Sunday 19th July

We woke around nine, the dogs were howling again, at least they had not howled during the night for a change, we have a whole week of this before they are due to go. I had a little stuff to do online, the farm and Saturdays blog and ant wanted to get some phone calls in, so we had a nice relaxed morning. Ironically, on a political chat show in the background as i was on the computer, an identical discussion to the one i had had the previous night was happening, it must be the topic of the moment.

We set off to Hesdin at about 12:40 in the afternoon for Marion's birthday bash at Maggie's house. just as we pulled in to park i spotted Marion heading around the corner to the house laden with her little dog Nessie and a dog carrier, by the time we had parked and caught up with her she was already through the front gates. We first met Marion (the one with blond hair, Maggie is the one with brown hair) when we started looking for a house in the area, we were on a holiday and wandered into Maggie's estate agents and found Marion sitting behind a desk, we sat and chatted to her for a couple of hours and she answered all our questions on house buying and living in the area, it then turned out the Maggie, the owner of the agency was married to a British Airways cabin crew member who ant knew and had flown with years ago. we ended up buying our house through the agency and have never looked back, we have become ever closer friends and they have always been there to help in any situation we have found ourselves in.

When we arrived there was only the four of us there, so we had a bit of a catch up, it's hard to peg Marion down to a social event since she is such an independent spirit, but she and Maggie are such good company it's always a pleasure to get together with them. The rest of the guests arrived, Sandra and Jim (who i think i have already mentioned previously), Rodger; a Bichon Frisé breader, Rosemary; an ex trolly dolly, and two people we had never met before who were staying at Rosemary's holiday rental property. Maggie is a great hostess and had done a seventies style buffet which was as good as always, i was famished so pigged out a bit and enjoyed myself immensly, especially on the guacamole which you can't really buy here.
The afternoon passed very pleasantly, the conversation was good and the booze liberal, though i was driving so only had a lager. Maggie and her husband Mike have a beautiful home just off the main square in Hesdin, their garden is totally enclosed and you would hardly know you are in the center of the town. Marion's little dog, a Bischon Frisé, Nessie, running around the garden and having a wail of a time, and the guests chatting and drinking and generally making merry. by five o'clock people started to make a move but i could tell Maggie was still in the party mood so we stayed for a while longer, back to the four of us again. They are very excited at the prospect of our trip to Australia so the chat was made up of that and many other area's of life here that affect us all. Eventually, about ten in the evening, we set off home, the poor dogs having been shut in all that time, so needless to say they were ecstatic to have us home, and to get fed.
When we got home there was a message on the phone, it was David, Mark had collapsed on Saturday and had been taken into hospital, he has a blood condition and was saying to me the other day he would have to go into hospital soon for a transfusion. David didn't seem too bothered by the event, only that Mark had left a bag of shopping at the supermarket and could i take him to pick it up, i asked if he wanted to visit Mark in hospital but he said he wasn't bothered! After this we phoned gran, i try to phone every Sunday evening as she does not generally see anyone on a Sunday and it gives her a little company, as usual she did not have a great deal to say to me but was chatting to ant for ages, eventually i got him to agree to phone her on Monday to carry on their conversation as by this time i was ready for bed.

The end of another day, a strange day all in all, we had had a lovely time at Maggie's but then i was a little upset at David's attitude towards Mark being in hospital, i know if ant was taken into hospital anywhere in the world i would be on the next available flight to be with him and vise versa, it seems such a pity that after forty years being together that is the attitude, but it's their relationship so, there's nowt as queer as folk and all that

bye for now