On Thursday I had a busy day, starting with a coffee with an Australian friend who’d stayed in London during lockdown. After a really nice catch up, I had to rush off home when Susan emailed me saying she was coming by to get my door key so she could get a copy - Peter was on nightshift so he was sleeping. When I got back and had handed over my key, I headed upstairs and called Clare and had a really nice catch up with her. Her latest news was that she’d got a dog! Big move but considering her long term prospects of working from home in Minneapolis, it will be nice for her to have some company.  After hanging up I did some yoga, threw my stuff in a bag for our next little trip away and then headed over to Kentish Town.   I met Alex, one of the girls I’d met on my Egypt trip, at Social Pottery Painting and we had a fantastic night painting and catching up. The idea is you paint a plain ceramic item (I chose a pot) and then leave it with them for a week for firing. I’m really looking forward to seeing how my pot turns out next week!

On Friday I had a very quiet morning - it was forecast to be 36 degrees so I went for an early morning run to the Tower, did some yoga, and spoke to Geoff on the phone when he got the news that his flights had been pushed again to the 10 September. Incredibly frustrating, but I doubt there’s much he can do about it given he can’t afford to fly business, which is why he keeps getting bumped as other people pay business fares to get on the flight. I also did a tidy up and cleaning, because Susan will be having the real estate photos of the place taken while we’re away on Tuesday. 

When Peter woke up at 1:30 we finished tidying up, grabbed our packed bags and headed over to London Euston. Our train was at 3:40 and totalled about 2 and a half hours, although with a little change over in Crewe, we arrived in Llandudno Junction at 7. From the train station we crossed the bridge over the river to Conwy, with the incredible sight of Conwy Castle looming ahead of us. We easily found our hotel and checked in, dropping our bags in the room before heading down to the restaurant for some dinner. When I’d called earlier in the week, they’d said they were booked out (restaurants only reopened in Wales on Monday) but luckily they had a cancellation and we sat down to a fantastic menu! 

We ordered a fisherman’s sharing platter with a selection of local seafood - cockles and mussels, cod beignets, smoked salmon, smoked mackerel and fried whitebait. It was so delicious, and perfect with a pint of the local ale! We even went rogue and got dessert, as I couldn’t resist a gluten free brownie and Peter got a sticky toffee pudding. Then we rolled up the stairs and collapsed into bed, too full to manage anything else!