Saturday

Who would have thought that The Big House "curse" would be alive and well? When I first woke this morning - a little after 5 - I was surprised that it was so dark. But, of course, it's getting darker in the mornings because we are now in Autumn and the days will be getting shorter - so it must be getting lighter later and darker earlier. That's how these things work. But that's not why it was so dark this morning. I realised when I next woke up (40 minutes later) that it was dark because it was overcast - as anyone who has been following the recent history of S's visits to The Big House will know. When she visits, something happens which means she cannot swim - either it's raining - or the pool is closed for maintenance - and if not, then it's closed because they're either preparing for, having, or cleaning up after a pool party. It was nice of Mi to ring to razz us about it too, but I suppose that was partly my fault for putting it on FaceBook.

So, how to make the best of it? We decided we would have a day of doing nothing much - reading, writing, puzzles, CheeseLand ... relaxing. Just what the doctor ordered! And, with any luck, we wouldn't have to venture outside at all.

We were just finishing our breakfast at the Executive Club when M texted to say she and Mouse were having breakfast (but without Pearl because it was too wet for her to come out) and asked us to guess where. As it turned out, it was downstairs at Spinners, and we joined them there for a coffee (for me) and a glass of water (for S) - before they went off to do shopping and whatever else they had planned for the day.

S and I came back upstairs and spent a few hours relaxing (I think S had a little nap as well) before we went to Bite for lunch, then a little play in the Casino, then back to CheeseLand for a cup of coffee for afternoon tea. Of course, we were back there 2.5 hours later for the real CheeseLand - and at this stage think we won't even bother with dinner since we've been grazing all day. If we do get hungry, we have some fruit to keep us going - and there might be a butterscotch lolly around somewhere.

One of the great things about staying here is that they still have bath tubs - and I'm planning to make use of the one here before I turn in for the night.

The rain has come and gone throughout the day and it has been wonderful to watch from the window of the hotel as we puddled ... and caught up with blog entries. Life is good.