[FLYING BANANA]

.......................................... and I was driving.

Sleep did not come easy for me so I was out of bed very early. Showered, once I figured out how it worked. Don’t understand why we cannot just have an on/off switch and a dial. Buttons and leverS just to get hot water baffles me. Still I got there in the end. Got a text from Debbie telling me that we was all going to breakfast at 08.30. We met up at that time and we trundled off to the restaurant.
Words of comfort were given by every member of the crew which was nice.*

I had smoked salmon, roasted tomato and dressing in a malted bagel plus the urn full of tea. It will be kippers and marmalade tomorrow no doubt. We all met up again in reception where the majority of us were off on our usual visit to Busy Bee’s garden centre for the Xmas shop. Matt led the convoy out in Grovey, with Banana, Leafy, Oily, Bumblebee, Bertie, Speedy Boy and Adrenaline Rush following. The Vauxhall’s and the Nissan were also in our convoy. The other 3 Rovers were going off somewhere else.

Destination was Ryde, which is on the other side of the island, we got the thumbs up from a chap waiting for a bus when we was stuck at some traffic lights. But other than that the journey was sweet. Parking at the garden centre was fairly routine with us all find spaces without any hassle.
We basically split up and all went in different directions, and agreed to meet in the cafe a bit later on. I tagged onto Allen, Val, Debbie, John and Vera. We wandered about till it was nosebag time.

The cafe was heaving, and not just with our lot. Stuff that had been bought was reviewed by everyone, critics the lot of them.
Next port of call was to be the Wishing Well pub which has a licensed gin distillery attached. We lost the the Ross and Anita in the Rover 75. They went off somewhere else. Banana was now lead car, we had put the address in the A-Z thingy on the dashboard. Soon into the pub car park, only a 5 minute drive away.

As there was a huge group of us the landlord and owner of the gin distillery said rather than us watching the film show on how the making of the gin he would in fact verbally tell us all about it. Wow! It was so interesting. I never realised how much went into making gin, which can trace it’s routes back to the 1700’s. The talk lasted almost an hour. Then it was tasting time. They also produce Navy approved rum, a percentage of each bottle sold goes towards helping HMS Victory’s restoration down in Portsmouth. I had a couple samples but only enough to wet my lips.
Ended up buying a bottle of rum and a bottle of Pink gin, both Xmas presents.

Then we thanked the landlord before convoying off to Newport. Banana was now last car to leave, and we got separated from the rest. We followed the signs to Newport and with Debbie on the phone talking to her Mum, Val, we got a running commentary on how to get to the car park where everyone was. We did take a couple of wrong turns before finding where everyone was. Just a mooch around the shops before going into Morrison’s for tea and cake.

We then left, now very dark, and made our way back to Norton Grange for evening drinks and dinner. I did go and change before dinner along with Debbie and Val. We then all met up and went back to meet the others in the bar, oh! Go on then! Just a quick pint of Thatchers Gold before nosebag time. I had the slow cooked leg of lamb roast dinner. Followed by spicy fruit crumble.
Then back into the ballroom for the tribute act. “Cream of Clapton” a tribute act of Eric Clapton. Very good and his guitar playing was outstanding. A proper tribute to old Slow hand.

Then back into the other bar for a good old sing song, more cider followed by a couple of Single Malts and I was ready for bed. Another busy day on Sunday.

*It was my God Son Richard that had unexpectedly passed away at the age of 51. It is a Police matter as he was found on a pathway but thought to be a heart attack.