As it was Abigail’s last morning with us, as a special treat we thought we’d become detectives and partake in the murder mystery treasure trail around Brixham. According to the bumf it would only take us 90 minutes to solve the crime which was ideal…..we’d set off at 10am so Abigail could then make tracks home at about 12.30pm.
Before we went anywhere we first had to get up and have breakfast. Maice, Jane and I were up first, Jane taking Abigail up a cup of tea in bed. Honestly she’s been as spoilt as Sir Winston on this holiday! Breakfast consisted of sumptuous cheesy scrambled eggs enfused with pieces of delectable salmon strips, served on a piece of toasted buttery bread, washed down with a delectable, smooth fresh orange Juice. This was no ordinary breakfast….this was your M&A finest! Of course Sir Winston was still being very pernickety with his food and had only picked at his breakfast, preferring the sausage and bacon from yesterday morning! Honestly, he’s turning into a right Diva Dog!
Fed and watered we ventured forth down the very steep hill to the starting place, the car park. After the ‘rugby coloured house’ debacle of our last murder mystery trail in York we elected Jane as the narrator rather than Maice and so without further ado she read out clue number one which we found immediately. We continued on around the town, ticking off the clues as we went until we came to clue number eight which called for some logic, which unfortunately, we didn’t have. It went like this….’If Prince is 1,6; King is 4,6 and daughter is 5,1, logically, you will find the next suspect at 7,5 and 7,10’. We would like to think that all four of us have a high degree of intelligence but this had us totally stumped. A regroup was required, preferably in a coffee shop so we located one on the harbour, ordered our cappuccinos and re-read, then re-read the clue again and still it didn’t make any sense. After the fifth attempt at re-reading the clue we realised that we were in fact not looking in the right place as the clue actually told us to ‘examine the information nearby’. Fortunately we’d taken photos of a few ‘information’ plaques and somehow by deduction we worked out the clue. That’s the power of a regroup and a cappuccino for you…..works every time!
Feeling rather smug we continued on until we’d completed the trail then made our way back to the house, picked up Abigail’s belongings and helped her up the hill to her car. We said our goodbyes, she plugged in her SatNav and off she drove, back to Dorset…….and five then became four! What next? Back to the house for a regroup of course!
Our ’regroup’ lasted at least an hour before we decided to venture out in search of somewhere for lunch. Poor Sir Winston was not amused. Feeling rather tired after his day out on the boat yesterday and his murder mystery trail this morning he was just dropping off to sleep when next thing he knew he was being wrestled into his harness and within minutes was walking along the harbour. This being his half year birthday (that means he’s six months old today for those who weren’t sure!!) we popped into the local pet store and bought him a few treats then went in search of a nice restaurant. Seems most of the restaurants were fully booked so we ended up outside a shack called Claws on the harbour enjoying crab sandwiches, a glass of wine and an ice-cream. By now we were all feeling tired, it was 4pm after all, so we walked back home, up the very steep hill, plonked ourselves on the sofa and only moved to the table when it was time for supper…….bread and cheese and a couple of glasses of wine! It was only 7.00pm, far too early to retire to our beds, except for Sir Winston that is so we ended up playing UNO then retired to the sofas yet again. Poor Sir Winston…..he‘d eaten so many treaty chews it was playing havoc with his digestion system and he spent the whole evening farting. I kid you not they were the stinkiest farts ever…..how could a pungent smell come from a dog so tiny? That’ll teach him for humping his cuddly toy and bed all holiday!
We managed to stay awake until 11pm, a really late night for us before, listened out for the chime of the church bells then called it a day and made our way up the very steep stairs to bed. We’re leaving tomorrow so need good nights sleep to send us on our way….
See you in the morning
Sir Winston, Jane, Maice and Angela xxxx