Wednesday 20th Jan

Up at the usual time, made a coffee and went online, did my online bits, ant came down and we chatted over coffee. Ironically i heard on the radio that Peter Goers will be back on ABC next week and i won't be here to listen to him. I had a browse through property for a good while with ant ohhing and ahhing at each new build design. At twelve thirty i started making the dinner, roast chicken with all the trimmings, which we enjoyed immensely. After lunch we headed out for a walk with the girls, it was just starting to hailstone when we left, we walked up to Humieres and back, during the walk it started snowing and by the time we got back the whole landscape was covered in snow, and ant me and the dogs. We got back at about four thirty and then started on having a bath and getting ready for our evening out, i had my usual crisis of what to wear, 'does this make me look fat' he is very good he always says i look good even though we both know the answer is 'yes that does make you look fat but it's not the outfit!'. I had a good long chat on the phone with Andrew in Scotland, it has been a little while since i spoke to him. I sorted out the kennals for the dogs and emailed to make the final arrangements for our holiday rental next week.
We headed out to Hesdin just before seven and met up with Maggie and Mike, Jackie and Tony at Maggie's place, we all settled down to a drink, Maggie and Mike gave ant a birthday present, a lovely man bag, which he was ecstatic about, and we all admired the new decor of Maggie's beautiful grand salon, very tasteful! After a couple of drinks we headed down to Abbeville for the bowling. The place was really busy with local bowling clubs but we got a lane and had a couple of really enjoyable games, plenty of good hearted banter flying about. I started weakly then found my form, then lost it again. Ant came last in the first game, i was second, and he was first in the second, i won on overall score. About half way through the second game Tony started to realise his dream of a big mac was slipping away as the clock got to 10.45, his game suffered dramatically and by the time we finished we were too late, McDonalds was shut, and we were all hungry, not to worry, supper hostess Maggie rose to the challenge.
We headed back to Hesdin and decamped to Maggies house where she busied herself in thier stunning kitchen, i assisted cutting up veg for a salad, she has really lovely knives! About ten minutes later we were all sat down to spaghetti Bolognaise, salad and pita breads, i don't know how she manages always to create a lovely meal at the drop of a hat, i know if six people dropped in on me expecting to be fed they would get a much worse fare. We sat ate and chatted till two in the morning and then she kicked us all out, she did have to get up for work the next day. We headed home, i had a fight with the garage door but eventually won, then we all went to bed, dogs with us on the bed, Banjo did her usual refusal to sleep outside the covers so ant let her under the duvet where she warmed his feet.