Tales of Jill

Our honeymoon in Jersey was in the sunny July of 1978 and we never really went on a holiday for twenty five years after that date.. What with family illnesses and bereavements and with the littleuns running around, well neither of us ever thought of holidays and kept our feet firmly on the ground..I recall us going to Scarborough, Whitby and Aviemore with Jenni when she was only very small, but apart from one very wet weekend with all our little lot to Glasgow garden festival.. well we wern’t away on holidays at all.. so when I look back on that now our kids didn’t get very far, only local jaunts here and there,  back and forwards in our car..I realise twenty five years without any vacation sounds an awful long time but in those years with me three times in the family way it sped by fast within yon clock’s musical chime.. Now on our silver wedding anniversary Robert and I flew back to Jersey.. we noticed huge developments, even our honeymoon hotel was gone and flats were there instead..Oh mercy me..yet we both felt an infinity with this lovely place, unspoilt by tourism betwixt it’s green countryside and coastal seashored space.. Well when we boarded the small aeroplane following our honeymoon for our little hometown destination, I reminisce espying a St Helier Fort Regent’s landmark and thinking ‘Farewell my friend’ but I will return to your beautiful location.. now back in those days of 1978, if I had had a crystal ball and looked inside it’s mystery, well there would be images of Robert and I countless times stepping on and off planes bound for our little hometown on it’s return from Jersey..coz almost every year or so after that silver anniversary, even if we went to a brand new foreign shore, we would nip over once or twice a year to the Channel islands and that place we do so adore..

Now as I am trying my damndest delving back through our historic memoirs, I can’t remember the orders and the dates of what was written for us in the stars.. but however I should hopefully remember all the many places we had been, whilst small flashbacks trigger off memories of the sights that we have seen..We went on a few foreign city breaks I know and I can well recall enjoying their ever so over ingulgent strudel cakes..I loved strolling the little stone bustling bridges in Prague, an artist sketched my portrait on a scroll, he was brilliant as he sat upon a log..Oh Vienna was good with us wandering through the interesting Jewish community sampling their yummy food..Of course we spent many a long weekend not too far away on a train, there was York, Bath, Chester, Harrogate, Edinburgh.. Fridays thru to the Mondays and then back home again.. Ooh though I must tell you about our trips away to see our favourite musical bands, we loved our VIP trio of ‘U2’ concerts.. Croke park twice in Dublin’s fair city and once in the O2 on Londons riverside lands.. then we saw ‘Kings of leon’ in Murrayfield in Edinburgh, they were very good.. and we also loved them at St. James in Newcastle.. haha I was in a great dancing mood..Twice we bopped til’ we dropped to ‘Coldplay’ so we were in London’s  O2 again and the second time was in the Sunderland stadium when it teemed down with torrential rain..Paolo Nutini, I have loved him three times now, once was on Princess street gardens, Edinburgh on the Hogmanay night.. our hotel was just over the road and he was such a delight..then I just went with my three girls to see him play in Edinburgh’s Usher hall and we all loved him and had a brilliant ball, the next time I saw Paolo was in the Metro Arena at Newcastle I can well recall..Robert and a I enjoyed Enrique Iglesias three times coz I liked him alot, and we’ve enjoyed loads of other singers though probably some of them I have forgot.. Robbie Williams, Ed Sheeran, Rihanna, Ellie Goulding, Lady Gaga, Mumford and sons, Thirty seconds to mars, loads of X factor winners too..as I say there were so many other bands we jigged around at to add to all of this lot !!!

When wedding anniversaries come around we tend to celebrate them going away, so that is probably when we tasted the nicest of foreign cultures I really have to say.. Lake Garda in Italy with four night in Venice, this was amazing tho I regret not going on a gondolo, haha this is a menace.. Lake Annecy in France was nice as well, that’s the time both of us hired bicycles and our buts hurt like hell.. haha eeh my memory is on a roll, as I search high and low amidst yon dusty shelves in my mindseye, I am digging just like a mole..We went to Spain four times to Algorfa with a couple of good mates to their lovely spanish villa, we all had amazing holidays on those annual winter dates.. Robert, and our youngest daughter, Amanda and I spent a great week in Gerona in sunny Spain.. we all enjoyed it there that much that we would all go again...

For my fiftieth birthday Robert and I went to Cannes and Monaco, Oh my god I absolutely loved Cannes you know.. on my sixtieth one which was only last year, and I thank the Lord it wasn’t 2020, coz we wouldn’t have got on our Aegean cruise..what with this dam Covid-19 carryon I fear.. we also went on a narrow boat over the Llangollen canal, this was fun..teehee I had broke my foot only days before these two holidays had just begun.. so with that mahoosive, fine cruise ship, the Emerald Princess we were walking amidst loads of the most stunning, sunny Greek islands of beauty and finesse.. We spent the night in Rome then boarded this grand boat, it was so top heavy, it’s a wonder it could float.. then when we ended our beautiful cruise, we were in Barcelona in one of the best hotels that I have ever slept in, for one night’s snooze..Now when Bob turned that big ‘Five O’ we went on another Princess cruise ship you know, it was the Golden Princess and it sailed us from Seattle in the USA right thru the Akaskan passageways..Oh yes!!!
Well as you can well imagine coz I had arranged this special holiday, we landed on glaciers in a helicopter that was tremendous I have to say.. Another one of our most memorable occasions was an actual Christmas present from our three daughters, they sent us off to Reykjavik in Iceland to see the Aurora Borealis sensations.. well this splenderous sight with us knee deep in snow, was such an amazing delight.. I shall always remember loving the ‘blue lagoon’ for the entire day, with the natural sulphur steam rising off the welcoming hot water.. wow that was really something special  I can say..and we will never, ever forget those dancing colours in the snowy sky that chilly night, our eyes were captivated as a shooting star shot straight through the coloured arc in flight!!! 
I have twice and both times in different cars, driven Robert and I to stay for short breaks at the Lake district.. where we have dined in small sailing boats underneath the twinkling stars.. And twice yet again we have had holidays in the scorching sun, swimming and bobbing about in the wonderful warm waters of Corfu, in Greece which was so much great fun..

So Life is indeed just like that racing rollercoaster, betwixt one’s highs and lows of unpredictabiliy, yet when I press the pause button within that Journey through my time’s’ long snakey train, there are Oh so many cherised golden moments amidst my twighlight’s memories which will always remain tucked inside the very heart of my treasuries...