Holidays

I may have mentioned once or a million times before, that, being a widow with no close family whatsoever (siblings or cousins), holidays are now a thing of the past for me. I cannot really expect my loved-up daughter, Kay, and her husband, Darcy, to accompany me while I play gooseberry, so have accepted that, unless I go away on my own anywhere, I shall never go anywhere abroad any more. I don't have the courage to go on singles holidays, although various people have advised me to and said they are just fine. I would find eating out on my own in restaurants stressful and attract sympathy and curiosity from every corner, which I would hate. I have thought about doing trips to UK cities on my own for a few nights here or  there. Wandering around cities on my own would present no problems - after all I live in one of the biggest in the world and can negotiate myself round that - and snacking at cafes and room service would probably deal with the eating alone problem. So that is the way forward for me.

I have been very much absent from blogging myself in the last month mainly because, now that Kay's wedding is over, I have been able to turn my thoughts to escaping for mini breaks. First I went down to Salisbury for the day to visit an old school friend as well as the widowed husband of another schoolfriend. It was nice to travel on the train and see something different, as well as chat with old friends. Then over the August Bank Holiday weekend, I went up to the Midlands to visit my sister-in-law Jill, Greg's sister. She has been going through a very tough time as her partner has dementia and has gone into a care home. He was diagnosed as "end-of-life" a month ago, but has miraculously bounced back, but still causing worry as he seems to like standing on chairs near windows to get at imaginary things on the ceiling! It was lovely to stay with her and help her with household chores and the garden. Our drives through the countryside to get to the care home were lovely and I think Jill appreciated chatting to someone who does not have dementia! Finally last week, I went down to Brighton for the weekend to visit friends there. I had some spare time on the Sunday before I got my train back home, so went along to Brighton Pavilion. I had been there before as a child, but remembered little so wanted to make an effort to go now. I was not disappointed.

It was the plaything of George IV who wanted to enjoy the Brighton sea air and invite guests down there to relax and be frivolous. He was obsessed with the Orient, so the design and interior decoration is very heavily influenced by China with original hand-painted Chinese wallpaper; Chinese lamps and lanterns; dragons everywhere and Chinese furniture. The Pavilion was later used by William IV and Victoria, before being sold to  the town of Brighton in 1850. Here are some pictures of my memorable visit.