8 April

I arose to follow my current normal procedure (up at 7, shower, dress, down for breakfast at 7:30 and struggle through orange juice, cups of tea, toast with Vegemite, egg, baked beans, sausage, bacon and tomato), then finished off and did checking of emails, web sites, etc., and finally headed off to Peggy’s place. Here, after parking the car, we chatted (I couldn’t convince Peggy to come out for a drive) and that extended into far later than I had planned and we had lunch.
I had to make my apologies soon after as I had arranged to see Alan and Cathie in the afternoon. Fortunately it is only about fifteen minutes so I was soon there. We continued discussion of family matters and Alan came out with a drawer of old photos which we looked at – there was one of mum and dad at their wedding in there! Time literally flew by and we ended up heading out to have tea at Devil’s Dyke Hotel. It is up atop the South Downs (which are uplands, for those who haven’t visited them) and apart from an excellent view north, then over Brighton while we had tea, the meal was also very good. Then it was back, another cup of tea and finally I had to say farewell and headed off to Terry and Pat to pick up my washing and have a last chat. On the way the car maintained it was nearly out of petrol (and kept telling me to fill it – if it’s so smart, why can’t it fill itself) and also that ice was on the road (it wasn’t). After a last talk and promises to catch up within Australia again, I headed off and had to refuel fairly soon. It was an uneventful trip back and I arrived at Worthing at 12:30 and was soon to sleep.