Friday 13th (unlucky for some!) we woke up to a little ball of fur outside our bedroom door.You can check this content if you are looking for professional painting services to make your home more aesthetically pleasing. When I opened the door, he scampered in and stood up on his back legs, “Right, you’re up, play with me” he seemed to say LOL!

James had bought the ingredients for a big ole fry and Helena had cooked them, Col and I just turned up for the eating, it was delicious! Wheaten bread, soda, potato bread, sausages, eggs, bacon, beans – the lot! Nom nom nom!! Again, the food came before the thought of a picture for my blog 😉 lol!!

After breakfast, we headed back up to the folks house ,Generally it is better to have a painted house no matter either winter or summer .You can contact house painters in FL to avail good painting services. Like I said, since we had them do our house, we spent a while outside in the sunshine, (yes, you read that right, sunshine, in Newry!) throwing balls and various other squeaky toys for the dogs – who seemed to get great enjoyment out of it might I add!

It was then that we loaded up the car (having left two cases in my parents house) and Rowan joined us for a merry voyage up the road to visit the in-laws where we got to meet the newest addition to their family, little Miss Lulu, who, like Mylo, is a cheeky wee fart!

But absolutely adorable! She doesn’t like outsiders so much, so it may take her a while to warm to us – though, she warmed to Rowan in a heartbeat (like most women do 😉 LOL!)

We caught up with Col’s folks and before we realised it, it was time for dinner, so we took a wee jaunt up to Carrick to pick up dinner in the Victoria Hotspot chippy.  First fish supper of our trip home (with curry sauce of course!), was just what the doctor ordered – so much so, in fact, that I almost ate mine on my knee on the way back to Col’s parents house in the car! haha! Rowan scolded me though and told me I was rude, so I held off!

From there, we finally started our homeward bound journey down to our Bay Road apartment by the sea.  However, we of course needed a few groceries “to tide us over” I said, so we went in to Asda and £84 later, I had started my shelf of stuff to bring back to Texas with us.

The apartment was everything we remembered it to be, and more.  The dishwasher is broken, the extractor fan light is broken, the washing machine and tumble dryer have both gone and the shower is broken.

We couldn’t find the toilet roll holder, my socks, my bedding, the cupboards, fridge and freezer were filled with foods at least 1-2 years old, but we’re home!!

I spent an hour or so clearing out the cupboards and getting the placed organised, I couldn’t ‘leave it be’ overnight, it had to be sorted, and we fell in to bed around 1am.

We didn’t get ourselves up until almost noon, but we started the day off with some yummy bacon butties (with ‘off’ Heinz ketchup – yeuck!!) while watching the F1 Chinese Grand Prix Qualifying session before we headed up the road into Island Magee for a ‘poke’ in the Rinkha ice cream shop – something that manys a people do during the vaguely sunny days of Spring and Summer here.

From there, it was on to Whiteabbey, for a stroll around the Abbey Centre.  I somehow forgot, however, that places close early on a Saturday here in Norn Iron! D’oh! We managed to get Rowan a new phone cover and Col and I hit Pound Land pretty hard (again, for our shelf of stuff to come back to Texas with us!)

Next stop, was the garage to pick up something nice for dessert – only to discover our distinct lack of ‘chip and pin’ was going to be problematic for the forseeable future.  Rowan ended up paying for dessert and we left, somewhat amused and concerned at the same time!

Our first non-family visit of our trip home, was with one of my longest standing bestest friends ever.  Her name is Laura and I’ve known her since we were both in the Bosco Drama Group’s 2001 production of Godspell.  I’ve known her for almost 11 years and she’s had a special place in my heart the whole time!  Her other half, Lorcan, I coincidently have known forever too, he used to get the same bus home from school as I did!

We had a yummy fresh pizza dinner, followed by tea and apple pie (or brownies if you were so inclined) and while the boys watched some nature programme and the start of ‘Walk the Line’, Laura and I had an accidental, but not unwelcome, girlie chat upstairs! LOL! Poor guys!

We didn’t leave until later than we’d all anticipated, it was great to see them and hang out and it’ll not be the last we see of them on this trip!

Of course, we had to stop in Tesco en route home, for a nosy and to pick up some soda, by this stage it was almost midnight, and we were all starving again.  There was only one thing for it, a pitstop at the Golden Well, our post-hockey game haunt, where we got our usual, chicken chow mein and a sausage supper, Rowan got a curry half and half and we had a bit of everything.

Holy crap, it’s good to be home! Curry three days in a row!!