Favourite Places

I have lots of places that I consider favourite places, places where I feel at home, places where I feel a connection.

I've been very lucky in my life to travel, it's something I love, new food, cultures, new people.

Thailand, amazing people, the land of smiles, and it is, my take on the Thai people is they have a very similar sense of humour, sacarsm with a great dose of humour, I can relate. The food is fabulous and an amazing country to visit.

Portugal I have been to so many times. The love affair was born from it not being a long flight when the girls were little and flying from Doncaster is a dream. The beaches are amazing and so diverse, there is something for everyone.

Greek Islands, oh how I love the Greek islands, we've been to many. My current favourite place is a villa high in the mountains up from a village Toukalades in Lefkas. I love the food, tranquility and stunning scenery. Give me a Greek salad, yoghurt and local honey and I'm happy. It will be our third time we have been come August.

New York, just wow it's such a vibrant amazing place and seems so familiar from everything seen on telly.

Ireland, I just love anywhere I've been here, whether it be Northern Ireland or in the South. It weirdly feels like home.

In England I have fond memories of Northumberland, Birmingham, the Mailbox area is fab,all cafe bars on the canal, Liverpool, my husbands birth place. Newcastle, great night out, Leeds, my home city. Oxfordshire I've come to like very much.

I absolutely love going to the Lake District, the scenery is stunning.

Spain holds many memories of my teens when my dad was here, many very fond memories.

My favourite place here is sat out in an area my OH has created, it has a gazebo with a fire pit and seating. All the plants are smelly, jasmine, night scented stocks and nicotiana, and twinkling lights. I get so much pleasure sitting out here.

Our favourite places can be many and very diverse, but home is usually the favourite.

Sha X

The Lead Up

We are just shy of a week away from Ts prom, all the appointments for hair, nails, spray tan and make up have been made. The dress needed alterations and we still have shoes to get, along with some bling jewellery. So far so good, however prior to getting the chosen dress I had made an appointment with a local supplier of all things prom, wedding, mother of the bride provider. I made an appointment and was texted with confirmation for a month later way back in April. Someone else mentioned another place to try and we went to have a look one Saturday morning. Funny thing is the dresses that look stunning on the hanger can look crap on and the ones that would be potentially dismissed look stunning on. We found THE dress.

I was texted a reminder of our appointment at the other place, it went like this
Good Afternoon Sharon
Just confirming your appointment with us at 4.30pm on Thursday 27th April

My reply
Hi A thank you for the reminder however can I cancel our appointment, my apologies Kind Regards Sharon

The reply
No problem Sharon thanks for letting me know albeit with only 24 hours notice.
Since you hadn't replied to my earlier text of the 5th April I thought it best to check- just as well I think as we really value every appointment and usually enjoy the same courtesy in return from our clients.
Regards A

A proper fucked me off!

My reply
Dear A
My apologies for not responding to your text on the 5th April, I am of a certain age and at times I think I have responded to a text when in actual fact I haven't, this isn't due to being discourteous, that really isn't in my nature, it maybe at times due to working full time, bringing up my two grandchildren, or the dog may have escaped again! I may have got distracted consequently not replied to texts. I take it on my chins that I have been truly admonished. Kind Regrds Sharon.

A didn't reply.

I can't wait to see T in her prom outfit, it's a rite of passage that they all have now. How far we have come.

Sha x

What's For Tea

When I was younger I wrote a story for an English lesson entitled  If Its Egg and Chips It Must Be Wednesday...... I was always writing stories back then. The premis of the story was you knew what day of the week it was just by what was for tea, we called it tea here up north in them days, not dinner, supper was a snack before bedtime. Every week it was the same on the same day, fish and chips on a Friday, it was payday and being left footers to boot. Oh how I longed for something different on a  Sunday tea after the Sunday roast, cold meat, bread and butter, tinned fruit with carnation milk didn't hold any great appeal to me at all. The most exotic thing I ever had in the 70s was a Vesta Curry, oh and my aunt made a Spaghetti bolagnase, very sophisticated I thought.

The phone call I receive from my OH every day is one that creates an eye roll of how many fucks do I actually give, "Whats For Tea". By the end of the week on receiving the what shall I get when I go shopping, yes he does do the weekly shop, however I have to do the "list" which to be quite honest is a complete waste of time as I don't think he actually looks at it. Unbelievably the question of the food shop and what are we eating causes the most arguments in our house.

We've tried Gusto, Hello Fresh, all the ingredients for the evening meal all delivered to your door. I've had a go at batch cooking, meal planning, but this is how it usually goes down in this house, OH brings shopping home on a friday with what seems to me a random selection, duck ffs, and you'd think he had swum the channel, he's quite chuffed with his inventiveness. It's left on the kitchen work tops for me to unpack and me inevitably chunttering under my breath you forgot half of the list! which understandably he finds deflating, Friday night usually ends in us all being hungry, grumpy and ordering a takeaway.

Now I know a big part of the problem is ME, my indecisiveness where food is concerned is quite known to all who know me. My OH lives to eat and I eat to live, if he hasn't eaten by a certain time the he gets very very arsey. I'm not a bad cook, the stew and dumpling, roast dinner kind of cook but you'd think I'd put something laced with arsenic down for the kids the look of disdain I receive. It seems very few meals are a hit with all of us, chicken schnitzel being the exception.

We are on a trial this month of deciding what we would like for tea on a daily basis to try and cut down on the waste, and the past it's sell by date, didn't get used, fridge to bin fiasco. It's not quite working really. We may not have had all the availability to all the foods we do now back in the 70s but our tea was put in front of us and the choice was we ate it or went hungry. We didn't ask "what's for tea" as whatever the day of the week it was we knew what it was going to be. The days of not knowing what a capsicum was don't seem so bad at all.


Sha x

If The Boot Fits

So after the guy drove in to me on Friday night it sets off a whole chain of events when I made the call to the insurance company on Saturday morning. Going through everything and how it actually happened they then ask me if I or any of my passengers had been hurt. I'm asked to lower my head, move it from side to side, raise my arms, to be honest I felt a bit of a dick doing this whilst on my mobile, did I feel any pain whatsoever.


Complaints of car insurance premiums rising due to scam claims I was quite surprised when I was immediately put through to a personal accident and injury law firm. They would sort out physio, I could claim for any out of pocket expenses, time off work, a broken fingernail. The whole system seems to be geared up to encouraging you to make a claim. We are all totally fine, no harm done, however I'm told any injury may present itself at a later date (which I know can happen) so please do contact them if this is the case, they have set up a file for future reference.


The car didn't get off so lightly and as they were coming to take it away on Monday frequent calls to the hire company in the hope I could get a vehicle before lunchtime so we could get to the Holy Communion in Leeds. A lovely young man named Tom rang to say he couldn't get to me before 6.30pm that day and he knows a Sharon Egan who lives in Falaraki, he would show me her on his Facebook when he arrived. Getting to Leeds was now out of the question, I do wonder if I could make a claim for that!


Apparently I was due an upgrade on the car that was delivered, they would contact me on Monday. The nice young lady at the hire company said she would be at my house between 4.30 and 6.00 with my upgraded 7 seater. To be honest I didn't pay much attention to that bit.


Laid on the sofa like Arya Stark in her blind phase, I have an eye infection and had just applied ointment, T tells me there was a lady outside for me. Looking through the window I can kind of make out this big white thing parked up. She was here with my car, I asked her where it was and she ta dah like said this is it, "you are shitting me" was my response. Now if I had wanted to do a bit of moonlighting on airport runs it was perfect. There was actually an aisle down the middle, which made me think of the flight attendant emergency routine. As I'm 4ft 11' getting up to the driving seat was no mean feat. There was no way on this earth would I be able to drive that, it had to go back AND I REALLY DON'T NEED 7 BLOODY SEATS!


Hire company duly contacted me the next day, they would bring me another car. Part of the registration number is UGG and it's a bit like them, all snug, comfortable and easy. I really like this one. It's a good fit.


Sha x

Isn't it a Ironic

This month I have driven to see my sister in Wiltshire, a 5 hour drive which  as there was just me and the kids it was all down to me, it was a relatively easy drive in terms of traffic, I decided on stopping for lunch via my sons in Oxfordshire which meant to our surprise we came in to Wiltshire passing Stone Henge which I totally wasn't expecting to see just there on the side of the road. We had a lovely weekend and was really looked after. It was bank holiday weekend and my original plan was to come back on the Monday but the drive down had taken it out of me and I needed to go back Sunday to give me a day on Monday to recover.

My OH and I were then going to a funeral in South Wales, again a 5 hour drive but at least it was a shared drive which wasn't too bad. I've seen the services on the M42 way too much this month.

On Friday evening I had been to pick T's boyfriend up and decided to call into a retail park on the way back as T really didn't have anything to wear for a family communion on Saturday which meant I came back home a different route to the one I normally take. Driving through a village about 5 miles from home a huge 4x4 in front of me pulled over to the right to park up I carried on driving and he just  pulled out on me and hit me. He was very apologetic and admitted responsibility, he just didn't see me.

The ensuing calls to insurance the next day, my car was deemed undrivable, hire car sorted, my thoughts were how ironic you drive all those miles and you end up having an accident so near home.

Sha x