We had record numbers for this talk. Might have been due to Mel's charisma or it could have been because it was a free event.
Mel kindly gave his time free of charge and it was an engaging and very informative talk. I had the pleasure of introducing him and it was an introduction with a difference for me. We are good mates (often found chewing the cud on Friday lunchtimes in the Queen's Head) and as you all know, in Norfolk when you like somebody you insult them. It's just our sense of humour.
So I introduced Mel by insulting him and telling everyone that I had rumbled the fact that they had all turned out because 1/ the library was warm, 2/ it was a free event and 3/ there were sausage rolls, cake and coffee at the end.
Upshot is we will be inviting Mel back for a follow up session in the future.
At the end of the talk I was approached by two bloggettes who wanted to say hello, have a chat and tell me how much they enjoy my dribblings. This was, as always, much appreciated. I may go on a national and international tour (not really).
But back to the holiday and we start today with part six getting through the airport and to our apartment.
Now I don't know about you but some flights play merry hell with the old ears. Having a head cold really didn't help and by the time we landed I couldn't hear very much at all which isn't necessarily a bad thing. But on this occasion it made it difficult as the passport control person seemed to want to chat with everyone. We've been through some stern and quite frankly rude frontier people- particularly in Moscow and New York. On one of our last cruises we had to go through passport control to get into St Petersburg. We had a competition on our table in the restaurant to see if anyone could get a smile out of the person checking our passports. To that end we all went through different channels and we all failed spectacularly.
But at Madeira Mr L. Costa (he had a name badge on) wanted to be pleasant and ask us about our holiday and a number of other things, all with a beaming smile. The only thing he fell short on was providing us with a cup of coffee ( I may have to explain that joke - Costa coffee).
And so the paranoia was being replaced with tiredness. Everything had gone smoothly. So smoothly that something was bound to go wrong with the pick up. But no there was a lady holding a notice that said Anne Steward. I would have preferred it to have said The Other Four Fifths but you can't have everything.
As we sped along the freeway or whatever they call them in Madeira we made good progress despite what our driver (whose real name we suspect is Louise Hamilton due to the speed at which she drove) described as rush hour on the outskirts of Funchal. She's obviously never tried driving on the M25.
We went through numerous road tunnels that we remembered from our previous visits and then started to climb up and up and up to where we are staying which I believe I'm correct in saying is the highest point of the island.
It was just as we remembered. The welcome glass of Madeira wine and honey cake, the fact that you have to go down floors from the clubhouse to get to the swimming pools and the restaurant, the steep climb up many steps to reach the apartments, the stunning sea views from the balcony. It was all there.
Last time we were here we were with eldest son and he did the driving, something he offered to do and then I think regretted making the offer. This time we have made the conscious decision not to hire a car but to use buses and shuttle services.
Our apartment was also exactly as I remembered. But there was no time to waste if we were to catch the restaurant before it closed. And we did. My burger was scummy and just what I needed. A double burger with ham and cheese and a load of salad. And Martin was still there. On our last visit Martin and our Chris traded insults on a regular basis due to the fact that both are follicly challenged. I seem to remember the word slaphead being bandied about, although they seemed to get on fine.
And that pretty much ended our travelling day. Paranoia has been cast aside for a week. Breathe and relax.
*. *. *
So onto day one of the holiday (or day two if you count travelling day as day one). I like to have a scheme and aim for the day eg tomorrow is a relaxing day when we will get to know where we are and sit on the balcony staring at the sea.
Other days will be designated trip days to see the island and others shuttle bus days to the capital. It's all horribly worked out and regimental but I have to know what I'm doing the next day.
And it takes a good three to four days to de-stress and relax and then that only leaves a couple of days for paranoia to strike back in although return trip paranoia is nowhere near as strong as outward paranoia. Firstly you get picked up and dropped at the airport which is much quieter, only dealing with a few flights every day and then if you miss trains after the flight you just get the next ones and the only bad thing is you get home later than planned.
But that's all in the future. Yesterday we breakfasted on the terrace as it was sunny and around 20 degrees whereas at home I believe it was sunny and three degrees (when will I see you again? That's not a question but a song by the Three Degrees). Then quite an active morning with paddle tennis and bowls and lunch by the pool. My life seems to get harder by the minute.
After lunch we had a walk up a steep incline to a viewing point. Everything changes, nothing stays the same. Last time we were here you walked up to the viewing point and looked over the island and also downwards through a see through plastic piece. That was then and this is now. There are now souvenir stalls, a cafe and they charge you 2 Euros to go to the viewing point.
So we didn't, although we did have an ice cream at the cafe. We decided to go to a nearby village for an evening meal and they kindly sent a car for us and thankfully took us home again. Now this was a strange place. It served meat. Meat with meat and meat with more meat, except for the fact that three of our party had fish. I had a huge skewer of beef and other tables were having even bigger skewers.
The menu was interesting. It had a starter entitled "a dose of German sausage" which sounds more like a complaint than food or maybe something else. Our waitress was friendly and charming and told us she was actually a maths teacher and had spent two years in Guernsey. Unfortunately her written English wasn't good enough to sustain things. Well you'd think she might have pointed out a strange piece of maths on the menu. A dose (they seem to like this word) of ham was 10.99 Euros whilst half a dose of ham was 9.99 Euros.
Just one final piece of fun for the day. In looking through the DVDs you could hire, I came across Call The Midwife which was filed under "comedy". I'm making no comment on that.