of course, the odd pint 🙂

On Friday we made our way back to Matthews to stay the weekend as he was now back from Las Vegas.

Meanwhile, in steamy Phuket the visitors, and their host, were failing to keep their cool 🙂

Cesca, Carole, Mark & Jacqui in Phuket

Back Bognor way again, and we were visited on Thursday by Kims’ friend Cally and her son Arthur. If Carlsberg made kids they would be like Arthur 🙂

Cally & Arthur

With Elliot declaring that he was staying home for the foreseeable future we were able, on Friday, to make our way over to my folks place in Tunbridge Wells for lunch before again making our way, via Epsom, to Matts place again for the weekend.

I was given the chance to visit the magnificent new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday with Glenn, Zac, and Jake. A fine 4-0 win over Huddersfield was the cherry on the cake.

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

Zac, Jake, and mascots

On Monday we made our way back to Sussex to prepare for our return to Malaga.

On the way we dropped in to visit Karen & Martin and went out to The Thomas Lord for a nice lunch. As we said our goodbyes we were given a lovely homemade malt loaf and excellent marmalade. Thanks! 🙂

UK house sit over, we stayed last night at Gatwick and flew into Malaga this morning and spent the rest of the day reloading the car and tidying the caravan, ready to continue our tour tomorrow.