Our Life in 2026

Fresh back from Sri Lanka in January, we thought that we were having lunch with Edwardo, but somehow he never turned up, so we had to make do with Auntie Brenda


We took a lot of scary small aeroplanes	,,saw the Kaieteur Falls	Helped Chef Delven prepare and cook a meal	We had a lot of (too) early mornings. But did see strange and exotic animals.

.we saw the Cock of the Rock at Kaieteur Falls	Manatees in Georgetown	Toucans like in the Guinness adverts	Macaws

Red Ibises	Caiman whenever there was a pool of water	Giant Otters	Giant Anteaters

Giant Amazon Lily pods were big enough to sit on for some people	We motored along countless rivers in dugout canoes	And enjoyed some relaxing in a hammock	We met Melanie, who liked small bears (as well as Giant otters)

We experienced the old Dutch fort in Paramaribo	Man's inhumanity to man. Prisoner reception in French Guyana	We would not want to stay here longer than it takes to have our photo taken	We had a few cocktails to pick up our spirits, we like them

We saw the Ariane6 Rocket Launch	Somerville is still trying to work out why the con trail does not go straight	A rough voyage to Devil's Island	And that is with Devil's Island behind us

We looked round the abandoned prison buildings there	A very good final lunch in Cayenne	And we sorted out the lady from the French Guyana tourist board at the Cayenne Airport	And had an Air France flight that smacked of Ryanair, back to CDG and VAL


An overnight in Santiago de Chile	A Silversea flight to Puerto Williams	Dinner with Capt Freddie	Penguins in the Falklands

A very bad battlefield tour in Falklands	Gold Harbour in South Georgia really is gold at dawn	King Penguins in South Georgia	Lots and lots of them

Stromness where Shackleton ended his epic journey	Shackleton's grave in South Georgia	Difficult to get back to the ship in the fog	Chris plays Bridge with the lads

Rockhoppers on Gough	Tristan with its "curated" isolation	Signs everywhere to tell you how remote it is	A bridge too far on Nightingale


A very nice hotel in Hermanus ..	..where we met John Lyons, Chris' cousin, and his wife Leone	An old style hotel in Swellendam	And a geeky hotel at Plettenberg

Caves at Rosenhof	and an ostrich farm	\|Walks at Bushman's Kloff	..and different cave paintings every day

A room with a view at Paternoster	and the restaurant had a view too	Round Franschhoek by the wine tram	and a few tastings as we went

Chris was not amused that the pool was out of action for most of May - a leak had to be fixed so the pool had to be drained, the leak repaired and the pool refilled


We looked after a Petunia for C arol	The pool was gradually sorted out	The workers only turned up spasmodically,	I think they had another job on

Bill and Brenda	Lunch at Denia	The chef had a while cheese as his gizmo for serving noodles	The Boys are entertained by Uncle Nick

The Spanish Armada and a fleet of Optimists	Paul had a Birthday party at the Golf Club	Complete with "cake"	Patrick and is dog were there too

And a frisson of excitement when we had Chris' mobile stolen in a brazen theft at Soho Restaurant while we had lunch with Ted & Cilla. Incredibly quick


There we were having a lunch with Ted and Cilla at Soho	The crooks arrived in restaurant. As he sits down he grabs my bag	..pulls out phone, and then they leave the restaurant

So we went to the Guardia at the request of the restaurant	We were thee for about an hour as the lady Guardia	Typed up a 6 page statement for Chris to sign

I found this on Facebook. Billys went to Soho and found the event on Video. We had to go to Guardia to file a report

Today, during lunch service, three young people entered Billy’s asking to see the menu. They remained in the restaurant for barely a minute and a half. Unfortunately, the purpose of their visit was not to dine with us. After they left the premises, one of our customers discovered that her handbag, which had been placed on the floor beneath her chair, had been stolen. A report has already been filed with the Guardia Civil. Description of the individuals: • Two women and one man. • Approximately 25 to 30 years old. • Medium to short height; none of them was particularly tall. • They spoke fluent Spanish among themselves. • One of the women had long, straight black hair. • The man had a piercing in one ear. • They were dressed in light-coloured clothing and appeared well-groomed. We kindly ask for the public’s assistance. If anyone recognises these individuals, has images, video footage, or any information that may help identify them, we would greatly appreciate it if you could contact the Guardia Civil or get in touch with us. We deeply regret what has happened. It is especially upsetting that one of our customers experienced this situation in our restaurant and in our community. We would also like to remind everyone to keep a close eye on their personal belongings at all times. Please do not leave handbags, backpacks, wallets, or mobile phones on the floor or hanging from chairs. Thank you very much for your help and for sharing this post. Bar Billy's



We had a lunch at Casa Bonavita, an newly opened ..	..restaurant at Attard> it was so posh that they did not have a	"reataurant" sign, and we ended up entering by the back door


dinner with Len and Carol