Long coach journeys.....

Haven't put Ma off.
We had only just been back 24 hours...or perhaps even less and she was ringing me up to ask if I could do a Saturday until Wednesday break on the 23rd of August.

I asked her what happened to her dis-chuffment with the long trip back from Torquay.......'Oh, I'm over that now' she replied....'Anyway with Robinsons, the journey never seems as long'

So we'll be off to The Majestic at Eastbourne.

Back to this holiday.
We slept really well......Ma certainly did....though I was tired it took me quite a while to drop off to sleep......I think maybe I was too warm......I crept out of bed and opened the window just a touch......and the breeze wafted over my head....after that i knew nothing until 7am.
I rose and was just about to have a shower....ah, no perhaps not...seeing as there was only a bath.
Ma was still sleeping......or she was doing a good impression of sleeping.
I just had a good wash down at the sink...and postponed the bath for our return from the day excursion. I knew that I was going to get pretty hot and erm...unwholesome, pushing Ma around the city of Plymouth.
But before that there was a hearty breakfast to be consumed.
When I had finished my ablutions Ma was up and getting her toiletries together for her trip to the bathroom.
I asked if she wanted any help to be pushed into the bath......I can't tell you what her answer was...decency forbids.

Soon we were both ready......I made our beds and tidied the room up.....not that we are that messy, but I bagged the rubbish and wiped round the sink.
I know they pay folk to do this, but it is a habit I can't get out of.

We could smell the bacon cooking and it was really sharpening Ma's appetite.
We ambled downstairs to breakfast at about 8.20.....we thought we may have to wait, but the dining room was open.....there was fresh tea and coffee being placed on all of the tables....and warm thick toast......the marmalade wasn't in those little plastic single serve portions.....it was in little stainless steel dishes.
We seated ourselves and I poured Ma her coffee, while she helped herself to the fresh warm toast...she commented that it was thick bread....usually hotels toast thin slices......I still eat it but I prefer thick sliced bread...wholemeal if I'm being really picky!

Gary and Gill came down, closely followed by Ida......they asked if we had stayed at the table all night.
I told them that ma's favourite meal was breakfast....and she was always sharp off the mark once she smelled the bacon.
We asked how they had slept.....poorly came the response....they were used to a softer mattress.
They sat down and the tea and coffee went around the table, as did the toast.....while we were chomping on the toast the young waitress came to take our breakfast orders.
I have the same every day....grapefruit, then a full English minus sausage.
Ma ordered her Bacon and Eggs and fried bread....'bu88er the cholesterol' she said...'I'm on holiday'

We talked about the day ahead.......Gary and Gill hadn't been to Plymouth before so I gave them directions to get to the Gin distillery and the Pannier market....and the Hoe.
We scoffed our delicious breakfast and there was just time to go back to the room and clean the egg residue off my teeth before we got back on the coach that had given us square BTMs for some more of the same.

The ride to Plymouth was just about an hour....and Dave our Driver dropped us off at the bus station.
I hadn't been to this part of the city before, but if I could see a particular landmark I felt sure I would be able to navigate to the part that I knew best.....the landmark is a square tower with a green roof....I think it may have been a church at some point in its life.
Anyway I asked ma to take in the surroundings just in case(though it hasn't happened yet) I got us hopelessly lost.

It was quite a pull up to the part of the city where the shops are, but once there I knew my way about.
I had taken my camera, but thought that unless we managed to get over to the Barbican area I would not be using it.(I was right...i toted it all over the city and didn't take a single pic)
We spent all our time browsing the shops, the charity shops and the market.......Ma bought some pork scratchings..proper ones cooked by the butcher.......We went into the Drakes Centre, and worshipped at the church of Primark....Ma bought herself a couple of very pretty bras......she bought a couple while we were in Eastbourne and tells me that they fit better than some she bought that were £20 each...so she bought another couple 'to see her on' was how she put it(whatever that means).
I whizzed her past Thorntons...though she begged me to take her in......'just to look'.

It was pretty close to lunchtime so we sought out a hostelry where we might get a bite of lunch.

I think the place was called The Hogs Breath'...it was cheap and cheerful......I went and ordered a shandy for Ma and a half of lager for me.......I could have drunk a pint but don't like to see ladies drinking out of pint glasses...and I didn't really want to be caught drunk in charge of a wheeled vehicle.

I had parked Ma at a table close to some male pensioners.....by the time I went back she was exchanging ribald banter with them all...and they were laughing uproariously.
Ma was having her usual......baked spud with cheese and coleslaw......I chose a ploughmans lunch.....we were gob struck when the food arrived.....the spud and its filling was enough to feed a family of four...and there was a huge salad garnish.
All that was missing from my ploughmans was the horse.
The pensioners on the next table offered to come over and give us a helping hand with the food if we needed it.
Both of us needed another drink to wash down all that grub.
Once we had eaten we both felt absolutely stuffed...and I had to leave some of mine.
Ma, the hero...well all she left was the red onion and the skin off the spud.
We had about an hour to kill before we were due back to the coach.
I parked ma in the shade and I went off to have a look in the GAME shop.......on the back of the counter was a Wii Fit.
I said to the assistant 'don't tell me that is the wii fit you have there'

'It is indeed' he said......and lifted it onto the front counter.
I was just weighing up whether the coach driver would balk at me taking something like that back with me.
I asked the assistant if it was heavy.
'Fairly heavy' he said.
I explained that we were on holiday and that it was a very long trip back to Lancashire.
Just as I was telling him this, a young woman rushed into the shop looking all hot and bothered and said to the other assistant 'I will have that last wii fit'......he looked over to the young man who was talking to me.....and the young man said it looked like it was about to be sold.
I thought that the young woman would cry...she looked so dejected.
I told the assistant to let the lady have the Wii Fit and I would just hope I could get one when I got back home.
The lady thanked me and said she hoped I would too.
When I was leaving the shop she told me it was a birthday present for her son who had been seriously ill.....it was a birthday they thought he wouldn't see...and it was to help him get his motivation and his movement back......so I felt that I had done the right thing.
I went back and found Ma and told her the story...she said she was touched and perhaps I would be able to get one of these games in Exeter....I told her it didn't matter....I'd get one back home.
We ambled past another branch of Thorntons...but this time I did take Ma inside...but the 'look' turned into a buying visit.
Ma bought a variety of goodies...strictly forbidden to her, but she tells me that what she bought will last her until christmas.

It was time to make our way back to the bus station.
I asked Ma to tell me which way we had come...she couldn't remember......so it was a good job I had taken notice.
We arrived abck at the coach with about 10 minutes to spare.
We had thoroughly enjoyed our trip to the city.
I didn't get down to the Barbican and the lovely cake shop, or the distillery(I was going to buy himself a large bottle of Plymouth Gin)....it would have been OK going down the hill, but I really couldn't face the push back up the hill.....because it was hot, hot, hot.

We arrived back at the hotel by 4.30......and I DID need that bath, believe me.