In the key that our souls were singin'

I said to Himself, "it's September" at least five times today. 

We were down in plenty of time for breakfast.  We stay in a little hotel, only 4 rooms.  Yesterday there was a lovely french lady staying and she was pounced upon by the guest who needs to know everything about every body.  Who asks questions and then does not listen to the reply. 

She spoke in "You avez from Paris?  Nous lived in Le Francais por Ten years".   Ten years?  And that is the limit of your french?     "I am a writer, my husband is an artist".   I think they possibly lived in an attic apartment whilst he rubbed his hands in anguish at the difficulty of the path he had chosen. 

The French lady spoke beautiful English, with the perfect accent.  "I do not live in Paris, but, yes I am French, I live in the Languedoc-Roussillon".

'Oooh" said the lady.   'Lovely, but we had an apartment in Reimes, We've been here before, many, many times".   Then lost interest in the French lady, because she was French and knew more about France than she did.   

She then moved to interogate the man next to me - he also had kippers, and she inquired as to how they were, and was he aware that they were "Famous" kippers.   And they came from Craster, it was a fishing village with a smoke room.  

Then it was the manager - "how long have you been here? were you here last year?   Where were  you born?  Where was your child born?   Himself and I bumped tea cups and stared into each other's eyes. Eye contact was not going to be made with this woman. 

We excused ourselves and headed up to pack.  The lady next to Himself, had a slightly funny turn, stood up and appeared to forget where she was.  Her partner, sat her back down, and this distracted nosy woman so much we were able to escape.   The day before she had us all enthralled by her story of meeting a much younger couple on a cruise ship who had become their very best friends and who were coming down to join them for dinner ..... and how many miles it was from their house to Holy Island and how many more miles they were travelling to meet with them.    never saw them. 

When we came back down - she was still holding court.    Dishes were all still laying on the table.   But he broke away to sort out our bill.  Himself pointed out, that it appeared that accommodation had not been billed, and she shouted from the corner, "oh jack, You'll be paying that out of your wages". I turned and glared at her - she was listening in to our conversation from the other side of the room.  How very rude. 

We dropped our stuff in the car and had a wee walk around the village.  The causeway wasn't opening til 1130 so we had a while to wait.   We sat on the beach and watched the sea, and the waves, and passing boats, and then we realised we were seeing cars crossing the causeway. 

We headed back up and round to the car, and headed off. 

We reached Alnwick about 1130 and handed in our 20 books and went to browse. 

When we returned to the check out with another 9 books, it cost us NOTHING, because we received a £30.00 credit for our barter!  Yay!

Si drove all the way.  He is very worried about my leg and thinks driving makes the knee worse.  I feel very loved, but also feel that he is nursing me too much.  I dosed on and off all the way home. 

We stopped in at Supermarket on the way home, grabbed some stuff for dinner, and then snuggled up on the sofa.