Panic Over.

We're beginning to lose the 'summer' weather. This morning when Peter went out rowing there was hardly a breath of wind and the sea was calm and flat. By the afternoon a chill wind had arrived flicking up wavelets all across the bay.

For the last week I've been feeling very stressed. We're off on our holiday soon and as I'm someone who doesn't trust phones, the battery might have run down or there's no signal, I prefer to have printed out travel tickets. The e-tickets for the flights out were found and printed but as much as I searched I couldn't find the tickets for the return journey. So I tried the KLM message chat bot but it would only speak in Dutch with no way to translate to English. I sent emails to KLM but nothing. I worked my way through pin numbers and passwords to open 'My Trip.' But again nada. I began to panic or at least get seriously stressed. I allocated this morning to phoning KLM and hopefully sorting it all out. But first I thought I'd have one more check of the folder into which I'd put everything to do with the holiday. And there at the very bottom was an email from Expedia (not KLM) which contains our e-tickets. Phew.

That wasn't the only hiccup in our travel plans. When I saw the printed rail tickets I could see that I had managed to book day return tickets instead of open return tickets. On Friday Aberystwyth station ticket office had been unable to help as I'd bought the tickets on-line from trainline. So that was the next phone call I planned to make. First I checked how much it would be if I had to buy new tickets for the homeward journey and also the cost of return tickets. When I spoke to someone at trainline they couldn't rearrange the tickets so I asked for a refund and would buy new return tickets. Somehow the new tickets cost less than the original ones. A little bonus after all that stress.

Travel arrangements sorted I walked to the pharmacy to collect my prescription and then disappeared into the garden where I gave some of the hedges a trim with the electric hedge cutters. The escallonia I'll leave until the flowers are over so there's just one section up by the terrace to do. I have to pace myself these days. Afterwards I sat out on the terrace though it felt chilly even in the sun and I needed my warm fleece and a bodywarmer.

And now for pretty photos from Saturday.

Having had a relatively stress free three hour drive we met up with Romas in Leek. Things went a little awry because we had planned to meet and park in the market square car park but couldn't because of the antiques market. We found a nearby short stay car park and then Romas drove us to Thor's Cave in the Peak District for a sunny afternoon walk.

Although it is limestone country compared to slate here the scenery is not dissimilar. Our path ran through the valley along the route of the old Leek & Manifold light railway. Thor's Cave has been popular with tourists as far back as Victorian times and Saturday was no exception. Lots of people walking and cycling along the flat wide path.

Then, to get to the cave you follow paths through a coppiced hazel wood until you reach long flights of stairs up the steep hill. These were well made and very even which made it possible for Peter to get up to the cave without straining his knees or ankles.

I went right up to the mouth of the cave but it was so busy (and Peter was worrying about getting back to Leek before our car park ticket ran out) that I didn't bother pushing my way inside the cave.

Instead I turned and admired the view and the path we had followed along the valley.

Back in Leek we still couldn't get into the market square and after some following, losing and phoning we found space to park in a nearby side street.

Romas saw us settled in our Airbnb before heading back to Stoke to get ready for the evening. While Peter went for a drink with some of Laura's family I had a quick wander round this former textile town before relaxing with a cup of tea in the room.

Leek has been a market town for over 700 years and continues to be a prosperous and vibrant place due to its proximity to the Peak district (tourists) and the nearby city of Stoke. The sun and later warm evening contributed to the holiday feel of the place.

There were ancient pubs on every corner with bistros and restaurants galore. Many artisan shops and even the charity shops looked classy. (I only had time to drop into one.) It would be good to spend a bit more time there.

Romas and Laura had booked a downstairs room at Duck Goose (quite a foodie bistro) to celebrate their engagement with about 30 friends and family. Romas had designed Laura's ring himself which I thought was lovely. 

The décor was a quirky mix of antique and modern and entry into the room was a 'hidden door' disguised as a bookcase.

We had met Laura's parents before but it was nice to meet more of the family. It was funny chatting to Romas' fellow band members as I've seen them so often in rehearsal and gig videos. 

The food was very nice too. I had a mushroom lasagne with deep fried enoki mushroom. An interesting and unusual texture with the crispy batter being spicy but not too hot.

The view from our room.