Last night I lost a toe nail. Okay, I didn’t actually lose it, I knew exactly where it was and what had happened to it.....it literally fell off when I was painting my toe nails. No, I lie, it didn’t fall off, it was precariously hanging off and as I didn’t want to ‘catch it’ on anything or knock it, I was forced to grab hold of it, grit my teeth and ripped it off. You see it was still clinging on for all it’s worth to the skin at the side of my toe. I can honestly say it brought a tear to my eye, not to mention a certain amount of blood. So the middle toe on my left foot is now bereft of its nail and I must say, looked totally out of place in amongst my nicely painted toes. Of course I didn’t leave it like that, I couldn’t could I? So I waited for the bleeding to abate, for the pain to numb, had a bottle of Prosecco and painted the skin. Well, what else could I have done? I would just like to point out that the bottle of Prosecco was a miniature given to me (Maice also got one) by Jane H to aid us with our packing.
As packing goes, it took just two and a bit days to complete and there was no Hokey Cokey packing on this occasion. No, it went in, it stayed in. So, I started on the Wednesday evening after the cinema.....we went to see Christopher Robin and loved it. It’s the most charming and gorgeous film I’ve seen in a long time, you really must go and see it. I digress though. I carried on packing on Thursday after the hairdressers and finished on Friday morning after dropping Millymou at her favourite Home and Away cattery, under the command of her Aunty Paula (of course she’s not really her aunt). Having spoken to Maice on Thursday she’d started and finished her packing within hours on Thursday, and was totally fed up with the packing even though she hadn’t spent much time on it! All I can say is it’ll be interesting to see what she’s brought with her!
Talking of Maice, she was picking me up at high noon today. She was ‘chilled’ and in the holiday zone when she arrived having been for a run first thing and done her yoga, second thing. As for me, having returned from the cattery with a quick stop at Lidl’s to pick up something for breakfast I did my Rosemary Conley day 21 of her ‘28 day flat stomach exercise plan’ (not quite there with the flat stomach but I’m working on it. I know I’m only on day 21 of 28 but this is the second time round so I’m really on day 49 and it’s still not flat!!!). Workout complete I sat down to breakfast, pan au chocolate and a croissant and then went about cleaning the flat and watering the plants on the balcony. I’ve got no one coming in to water them so have given them such a good dousing I think I may have drowned some of them. I said a little pray for lots of rain over the next 10 days.....here that is, not Corfu!
Finally Maice arrived and we sat in the car outside my house for fifteen minutes while we faffed about, checking we’d got everything and taking the obligatory selfie. SatNav Steve was plugged in and raring to go. I say that tongue in cheek. He’d not been used for a while so getting him to wake up and cooperate was a bit of an ordeal at first. Eventually we heard his Australian dulcet tones and knew our holiday adventure was about to begin. We set off down the road and blended into the lunchtime bank holiday traffic.
We were rather surprised at the route chosen by SatNav Steve to take us to Bristol airport. Not a route he’d taken us before which certainly wasn’t the quickest, particularly as we were stuck in traffic in Yeovil. Thankfully we’d given ourselves plenty of time , although we did think back to the time we gave ourselves ‘plenty of time’ when driving up to Gatwick on our way to Santorini (which I must add was the reason we started our holiday blogs in the first place) and where it took us three hours to get out of Dorset!!!!! Ah what a drive that was......I think it’s the only time I’ve driven 100mph on a U.K. motorway. Thankfully it got us there with minutes to spare!
Can you believe that SatNav had taken us through Shelton Mallet, a place we said we’d never return to having stopped there on our last journey to Bristol airport. We didn’t stop I hasten to add but just kept on driving through this ‘quaint little English country town’!
Arriving at Bristol airport three hours before take-off we first had to deal with the new system of checking in our bags using a self-serve machine rather than one of those declining check-in desks with a clerk who sits behind the desk and does it for you. It’s actually quite straight forward but we did have to ask for assistance, twice. We had been deliberating whose bag was heavier......I thought mine was about 18kilos and Maice thought hers was 15. We had an allowance of 23kilos, which is quite good for EasyJet. Anyway, Maice’s weighed 15.9k and mine was just 14.5k!
I managed to get through passport control without a) being frisked or b) having my luggage checked but Maice succumbed to both. She even had her flip flops checked, although what was supposed to be stashed in the very thin sole is anyone’s guess. We concluded that it was her underwired bra that did it. Of course, as I went to assist Maice after her ‘ordeal’ I stubbed my toe on the side of the desk. Out of the ten toes on my feet it was Sod’s law that I stubbed the one without the toenail. So not only is it now without a nail but it’s sporting a cut, has turned bright red and is starting to swell a bit! I know things come in three’s but let’s hope that’s the last of it!
We’d reserved the Inspire Lounge due to the fact that last time we were at Bristol airport we spent a fortune so this time we pre-paid our £25pp to eat and drink as much as we could. Eager to get our money’s worth we enjoyed four glasses of wine.....each, a couple of small plates of food, water and we think we covered our costs quite adequately. What a bargain, and we had comfortable seats!
We were now super chilled, if not a bit squiffy from our alcohol consumption, made it onto the plane where Maice promptly fell asleep, mouth slightly ajar, and had a wee doze. After an uneventful flight, unless you can say my constant sneezing was eventful, it wasn’t until we reached passport control that Maice realised she’d left her Canadian water bottle on her seat. Thankfully she had another two at home, although what good that’ll do her at this moment in time is anyone’s guess.
We found our transfer coach, sat on it for at least an hour waiting for two people to arrive before setting off to Aghios Georgious and the Bruskos Hotel. We arrived an hour and nine stops later at 1.30am! It had been a long day......goodness knows how we’ll get on when we go to Australia. Anyway, that’s for another blog. Our friends, Pearl and Dianne had set their alarms and were at the gates to ‘meet and greet’ us. Ah it’s good to see them.
Maice and I got to our rooms and started to unpack, but not before stubbing my poorly toe yet again, this time on the knob protruding from the floor in front of my part of the wardrobe. What a stupid place to put it......but then again, we are in Greece.
Καληνύχτα......xx
.....and we’re sending special birthday greetings to Carole in Canada. As you’re ten hours behind us here in Greece (now 2.30am) you’ve still got plenty of celebrating left to do!!🥂🍾