Part of George’s ‘pitch’ when asking us if we would like to exchange homes with his stepson David in Brandys N.L. was a free meal each week at David’s uncle’s restaurant – De Parade. It seemed to be a good deal to us, especially as David organised the hire car for us.

We had a meal there the night before David left, and found it is quite sophisticated, with an interesting menu, including menus in English. Last night was the first opportunity we had to actually go there for a meal on our own. Pavel, our waiter, speaks good English. He initially gave us menus in Czech, which was polite, as we may have spent some time here and be able to read it.

We enjoyed the evening and although we are spending all of our time together somehow sitting face to face in another setting made it easy to talk.

The restaurant building is at the centre of this photo – slightly pink. It has the time and temperature in neon on the rounded corner, very handy.

This morning we went to the local Tesco for shopping. Stephen still can’t lift things and when we had to transport our shopping into the building I did a system of bringing in one bag at a time, as I was worried about hurting my back. Still, everything happened as we had hoped, including getting onto the roundabout just outside the shopping centre, which took me ages.

Today was grey for much of the day, but from around 3.00 p.m. it has become clear and sunny. It certainly feels much colder than yesterday. We are hoping very much for snow.

I was talking about snow with Jenny today, and she told me that Brian and Wendy arranged transport so that Matt could go to the Carlisle Boxing Day Family Gathering. I had tried to organise it last year, but Brian wasn’t in town and the house where it was being held did not have access. Brian must have found out about it and took the trouble to organise it this year. I am so very grateful. No wonder Matt couldn’t answer when I asked him if he had seen his Aunty (meaning my sister who went to see him on the Sunday after Christmas).

He was probably thinking ‘well, I had Aunties coming out of my ears, really, not to mention Dad and step mum, my brother and sister, and cousins galore’. How could he answer my question with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response, which is all we have. The staff member who was present was relief staff, so didn’t know. We even didn’t ask the right question of Alaena, whose speech is very clear. The question we did ask, about Marie’s visit, she was able to answer.

So, it has proved beneficial to have Jenny on Facebook who was able to fill me in. I told her how delighted I was to hear about the Boxing Day family gathering for Matt. They have been having this event on Boxing Day for as long as I remember. I used to take Matt in the early days, but then also like to go to the Boxing Day lunch with Stephen’s family. A lot of families only get together at Christmas, so even if he only sees the extended families once a year, at least it helps him to feel part of the larger family network.

So, we have lots of food – fortunately Stephen’s condition does not affect his appetite. We are hopefully eating a bit less now that we are not doing lots of walking, but it’s still nice to have good food, including fresh fruit, on hand.

I’m going to try out the special electric baking device that David showed us before he left. His oven is pristine – even though I have cooked one casserole in it. I find the induction cooktop can take time to heat up and difficult to adjust even though I have downloaded and read the instructions. We shall see if this device is the answer to cooking a couple of chicken breasts and vegetables.