Wednesday and Thursday are Spa days, which means three meals a day, a lot of massage and huge amounts of laying on beds and recliners in different environments and trying not to snore. Both ending up with big meals, night meds and a collapse into bed wondering how I can I be so tired after so much lounging and indulgence. So far Hoar Hall has been a real success.

Thursday our last day at the Spa. We have an early breakfast after having packed and stowed some bags in the back of Elsie (the car). This morning I actually ate a cooked breakfast, the first day I have felt up to it. We put our travel clothes into lockers in the Spa and I headed for the sound sanctum. My partner went off to a pool. I woke up about 10:30 and realised I had probably snored quite a lot and ruined the peaceful space for several Spaees. As I left the sound sanctuary I bumped into my partner coming to collect me. It is almost time for another rub down with an oily rag.

Todays massage was a full body affair , deep tissue with a scalp massage to end. It all goes well The massager took me by surprise by the distance she rolled my swimming trunks down to access my buttocks. However my buttocks appear to have enjoyed the firm oiling they got. At the end we had a bit of a debrief and she said she would send me her suggests for some relaxing and refreshing oils. She was good to her word, however I do not see myself spending £48 on 150ml of relaxing oil for the bath or the same amount for cooling and relaxing gel for my back. She also gave me all the guff about lactic acid crystallising in the muscles and massage breaking down the “knots”, so it important to drink lots of water to wash away the “toxins”. Its all bollocks of course, lactic acid doesn’t from crystals and its the liver and other organs that deal with the lactic acid.

I met up with my partner and we indulge in post massage drinks and lemon muffins. We sit and chat comparing Hoar Hall with Ragdale. Hoar Hall comes out well from the comparison, we would both do it again. Pay less for a room, after all their is no need to be in it between breakfast and bed time and spend more time in the Spa facilities including the very good gym facility they have. At lunch time we go to the dining room to find they are running slow, breakfast had been slower due to only one chef turning up, I assumed that there was still only one chef. At one point the waitress said they had no jugs for tap water but they could do it by the glass. She went away and then returned with jugs of tap water, clearly some one behind the scenes had decreed that jugs would be used. Although slow lunch was nice and another chance to chat. With eating done and tine getting on we retrieved our travel clothes and prepared to leave. Thee was the moment of truth when we paid our bill for the little extras we had had during our stay. I still think a fiver for a side of chips is extortionate no mater how many times they have been cooked. On the whole we got a way lightly. We clamber into Elsie and I drive us home via the pretty route via Ashby and Ibstock, a route strewn with speed cameras.

Once home there was a general flop of relief to be home the garden had survived well and everything in pots looked just fine. I managed to get my bags upstairs at some point but lacked the energy to unpack. I watched Granite Harbour until l fell asleep and woke only to take my night meds ad get off to bed.

Friday and I wake up in my own bed and feel crap with a head ache. I am not amused by this. My partner brings me a hot water and I struggle to get up. I unpack and sort my washing out and put the rest of my clothes away. Breakfast follows as does morning meds and paracetamol. I have a postcard from a friend who sent it only yesterday, it must be a first, a card arriving before the sender has got home. I wait for the paracetamol to take hold and then drive my partner and to the butchers at our local garden centre. Here we buy mounds of sausages, pes and other goodies in readiness for the visit of the two youngest grandsons tomorrow.

Once home there is time to start to draft the blog until my eldest daughter goes of to buy stuff for her face and my partner goes to visit her mother in her care home. I sign the contract to have our house alarm system upgraded and send it off before returning to the blog draft. I’m doing this when my partner returns. We slide into the evening, there is still stuff to do to prepare for tomorrow but tonight there are the last episodes of Granite Harbour to watch. It will be an early night for me so I can be up for the challenge of a three year old and eight month old. I have not written anything for a little while now and I am starting to think my brain or whatever creates my stuff as taken a break. It might just be that my inspiration is running slow or low at the moment. I think unconsciously I am waiting to see the Forward for the next collection, but the author is away on holiday with his family at the moment so I need to be patient and wait and see in the fullness of time.