A
busy week for York, and a wet, then warmer week for us.
We started Monday
with a cooler, wetter day, which continued through Wednesday. Royal
Ascot started in York on Tuesday. It moved here this year, since
the original site in Berkshire has been leveled and is being completely
rebuilt. The city council did a fantastic job with rerouting the traffic.
In fact, the city was practically deserted!
My friend and neighbor down the river, Karen Whiteley, moved in with
me on Monday. She has a studio apartment, and she'd loaned it to friends
who were coming here for Ascot. She settled in on my sofabed, and
she declared it was wonderful! We had a good time, and she enjoyed
being able to look out and down the river to her place.
I had my acupuncture on Tuesday afternoon, and they'd moved everyone's
appointments ahead by 15 minutes, expecting we would all be tangled
in traffic, and therefore arriving late, or really for our originally
scheduled appointments. Well, I was told that everyone had arrived
early! Tuesday was the first day of Royal Ascot, and I just zipped
to my appointment. I got home, and Karen came in several hours later.
She was full of stories about the Royal
Enclosure, where she was every day. What a time she had had. She
did tell me that she wished she'd had one of my canes, however. Seems
she was in the Royal Enclosure and heard this man in front of her
say to his wife, "Watch your handbag, dear, it might be picked.
Remember, we are up North". She said if she'd had my cane,
she would have hit him and said, "You bloody Southern tosser!"
(a damn know-nothing fool!). We got to bed around 10pm.
The rest of the week continued pretty much the same, and everyone
was talking about the ease of the traffic, how they'd done at the
races, when they were going, the ladies talking about what they were
wearing, etc.
On Thursday, which was Ladies
Day at Royal Ascot, the weather warmed up and there was no rain!
Good thing, what with all those lovely frocks and hats! Those who
went said they had a great time! On Thursday, Karen moved back to
her place, as her friends were gone, and her sister was coming to
join her.
Things continued the same on Friday, with weather getting warmer.
As the Brits say, it was "boiling", but then, when it gets
to 80°, they start getting faint!
Saturday I had originally planned to go to Ascot, but I'd found out
I had tickets to Wimbledon for the following Tuesday. Well, you can't
do it all; so I opted for Wimbledon
instead of Royal Ascot. My friend, Liz Kirby, joined me for a day
trip to the seaside, at Sandsend,
about 5 miles north of Whitby.
We had a lovely day walking on the beach, getting our feet wet and
collecting pebbles. We had hoped to eat there, but we found out there
was no restaurant there! It was suggested we return to Whitby, which
we did, after several hours in Sandsend. In Whitby we had, naturally,
fish
and chips! Delicious, as always! After our meal, we turned ourselves
back homeward. We went by to see Sally Corrie, and we had a nice visit
with her. Then I dropped Liz in town to pick up their car, and I headed
home. The sea, salt air, etc. had made us both tired, and I certainly
slept well that evening.
Today I arose and went to York
railway station to collect the train tickets for our trip to Wimbledon.
My friend, Sue Stewart, who runs the Red
Lion pub, is going with me, and she is almost as
excited as I am. I went round there afterwards, and showed her the
tickets, etc., and we made our plans for our taxi at 9am, etc. Then
it was back home and getting ready to go to lunch. Karen was taking
me to lunch at Toby
Cavery, and we had a delicious typical Yorkshire
Sunday lunch with ham, roast turkey, beef, Yorkshire puddings, loads
of different vegetables, and onion gravy and homemade applesauce.
We were stuffed! I came home after that, and well, here I am, writing
to you!
Have a great week,
and I will tell you all about Wimbledon next week!
Love,
