You Lookin’ at Me?

I met Louise this morning for a walk up to Devils Dyke, it was a lovely, sunny morning and quite mild.  We walked 8 miles in total and were quite surprised at the lack of people - we hardly saw anyone else at all, which was rather nice!  

We decided to wear our Christmas hats for a bit of fun and I've added a selfie to my extras, together with the outtake of this shot of Errol the Emu.  He's a very inquisitive chap who always comes over to say hello,  and as I was trying to take his photo, he leaned forward and looked right into the camera, fortunately Louise captured the moment.

When we got to Devils Dyke, we sat and had our lunch before turning round and heading back - I'd taken a flask of soup, which turned out to be a great idea.  The walk back was fine until the last mile, when both of us struggled due to pain in our feet - I wore my old rubber walking boots due to it being a very muddy walk and Lou had worn her wellies.  I used to be able to walk miles in those boots, but I think they're past their best and now my heels feel bruised, my ankles have seized up and it's painful to walk!

On my way back home, I stopped off at the pier to meet Amanda and Marianna to watch the murmuration and then I called at the chippy to get a chippy tea as I couldn't face standing to cook.  

In other news there have been a lot of changes this week with regards to Christmas rules in Wales and changes in tiers in England, so it's been rather stressful as to whether or not our Christmas holiday in Wales would go ahead.  We were booked from 22nd December until 1st January, however Wales is going into a complete lockdown on 28th December and we aren't allowed to stay beyond then.  So yesterday, after a few phone calls with the rental agent and messages to Julie the owner, it was agreed that we could have the house from 21st - 28th December.  The next hurdle was the new tier announcements today and thankfully we have remained in Tier 2 - Hastings and parts of East Sussex that border Kent have gone into Tier 3 and if we'd have moved up, we wouldn't have been allowed into Wales.  But the problem didn't end there - during my walk today I had a call from the rental company telling me due to the recent changes in Wales, only one household was allowed to stay at the house.  Mum is coming with us, and Rachel, Scott and the girls are due to come on Christmas Day and stay until 27th.  They've said mum can stay because she's in our bubble, but Rach, Scott and the girls aren't allowed to.  They're allowed to visit us but just can't stay overnight.  It's such a shame as they were looking forward to the break, and we were looking forward to spending the time together, but at least they can still spend the day with us and we have to look at the positives, we may not have been able to see each other at all.  So I shall make it a special day for all of us. 

The next Government announcement is on 30th December, and I fully expect us to be put into lockdown again, but I think that needs to happen.

One week to go - stay safe!