Day 16 – 7 July Saturday Malaga/Send

We had to get going early, as our transfer to the airport was scheduled to pick us up at 08:30am.  Our transfer duly arrived and we arrived at the airport in good time for our flight.  I always have a moment of sheer panic as our cases are put on the scale – fortunately we made it through quite easily, but we are pushing the limits here!  And there is still so much shopping to be done… London Summer Sales are happening you know!

We had time to kill at Malaga airport, so swung past Starbucks for a latte and then browsed the shops.  Paula and Cal felt so stupid -  they walked into a large souvenir shop and right at the door was a display of what they thought were chocolate eggs…. They leaned forward to examine them, only to discover that they were very conspicuously examining the latest, greatest Sex toy for men!!! 

Our flight to Gatwick was uneventful.  We have had such brilliant flights so far this holiday – smooth take-offs and landings and hardly any turbulence at all.  Thankfully.

We decided that we really prefer Gatwick to Heathrow, it’s so much calmer somehow and the staff we dealt with were brilliant, we have yet to meet a member of staff at Heathrow who is even vaguely friendly.  If I am lucky enough to ever fly to the UK again (and please, please let it be so!) I will definitely try to fly into Gatwick rather than Heathrow if possible.

Lisa and Trev were waiting for us and Lisa and I already had a genius plan in place – Grant and Trev would head off to “who cares where” and Lisa, Paula, Cal and I would head for the shops  (you can see that Cal is new at this thing… the word “sucker” comes to mind!)  First stop was Lush, where I stocked up on a whole lot of my all-time favourite Karma soap, yay!  Next came Debenhams where I bought my entire Summer wardrobe in 25minutes flat… I do so, so love that shop!  Finally we headed to Primark where it was Paula's turn to go completely moggy.  Cal and Lisa were absolute stars – it must have been quite the ordeal for them, but they quietly followed us around like a couple of beasts of burden, with arms full of clothes, hangers and shopping bags!

We staggered back home to Lisa's and Trevor’s new (well to me anyway) home in Send, where cupcakes, alcoholic ginger beer (what an inspired idea!) and Kelly were waiting for us.  Bliss.

It’s always so nice to reconnect with Lis and Trev and their family, but it also makes me horribly sad….  I so wish we all lived closer together!  Although Lisa and I are in pretty much daily contact via email, and give each other a blow-by-blow account of our lives, it’s not the same as being able to pop in whenever we feel like it…sob, sob.  On the other hand, it’s probably just as well we don’t live around the corner as Lisa is the Cupcake Queen and I would be as round as a ball within a week!

I fell in love with Lisa and Trev’s new home.  There was a squirrel waiting to greet us in the garden as we arrived and that was pretty much me won over before I even set foot inside the door!  Their house is absolute perfection and the area they live in is just gorgeous.  I’d move there tomorrow if I could!

We went for supper in a very traditional pub nearby. 

I just love English pubs - the food, the atmosphere, the dogs, the drink….I could so get used to having a “local” around the corner.  Having finished supper we headed home where Lisa and I had one of her speciality coffees – it’s a bit of a tradition with us, usually it’s Kahlua, but this time it was Baileys?  Amarula?  Something delicious anyway.  And just when I had visions of falling into bed for a rather alcoholic slumber, Grant and Trevor decided that we should go geocaching.  It was dark, it was wet out….. we went geocaching armed with a torch!  Quite crazy, but great fun anyway!  And moderately successful too.