Easter, plenty of birds but no bunnies

Happy Easter!

Last weekend I kicked Chris out and into the lake while I had the girlies down. Jill and Jennie as usual, because it was Jill’s birthday. We celebrated the birthday on Friday eve with a couple of bottles, went to Canterbury for some retail therapy on Saturday and had lunch at Marlowes. Arrived in Canterbury with zero items on shopping list other than a tentative leather jacket for Jill, and came back with (between us), three leather coats, 11 pairs of earrings, eight tops, two skirts, two bottles of nail varnish and a pack of muffins. It’s a very good job we only do this twice a year… On the other hand, never stand between girls and their shopping. Strangely, we didn’t actually scare anyone this time round; we must be losing our touch. More practice, I say!

We went to La Dolce Vita, an Italian in Ashford. Lovely food, but no atmosphere. Service is never usually a problem, however we think that two out of three of Arturo’s (the Maitre D’) staff were trainees on that night. We placed our order very quickly for both food and drink; five minutes being a record given Jill can never ever make a decision regarding food, and Jennie has distinct difficult in choosing what she’d like. I don’t have any such problems of course, other than selecting what not to have.

Three minutes later we were slightly startled to have our Hors D’oevres arrive. Until we realised that Jennie’s mushrooms had legs, eyes and antenna. We’d received someone else’s, which as soon as we pointed out that mushroom weren’t supposed to look like prawns were swiftly whisked away by a slightly annoyed (with his staff) looking Arturo and relocated to their correct owners. Fifteen minutes later the alcohol had not arrived and we were getting a bit PO’d about this. We are very patient girlies and enjoy long spaced out dinners, but the alcohol and O2 absolutely must be available from the get go. We coughed a lot, and Arturo snapped at one of the suspected trainees and voila, wine materialised instantly.
Food was gorgeous. At 9 the two trainee were booted out and Arturo stopped scowling, metamorphosing into a jolly polite and agreeable Maitre D’ who chatted and joked with us while we ate and drank him out of business.
Whilst waiting for our taxi in the bar, we scared the bar-lady with our new earrings and coats (Me - think Underworld, Jill – think Matrix, Jennie - think David Soul). Job done.
Sunday, we had ice cream for breakfast (Mint choc, Toffee Pecan, Double choc and Raspberry pavlova) before deciding to get up at midday and then we went to Sandwich, walked around the old town walls – well part of it anyway, and found a very nice eatery where we had lunch. The Fisherman’s Somethingorother next to the Barbican Bridge.
On Monday, we went to the Dive Club, specially so that I could try out my BCD (aka buoyancy jacket thing) and Dry Suit (poly bag with rubber holes for head and hands).
BCD was absolutely fab.
Dry suit was very wet.
After spending ten minutes floating around on our heads just to prove our buoyancy control was very good (read showoffs), we got bored and went home. The pool really isn’t big enough. Someone should tell Chatham Leisure Centre that the dive pit absolutely needs to be big enough to play underwater Frisbee at least. It’s essential. Honest.

Tuesday morning I remembered that my passport was about due now.
Tuesday evening I discovered that my passport expired last month.
Wednesday morning I discovered that all known passport picture machines in Ashford were dead.

Wednesday lunchtime I discovered a very nice lady at Snappy Snaps that did passport pics, and sent passport application for express processing.
Wednesday afternoon I discovered that there were previously unreported *and* working passport picture machines in the post office, County Square, County Mall, behind Wilkos, next to the police Station, by the library and probably on the central bandstand.
Thursday took the girls to lunch.
Don’t remember Thursday afternoon.

Went to Chris’ Thursday eve and received Easter egg. Very expensive Easter egg, ordered special by mail, with beautifully striated layers of dark and white chocolate lovingly set in red background with black surround, carefully protected by a clear plastic box, packed snugly into a thick cardboard travel pack and delivered by hand precisely on time to Chris’ flat, specially for me. Upon opening, it was unfortunately in approximately twenty two pieces. Poor Chris’ lower lip hasn’t stopped quivering in disappointment yet. On the positive side, the company responsible is sending us a very nice, very expensive bottle of champagne to make up for the disappointment.

Someone had the really excellent idea of jumping in a frozen lake at 7am this morning. Huh! What about my lie-in! Okay, so that’s an exaggeration. It was 9am and the water was 10deg. To try out Dry Suit again after efforts were made to seal the Dry Suit. The visibility was good, the dive was 25 minutes, and we didn’t see any fish, but there was a snail and we wrote graffiti in the algae on top of a sunken Ford Fiesta. (Dive Babes Rock).

Did I mention that the BCD was absolutely fab?

The Dry Suit was still very wet. In fact, standing on dry land with lake water still half way up my shins. I can’t help being fine boned! However, replacing neck seal with one small enough for my fine boned neck is slightly worrying as I have to get it over my very big head.

And that brings us up to… well right now.

Have a very delicious chocolate festival!