Cooeee I'm back!

Only one more day to enter the blog candy below, and so far I have drawn Dawn from the followers to win the second candy, now I am back I will get that posted off to Dawn.

Holiday was nice, the weather was fab. It was a little ruined at the beginning by my developing a big spot right in the middle of my nose, it was so painful and I felt everyone was staring and I looked like a rhinoceros! I spent days slapping on the spot stuff in an effort to cover it up and maybe get rid, but eventually it sort of subsided, is still there as a big spot but at least the pain has gone and my whole nose was red but is back to normal, sorry if this is too much information.

We got to Torquay after dropping into the Donkey Sanctuary for lunch and to see a few donkeys, and after a rest in the hotel we went to the theatre to see Sylvia, which was really funny and was about an adopted dog causing marital strife in New York but the dog was played by a girl.

Then we went for an Indian meal in Bombay Express which is a beautifully decorated restuarant that does great food.

I got hold of two free cinema tickets to State of Play on Sunday morning in Paignton, and it was a really gripping movie, well anything with Dame Helen Mirran is bound to be good, and she plays a hard newspaper editor in this story of intrique which thrills right the way through.

Then we bought a few things to have a "picnic" in the hotel room. We later ate at a Chinese restaurant in Torquay that was recommended to us by the hotel and which we would probably never have found otherwise though it was in the eating guide booklet.

Yesterday we visited Trago Mills, and I bought "cough" a few little bits though I hadn't thought I wanted anything. I bought two packs of pick and mix card, two packs of Black Magic card (expensive but I figured it was probably cheaper than anywhere else and I have wanted to try it for ages), couple of paint brushes, a wheel of gems, a card of gems, two packs of felt borders, and I bought one of the Daisy and Dandelion sets - Pickles the elephant.

I really wanted some of the others as they were £3.79 a set, but there were none out. I asked the lady who was restocking the shelves, there wasn't much there really, but she had a trolley full of boxes, more in the warehouse and said the pickles stamps were in the first box but she had no idea when she would get to the rest. I hung around and checked back a couple of times but no joy sadly.

I also bought a glass cutting mat, people are raving about these and it was just over £6 so I thought I would try it.

To compensate for not getting the stamp sets I wanted I bought a Papermania one with dotty flowers, I can't remember if I have it already though.

On the way back we were going to pop in the very big Asda in Newton Abbot, but when we found you had to pay to park and £1 for an hour we didn't bother, but went to the big M&S on the way back to Torquay (which is next to the big Sainsburys, what heaven) and as well as our lunch we spent £100 on clothes as I hadn't expected the weather to really be as warm and my jeans and new sweatshirts were a tad warm, and I packed an awful skirt I bought from Sainsburys which seems to have streched rediculously and I think will be going back - I had to hold it up with a belt and with the two badly chosen T shirts I felt I looked like a refugee from the jumble sale - so after spending I felt a lot better in my cotton cargo pants and new tops. The only problem was that I picked up another pair in a different colour and they were too tight! I took them back today and tried on another pair, and two other colours and only the light green fitted.

I also bought a swimming cossie and actually went for a swim in the hotel swimming pool this morning though I nearly didn't as it has been a long time and I was really nervous.

Yesterday evening we visited Brixton and No 15 restaurant, which serves really great fish and steak dishes as well as rack of lamb, and I think vegetarian options. It is very small and therefore worth booking. As you walk up the stairs to the restaurant you pass the kitchen and can see cooking in progress.

I was tempted by the soup of the day but really didn't think I could manage that as well.

We had been planning to stay tonight too, and revisit Trago for a few things, but some things cropped up so we couldn't really stay.

We did visit the donkeys again and had lunch in the restaurant there, they do a great jacket potato with chedder cheese, huge meal each and pot of tea each for £13 total. We cuddled a few more donkeys, but no loose change this time as we delivered it the first time, then back home.