A Weekend In Winter

It's been a while since I posted and that is largely because I'm lazy and can not be bothered. Some things happened during that time and other things didn't. So moving on to recent times...
On Friday, after waiting for John to get back from the doctors, I set off for Llandudno for Unique's Winter Weekend. Trying out the satnav for the first time, I plugged in the destination and set off presuming it would take me the most logical way - down the M6 and across. However, as things transpired it didn't happen that way! The first problem is that our close is obviously in a blackspot and so the satnav told me to turn left when I was expecting to turn right. Being a trusting person, I presumed that this was correct and filled with curiosity and promise of a short cut to the motorway I hadn't discovered in the three years I've lived there, I followed it's instructions... and I ended up going through Liverpool and the Mersey Tunnel(s) to Birkinhead and then down from there along the coastline to Llandudno! Not exactly the route I had expected! To make matters worse, the satnav's maps are obviously not up to date and so it was telling me about roundabouts that weren't there and vise versa and doesn't seem to like suggesting doing u-turns and so I ended up taking quite a few unexpected detours! But I got there in the end!
As coincidence would have it, Jayne was in the lobby as I arrived and very kindly helped me with the bags from the car and I booked in and then we both carried my stuff up to my room. Then Jayne departed and left me to unpack.
It was rather a pokey little room more of the quality I would expect at a B&B rather than a hotel and the ensuite showerroom was even smaller! But a rather cute teddy bear was there waiting for me on the bed which instantly brightened my mood! Sadly, he was £26 to adopt and so I couldn't afford to take him home with me but I shall remember our time together fondly. :-) I also should mention that, as it transpired, my bed was surprisingly comfy and I slept well in it (with the exception of my body clock still set to work hours - i.e. waking up at 5.30 am each morning!) - but my tv was not so accommodating and had to be fixed before I could watch anything on it (which I didn't in the end, it was such a fully packed weekend!).
So, after unpacking, I went and joined Jayne in the "Garden room" which is where I met Jasmine for the first time. In times gone past polite people may've described Jasmine as "a character"... but the rude ones would probably have settled for "a loony"! You see, it's Jasmine's penchant to dress in fancy dress all the time and so, when I first met her, she was dressed as a flower - a "daft-odil" as she said herself - with bright green bodysuit, yellow trainers and a daffodil headdress! So, as you might imagine, Jasmine is not exactly shy and retiring and is full of good humour. So we sat in the "Garden room" for a while with a few of the others and had a chat. Sadly though, the conversation got a bit 'blokey' and I rapidly lost interest and the final nail in the coffin was when they moved on to the subject of race. So I made my excuses and retired to my room to prepare myself for the evening buffet.

Jasmine and I at the buffet. © Jayne Morose 2010

For the evening buffet I wore my black top I bought on Bury market with the tidy trousers I bought from M&S and accompanied it with my tidy work shoes (which were from M&S also). I styled my hair as Penny had shown me back in the summer and did my makeup. I think I looked rather elegant and Gillian, at least, seemed to like how I'd done my hair. :-)
The buffet itself was very tasty but the selection was rather limited I thought and slightly bizarre to do one side salad and on the other side baked spuds with baked beans and cheese as they don't really go together do they! For desert they offered cheesecake and gateaux but, again, it was rather thin on the ground and so I felt obliged to only have a thin slice of each and there definitely wasn't any left when I was thinking about having seconds!
After the buffet we moved into the bar for the disco. This was when I first found out the bar prices in the hotel - and they weren't cheap! (But probably standard for a hotel, as I believe hotel bars are notoriously expensive). Anyway, the disco was quite entertaining - for the wrong reasons! I enjoyed the music but, clearly, it wasn't to everyone's tastes and it seemed that whenever people took to the floor Debbi would put a different style of music on and it would instantly clear again! Lol! Then, at about 11.30pm, I was tired and headed off to bed.
As previously mentioned, my bodyclock was still set to working hours, and so I awoke at 5.30am. Not wanting to sit in bed reading my magazine and thereby getting a stiff neck, I had a shower and went out for a walk at about 6.30am with my camera with the intention of taking photos of the christmas lights.

One of the photos I took of Llandudno in the dark

I headed down to the bay first though and took a couple of pictures - some came out quite well, others most definitely didn't! Then I headed into the centre to take photos of the lights... except there weren't any! Obviously, with all the cutbacks, the council was being miserly and running them on a timer and so they weren't all switched on yet! Not to worry, I took photos of what there was and said good morning to the street cleaner as he passed. :-) I then headed back to the hotel and took a few photos of it bathed in it's ambient lighting but by then I was shaking too much to get more than one decent photo. So I went back into the hotel just after they unlocked the front door and headed back off to my room to prepare for breakfast.
At 8.30am I joined the others for breakfast and had some Weetabix and porridge. Jasmine joined us but this time was dressed boringly (for her!) in a pink bodysuit which she could zip all the way up - and I do mean all the way up!
After breakfast, I retired to my room for a bit before joining Gwen and Jayne for a bit of shopping. We had a good wander around all the shops and I found a cute little pink dragon which I got as a souvenir for John. I also found 3 sets of earrings and was treated to two mince pies and pot of tea by Gwen. The mince pies had meringue on top, instead of pastry, and were absolutely yummy! :-)
At lunch time I had a very brief natter with John on the mobile and was relieved to hear that he was doing OK. I do tend to worry about him these days with him being in such bad health - which probably gets on his nerves, me fussing over him! But I love the swine so what can I do?!!
After our wander around town we headed back to the hotel and Gwen retired to her room to recuperate whilst Jayne went into the bar and ordered their lunch where I joined her after depositing my stuff in my room. I joined in with them on the sandwiches and had prawn cocktail ones which, perversely enough, was quite a generous helping! (Why are they generous with the sarnies and skimpy on the main meals?? Something needs to be addressed here methinks!)
Then, whilst we were sat in the bar, Debbi put a film on - Different For Girls - which wasn't exactly a 'feel good' movie and it's just as well I'm not on the hormones yet cos I was teary enough as it was after watching that! I don't regret watching the movie though cos I found it therapeutic and it helped me to begin to address some stuff I've been avoiding.
After the movie I retired to my room for a bit before I found Penny for my makeover in preparation for the Gala meal.
Before the weekend I'd contacted Penny about my makeover and sent her a piccie of the dress I was gonna wear with the instruction that I wanted to look glam and make people's jaws drop (in a good way!). Penny was kind enough to suggest accessories for the dress and, when I went for my makeover, she set to work doing my make-up and hair. And she achieved my ambitions and then some! I looked - and felt - absolutely stunning! I really can't thank her enough for making that possible for me! Forget Jimmy Saville - book Penny to make your dreams come true! :-)

Ready for the Gala meal © Claire Rice 2010

So, yes, when I came down for the Gala meal I got a very good reception off everybody and they all said how glamorous I looked which really put me on cloud 9! :-)
For the meal they'd organised us into tables with a member of the Unique committee on each table. The table was very well decorated but, because of the candelabra in the middle, I couldn't actually see Debbi on the other side!
For the meal we'd been asked to order well in advance and so it was very handy that each table had a print out of what we'd ordered on it to remind us! I started with melon, followed with sorbet, turkey for my mains and finished it off with a welsh cheeseboard. Everything was very tasty (apart from the cheese - but, then, John and I are used to VERY strong tasting cheese so I suppose anything else would be bland in comparison!) but again I thought the servings were skimpy, if very well presented.
However, the main disaster of the meal happened to Gillian when the waiter accidentally spilled a glass of red wine over her and her dress! Obviously, it was an accident and the waiter couldn't have been more apologetic but the clean-up was really very badly done with none of the staff seeming to know what to do! Matters were made worse when the manager then asked Gillian if there was a problem when she complained to him when, if he opened his eyes, he could clearly see there was a problem and then some!
Afterwards I discovered that Gillian wasn't the only victim at the Gala meal as Jennifer had a load of cuttlery tipped over her as well! So, in retrospect, it seems the manager may have employed his staff from Zippo's Circus that night!
So, anyway, on with the story...

Playing at being a DJ. © Jayne Morose 2010

After the meal we moved into the bar for the night's entertainment. This time we had a singer, Leann, who was an excellent entertainer and I enjoyed her between song 'patter' just as much as her singing! Then there was a brief disco before Debbi came over and asked me to be DJ - another dream come true! Except I managed to clear the bar in just one song! And it wasn't anything terribly exotic either (I was discouraged from that!), just Duran Duran's Rio! But I didn't let the fact that no one was dancing - or even in the bar sometimes! - put me off and continued on regardless with some Police, The Who, Elvis and various others and I was waiting for Gwen and Jayne to come back so I could slip in some Metallica whilst no one was paying any attention but, when Jayne did come back, it was to tell me they were going to bed! It was then that I looked at the time and saw that it was 1am! How time flies when you're having fun!! Lol!
So I went off to my bed shortly after - after I'd loaded another bunch of songs into the machine to give Debbi plenty of time to come and take over - and apparently they continued on until 3am! I've no idea whether Debbi managed to get anyone back on the dancefloor or not though! I fear I may very well have been the kiss of death!
I managed to sleep in until 7am on Sunday so I guess there's some advantage to staying up so late! Lol! And after having my shower and doing my makeup I joined the others for breakfast.
I think the girl who was doing the breakfast that morning must've been new - or perhaps just very forgetful - cos she kept on getting the orders wrong and coming back with plates of food that no one had ordered! It was quite farcical really! Anyway, after breakfast, I went back to my room and finished packing before coming down to pay my bar bill which, the amount of which, shall remain censored for reasons of modesty. ...Oh, the shame! Lol!
Then I borrowed a pen from the reception and filled in my feedback form...
Afterwards, I took the stuff out to the car and Gillian and Jayne dashed down to say goodbye - the mad fools! I'm seeing them again only next weekend!
So, after saying my goodbyes, it was back to the car and the satnav. This time I wanted to go via a petrol station so I managed to key that in to the route but I didn't just presume that it was gonna take me the way I wanted to go and zoomed out so I could see the route in full... and, sure enough, it was taking me through the Mersey tunnel(s) again! But I had no idea how to change it so just thought "sod it" and set off. I didn't quite have as many problems with it as I did on the way down but, even so, I still managed a few wrong turns and found non-existent roundabouts and if I ever find out why it kept on bonging at me all the better! (To quote my mum: "Stupid machine!")
So a few hours later I arrived home into the loving arms of my husband. :-)
It was a truly unforgettable weekend... not always for the right reasons... but I still had a lot of fun and I look forward to doing it all again next year... well, almost all of it! It would be preferable without the calamities next time! :-)