Friendship, Fun and Laughter (and lots of wine...)

This week has been another really busy one for me - among other things like trips to A&E (again) lol

One particularly busy day was  the 28th August 2014.

Before we left I met for a couple of hours with a great friend of mine Louise, who I haven't seen since the back end of June, seems so much longer lol, it was awesome, chatting about family, the various changes we have been through, events and all the stuff we are passionate about.  She shared about the charity she is involved with and in due time I want to do a blogpost especially for this, but since they are still organising everything, it will wait till then.

Louise we really shouldn't leave it so long, I love and miss you down to earth nature and the way you ground me "Get down here missus" lol I need that sometimes :)

Following a really nice lunch we were joined by +Chris Ogle  and +Carol Dodsley  as they collected me for our trip up "Norf" where we were to travel to Redcar to attend the +Link4Growth Durham & N.Yorks  Link4Drinks event organised by the very lovely +Gerri Riddiough and her team, the wonderful and caring +Sue Esplin and the protective and nurturing +tonia nixon.  We arrived VERY late due to the horrendous traffic on the M1 but still in plenty of time.  The others that were due to meet us, had already gone on from the guest house to the venue.

After signing in to the really wonderful Armada Guesthouse we were shown to our rooms, I think we were all really pleasantly surprised, the place is spotless, quality, comfortable and stylish, the staff are awesomely helpful and very friendly, yet still managing to be extremely professional.  Carol and I went to get changed and I had a quick coffee in my room before joining her and Chris in the foyer.

We travelled on to "Turner's Mill" in Redcar, where we meet up with +Dee Twentyman and +Jenny Braithwaite and other local people from Redcar.

The atmosphere was electric, there was much wine to be had and have it we did, the conversations varied from the local, to national and global situation we find ourselves in, ideals and aspirations, lots of other fun topics too.  By the end of the night its safe to say we were all well anointed lol - We were also treated to Dee's beautiful singing voice - WOW she can sing !

Following Turners Mill we all popped over to Tonia's house for more drinks after picking up yet more wine and drinks.  Once through there we made our way back to
the guesthouse where apparently I face planted with Jenny lol, who was amazing - we sobered up pretty quickly actually (how on earth we did that while still drinking I will never know lol) anyways we sat in my room talking about all sorts till about 4am.  Nice to know someone else who LOVES tequila lol.

I woke the next morning about 7.45am with Dee knocking me up for breakfast lol, which I have to admit didn't stay down as I wasn't very well at all :/

from then till way after 12pm I was seriously hung over, feeling sick and wavy (so embarrassing lol).

We all walked into Redcar, and found a cafe to sit in, I didn't sit long needed fresh air and I broke my coke fast, the caffeine was seriously needed but coffee smelled YUCK.  I enjoyed the walk about and the fresh sea air, the people in Redcar are so friendly, almost as friendly as Derbyshire folk ;)

After much texting and laughing among us girls, we were met by Chris and Gerri for lunch in "The Plimsoll Line"  - we all had fish and chips which was lovely I have to admit, except Carol who had a sundae, before we all set off back down south.  Poor Chris and Carol had to put up with my snoring on and off as I caught up on some well needed sleep 10 hours in 3 days lol.

Thank you to all of you in the +Link4Growth  Team that I met for such a wonderful time, you are ALL so fabulous !

Here is the very tired +Carol Dodsley  and +Chris Ogle  with the Link4Growth Update !