A day trip to France

We had a really super day on Monday - we went to Calais for dinner with DD2 and her Dutch husband Pim! Well, we did quite a bit more as well but the main object of the exercise was to have a lovely meal in a really nice restaurant we know - hardly any Englishmen there! We do this three or four times a year and over the years the places we have got to know and enjoy have been 'discovered' and then written up in the Telegraph and before you know where you are you could be eating in Cambridge. So I am not going to mention the name unless someone specifically asks me. So there.

We did some wine shopping, then bought some groceries, then we had a picnic of French bread and brie then Sarah and I did some serious clothes shopping whilst the two men sat and, well, I have no idea what they talk about but we leave them to their own devices for about three hours! Then our delicious fishy dinner - this is the cheeseboard. Whilst we were eating a man came in with a dog - he was shown to a table near us and the waiter immediately brought a stainless steel bowl of water for the dog! No Health and Safety rules in France, oh no. It was a very well behaved dog, we hardly knew it was there. As we sat and looked over the wide expanse of sand and the pretty beach huts, the sun slowly set in spectacular style - what a lovely day.

Today was the AGM of our U3A - and as the leader of both the Creative Textile Group and the Craft Group I had to be there manning the exhibition table. It was so hot! but the talk by stamp designer Ian Loe was very interesting. Delightfully detailed paintings of wild life from all over the world used on stamps, what an interesting man.

The Craft Group had been making boxes - this is mine, covered in a pretty Japanese cotton with a knob made out of two links from an old belt - I thought it worked quite well. The box is lined with a glorious pink raw silk - I don't know what I shall put in it but I am certain to think of something!

Tomorrow is a free day - hurrah - except for the AGM of the Rotary Wives Group in the evening, for which I have got to make a quiche, so I do hope that the weather isn't too, too hot.