T is for Tankerton

Happy T day, so happy to be joining you all again this week over with Elizabeth and Bleubeard for the T party.

We have been walking every day, it’s been pretty cold here, our car has been white all over with frost in the mornings until the sun gets on to it but as long as it’s dry we can go out. I have bought myself a winter coat, I never need a really thick coat in Spain so I will be leaving it here when we go home,

We had a walk along Tankerton Slopes, we don’t go down to the beach as there’s quite a few steps to go down so we walk along the footpath on the top. The beach is shingle all along this part of the coastline until you reach Margate but It’s a lovely place, quite small with shops on the back street, they have a really good Fish and Chip Shop too, normally our last nights treat before we head home!

All along the beach front you can see the multicoloured beach huts, they are so expensive to buy nowadays, you used to be able to buy a house for that price, ha,ha,

This is the Seaview cafe where we stop halfway for a cup of tea, they do have tables outside but I’m afraid it’s too cold for us, it cools the tea too quickly!

It’s quite small inside but they have quite a good selection on the menu, especially breakfast items. To me it’s a typical English cafe much as you would have found years ago

Of course I need to show you my drink for this week, a mug of tea, my Mother in Law always used to say, “Let’s have a nice cup of tea” , always made me smile as if we would want a horrible one!!

Mind you we have had some awful tea, once Steve told the waiter in Macy’s Cheesecake Factory how to make a pot of tea, it came with lukewarm water so the tea didn’t mash, tasted like dish water!

Peet's do make a good tea as they have a special boiler that heats the water to boiling point, I know this as the manager was a tea connoisseur and I think quite pleased to have someone actually order black tea! With milk for us of course, he even gave us a few samples of different black teas to try!

The sun is out today and hopefully the gale force winds have died down a little so we will off for another walk later, I hope no one has suffered any storm damage! Take care and Happy T Day. Jan x

T is for Trip

Good morning and Happy T Day from England! We had a good journey and a arrived a little earlier than we thought, we were off the boat and through customs within half and hour and on our way, it was rainy which wasn’t helpful when you are driving on the opposite side of the road to normal and trying to listen to directions from the sat Nav, the traffic was awful, plus roadworks which really didn’t help!

I thought you might like to see a few photos from our journey through Spain and on the ferry.

We left home at 5.30 am and made good time to Albecete where we stopped for breakfast. I had bacon and sliced tomatoes’a la plancha’ doesn’t look much but it was delicious and the bread was fresh from the oven and Steve had the usual, sausages!

The shop inside the restaurant selling cheeses and baked goods

Two hours later we had reached just south of Madrid and time for a quick coffee, not too busy this time of year!

Thankfully the snow from the previous week had gone from the road through the mountain pass, you can see it’s only on the top of mountains

Our last stop before the hotel was here in Lerma, just a quick coffee and off we went.

This was on the dockside In Bilboa, that’s our ship just arrived, two hours late due to storms in the Bay of Biscay, luckily the storm had died down a little so by the time we woke up the next morning it was calm again and amazingly they had made up the time so we arrived on time in Portsmouth.

We treated ourselves to breakfast in the restaurant, orange juice, breakfast was eggs, bacon, sausage, hash brown, mushrooms and toast, a pot of tea and croissants with jam, a very nice treat and my drink for this weeks T Day.

Inside the restaurant, we had a window seat but not much to see in the middle of the English Channel.

We spent Sunday out with our GS , first at soft play as the weather was cold and wet and then at the ice cream parlour , it’s been revamped since our last visit and GS was most impressed by the lights as they look like balloons and flowers!

We are off to Canterbury today to shop for some things to take home, mainly shortbread to take back for our friends in Spain, the restaurant owner asked when we would be going back as they are the best biscuits he’s ever had! Fingers crossed my link works this week, thank you Elizabeth for sorting it out for me yet again last week. Happy T Day Jan x

T is for traveling again

Firstly a big thank you to everyone who took the time to come over for a visit last week and left kind comments, it was lovely to join the T gang again.

Happy T Day, it may be the weekend before I get around to visit everyone We are off again, off to the UK to look after our GS, we leave at 5 am tomorrow morning to drive to the north of Spain, a ten hour drive but we do a two hour stint behind the wheel each, stopping for breakfast in Albecete, coffee just outside Madrid, and a quick coffee in Lerma, we are staying a hotel in Santander and catching the Ferry on Thursday afternoon, we arrive in Portsmouth after lunch on Friday, then we have a three hour drive, partly around the M25! (The motorway around London) always good fun if you hit it at rush hour. The last time we went over our junction was closed, it was midnight and we had to go off and drive half an hour in the opposite direction before we could leave the motorway, it was funny that many of the lorries stuck with us had come all the way from where we live and had been on our ferry crossing, they bring vegetables, mainly tomatoes that are grown where we live!

My Tea related photo today is a mug that I've had for a long time, our son and DIL bought it me and the photo is of our Granddogs, sadly no longer with us but we used to take them long walks along the trails near where they live in San Francisco, they were both rescue dogs and turned into amazing and loyal pets, very good with the GSs too although the youngest was only just over two when Splodgey died but strangely enough he talks about him the most!

I`ve also finished a Birthday Card for our DIL to post while we are away, she's so lovely and kind, more like a daughter to us so she`s very special.

I’m off to the Hairdresser for a trim and then I will dashing around loading the car , that’s always my job as I’m very good at getting everything Loaded a bit like a jigsaw puzzle, although we aren’t taking too much this time, famous last words, we do load up with wine, beer, chorizo etc, etc before we board the ferry so by the time we are finished the car will be full.

I like to be organised so we have one suitcase for the night in the hotel, another for the boat, containing clothes, food and of course our mini kettle, these have to be at the back so we can just grab them and get to the lift and up to our cabin before the rush, I hate lifts, especially when too many people try to crowd on but we usually end up on deck 6 so twelve flights of stairs are just too much for Steves knees

I’m doing last minute cleaning when I get back, Someone will be complaining, Steve always tells everyone he has to stand on a square of paper in the corner so he doesn’t make a mess, he always jokes that after I’ve cleaned the kitchen he will fry sausages to take with us, He really knows how to wind me up!!

Hopefully I will have time to join in while we are away as GS goes to Kindergarten every morning, I will try to remember to take photos of our coffees and perhaps our scones with jam and cream, when we are being naughty!! Have a Lovely T Day Jan x

T for Tuesday

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and I’d like to wish you all a very belated happy and healthy new year! I’ve been MIA for quite a few weeks as our New Year didn’t get off to a good start, I had a bad cold over Christmas and Steve started with sickness bug on New Years Eve and spend New Year’s Day in bed, by January 2nd I started with bug, it seems it going around the world,

Thankfully we are fully fit now and have been putting a plastic coat over the roof tiles as extra protection, having a flat roof makes us a little over cautious especially as we had a leak last year.

We also had to have a new boiler, over here we use bottle gas, took three days to get it working would you believe, after two days we found out that Romero had bought the Butane gas model, we have always used propane, apparently that’s why it kept cutting out, so steve had to buy a new gas bottle, gas regulator and pipe, it’s been working but it’s only really just hot enough if we only had the taps on half flow but at least we could have a reasonably warm shower, Luckily a friend arrived at the weekend and came around to take a look, after an hour he has managed to fix the problem by fitting a tap to adjust the flow into the boiler, we had a lovely hot shower last night.

Yesterday we woke up to rain, we had been expecting it but was surprised how cold it has turned overnight, in fact on our way back from shopping we realised that it was so cold that there was snow on the Sierra Espuna!

We see that every couple of years but this year for the first time we have snow on Mount Brian, our nickname for it as our friend Brian lives close to it, we were totally shocked,I know so many of you who have deep, deep snow are probably saying, what! You call that snow! but this IS Southern Spain!

In the photo above you might spot the little white Church, it has been renovated by some of the foreign residents, now it’s open on special days.

Last Friday we decided to go out for Lunch, we always go somewhere on the seafront as it’s lovely to have a walk in the sun and look at the views. We went to the Marina to a Restaurant called Calletta, we had to sit in the shade as it was quite hot, a bit different to today!

our starters below, Steve had chorizo guiso (stew) mine was crab and coleslaw salad, our first course was a salad for me and a Murcian salad for Steve, I totally forgot to take photos, again, that is tinned tomatoes, cold with flaked tuna a boiled egg in it! Not something I like but apparently it was delicious.

Our main courses were Pork in Pepper sauce and Hake with Almond Sauce, the photos make the food look quite bland but it was delicious

Our drinks of choice for me was a glass of vino blanco and for Steve a sin alcohol beer, we also had a strawberry cheesecake and a chocolate cake for dessert and a coffee, all for €10 Euros each!

I hope you are all fit and well, I don’t make New Years resolutions but I have vowed to carry on using up my stash and not spending too much this year! I can hear you all saying, good luck with that, LOL!!

happy T Day Jan x

Ps sorry about the strange layout, I’m using my iPad and struggling to adjust the text!!

T is for home sweet home

Sorry I didn’t get to visit many blogs last time I joined the T Party, it’s amazing how quickly the time passed while our GS was at kindergarten, by the time we’d shopped prepared dinner, cleaned around it was time to collect him again.

Thank you all for your visit and the kind comments, they are very much appreciated.

We are finally home after three months away, we had a good journey home although it takes two days but we had a relaxing time on the ferry. I thought you might be interested to see our cabin.

This is the beds with the window, not much to see in all fairness when you are out at sea but I can’t bear to be in a windowless cabin.

This is the view to the door, the door on the left is the shower room, a small wardrobe, closet as some of you call it and a small desk,

This is the shower room, just roomy enough to do our ablutions as Steve would say.

This is our travel kettle and my ticket to join the T party, we’ve had it for about twelve years and it always goes with us, it just fits in a small cool bag with the two mugs and in the front pocket we keep the teabags and spoon,

Finally my Birthday present from my eldest son, he gave it to me the day before we flew to SF, it was very heavy and I had already weighed the suitcases and locked them so I decided to leave it behind until we arrived back.

I was so pleased with them as I can never find craft mags in Spain and they are so expensive to have them sent out, apparently he asked his Dad what he could buy me and Steve suggested a couple of mags, they should keep me going for quite a while and they all have free stamps or dies on them! Steve suggested I save them until I got home but I couldn’t resist opening the packets to see all the freebies.

That’s me finished for this week, I’ve got two Christmas cakes in the oven, one small one for our son to take home with him, his wife is Polish and doesn’t really like them, I’ve made one to eat over Christmas and I’ve got Mince pies ready to go in the oven, better go and check them. Take care Jan x

T for Troops

This was my post for last week as My son sent me these photos to show you all, on his way to work he spotted the Kings Troop on their way to fire the gun salute for Prince Charlie’s Birthday

This is part of the regiment that my husband was in when we married in 1971, these troops are the ceremonial part of the regiment, called the Kings Troop, my husband was in ‘E’ Battery.

In those days my husband actually fired those Guns, 12lbers guns from the first world war knowing my husband he could probably tell you the drill for firing them even after all these years, later they had the tracked vehicles, The Abbot self propelled gun.

For my drink this week, our last meal in SF with the family was brunch at the local cafe, our son had omelette with potatoes, he had started eating it before I remembered I needed a photo, his choice of drink was Diet Coke

Next week I will finally be home but not in time to join the tea party, we catch the ferry on Sunday night, dock in Santander, Spain at 7.45am Tuesday morning and will be home by 7pm Tuesday evening. Many thanks to all my visitors last week, take care and Happy T day Jan x

T is for Time’s up!

This is my last post from San Francisco, we fly back to UK on Friday evening, just a week over there before we catch the ferry back to Spain. I had another post ready but after our meal out last Friday I had to show the pictures instead. First I must apologise to any Vegetarians and vegans as it’s a meat overload. THe restaurant was in San Mateo, called Espetus Brazilian Steakhouse , what an experience, the head waitress came over to explain how it worked!

Firstly you collect a plate and go to the buffet for the starters,

The choice was amazing, stews, salads of all descriptions, veggies, rice, even paella! Seeing as our son had warned us what was to come we were careful not to overload on the starters, I had beetroot, tomatoes, cabbage salad, which was delicious , potatoe salad and yucca fries! One of each type, Tasted the same to me but too dry.

Next the waiters came around the tables with long skewers with meat on them, they start to carve and you grab the piece with your tweezers and he continues to carve the slice, we had lamb, all cuts of beef, chicken, pork belly, giant shrimps and chicken hearts that I couldn’t even look at! Our son and Steve of course had them!

On the table they have a circle on a stand, red for no and green means they keep coming to the table, we had to rest after quite a few slices but when we had rested for a while and had a drink we started again.

This shows behind the window the racks of grilled meats on the skewer, a little hard to see because the window reflects the BG, also some starters..

Lastly we enjoyed the Pineapple, straight from the grill, it was so delicious, somehow it broke down the fibres and brought out the sweetness, Steve’s mind was working overtime thinking how he could do this at home using our gadget that peels and cores pineapples, so watch this space. You can just see the little circle on the table next to the pineapple skewer.

Lastly my drink, a Margarita, not normally a cocktail drinker but decided to push the boat out as they say, it lasted me all night and was good!

Hopefully I will have time to post next week, looking after a three year old is definitely harder than the two GSS here. We had a FaceTime with him over the weekend and he told Grandad that his car is ok but wet!! I’m thinking we will have some bad weather to contend with over there

Take care and a Happy Thanksgiving to everyone Jan x