Duncan and Jaye’s House, Scarborough to Springwood Haven

Scarborough seagulls always know when we are at home and go out of their way to welcome us back. They are especially good at this in the middle of the night! They started to serenade us at about 3:45am! There are lots of things we miss about Scarborough, but they are not one of them.

Jaye and Duncan were having to work today, so after a bleary eyed cuppa in their kitchen we waved our host, Duncan, goodbye and we headed out of town first to start on the list of jobs to do in Scarborough. A quick appointment at Mick’s doctors only gave me enough time to flatten the back seats of the car for our next task. Mick has treated Oleanna to a second flexible solar panel with some of his birthday money and had arranged for it to be delivered to the theatre last week so that we could pick it up. Knowing that it was likely to be of a size we’d booked the next sized car up from our norm, but would it fit? Jaye helped us out of the theatre, hoping that we wouldn’t be returning within minutes with the very large, yet flat box. We hoped the same as if it didn’t fit we’d be returning in a few days with a van!

Stopping next to the car the length of the box exceeded the space behind the front seats even with the back seats down. But we all know diagonals are longer, so we hoped that we could angle the box to gain more length. This was still about a foot too short! Eek!! Head rests lowered, was there enough width at roof height for the box to slide over the top of the seats? Just. Would the boot then close? Just. Would we be able to sit in the seats? Yes. Would Mick have to drive with his head bent down all the 150 miles back? No, luckily the seat lowered which gave him a touch more head space. Phew we’d managed it, good job it’s a flexible panel!

The poppies I’d been knitting a few weeks ago needed delivering to Dawn and Lee around the corner. We joined them, Lisa and Bill for a cuppa and a quick resume of yesterdays wedding. We were starting to pick up by now, but Dawn was lagging behind a bit in the feeling shabby stakes. Lifts were needed to pick up cars and everyone headed off.

There was now a definite need for food. So there was only one thing to do, a visit to Eat Me. If you are ever in Scarborough it is definitely worth a visit. We didn’t opt for their full breakfast, but a half breakfast each sufficed. Now with fuel in our bellies I popped into my favourite model makers shop, chatted biplanes before we called in at the letting agents to pick up some post. Then a drive by of our house was required to see that Yorkshire Water had returned a front path to how it should be after they’d dug it up to mend a leek. All tasks now done we waved farewell to Scarborough and headed back to Nuneaton.

Tilly was pleased to see us, I was relieved that she hadn’t been overcome by the heat on the boat. I’d followed instructions, stayed low, avoided sitting in the windows, drank lots and found that the coolest place on the boat was actually sitting on the radiator. All was fine, just so long as I could go out now thank you!

Glad we’d decided to leave the fresh food shopping until tomorrow as we both needed a quiet evening.

0 locks, 0 miles, 150 miles by car, 3 more Duncan mentions (4 now, I think that’s enough for a while), 23 poppies, 6 more goodbyes, 1 tight squeeze for a box, 0.5 breakfasts, 2 extra sausages, 3 letters, 2 clean patches of concrete, 1 happy yet disappointed cat, 1 very big parcel to live with, 1 quiet evening on the sofa, 2 big Thank Yous to the Lewis family.