February 2008

February seems to be synonymous with a trip away for the Becks, Spences and McCartens. This year we went to Marrakech for five days. We stayed in a Riad inside the city walls, which was beautifully decorated with food to die for. The bedrooms were somewhat basic as we found when the 6 of us met in one to have an evening nightcap, but we are close friends so it wasn't a problem! One day we had a trip to the Atlas Mountains which was very enjoyable and nearly gained Sheila a new son-in-law. The rest of the time was spent wandering around the city and trying to escape from helpful men who insisted they knew a quick way to where we wanted to go (even when they didn't know where we wanted to go).

January 2008

The New Year started well with a reunion of friends from Challenor Close followed by a party the following week for Carole's 60th birthday. Sarah decided to take us away to a cottage for her Christmas treat, so we went to stay in the Cotswolds in the middle of January. We had a great time chilling out- we even did a jigsaw. We decided against the walk up to Broadway Tower, taking the car instead. We didn't see quite as far as Wales because of the fog, but we did enjoy looking around the Morris Room., before driving on to the Rollright Stones.

December 2007

We spent most of December in Florida finishing the kitchen and entertaining Bob and Hilary for a couple of weeks after their New York trip. The weather was very kind and it seemed rather strange sipping sherry and eating mince pies in temperatures of low 80s, but we wanted to introduce our American friends to one of our traditions. After the first couple of sherries, I noticed it was back to the Bud and wine!

We arrived back in England on Christmas Eve, collected presents and drove to Katy and Mark's, where we spent a lovely Chritmas with them and Sarah. Katy and Mark were perfect hosts and made sure we had plenty of activities to keep us busy when we weren't eating and drinking.