I indulged in people-watching while in the restaurant and on the first evening, at dinner, I was not disappointed. I noticed a Hagrid lookalike sitting at a table across from me, and only minutes after he had been seated, the waitress ushered a female equivalent to the table beside him, but across the aisle. They struck up an animated conversation that the kept going throughout the meal, interrupted only by the to-ing and fro-ing of the staff. I wanted to shriek at them to 'for god's sake sit at the same table'; these two had such good vibes going it was poetry to watch them enjoying their food in each other's company. Spotted Barbara Windsor at the buffet lunch the following day, with her most recent 'toyboy' in tow (I presume he was that, could have been her son (or grandson) I suppose - but no - the body language was all wrong for that)
It was at day two's lunch that my favourite people encounter happened. I had been shown to a 'sharing table' for lone guests and had been deep in conversation with a woman who was there for a day when the waitress brought a young lone male to the table. I had to suppress my feeling of shock because he was the spit of one of my Irish nephews, right down to the receding hairline. As soon as he spoke, I spotted a slight Dublin accent, and gulped when he told me he had lived in London for only 5 years. When I met him in the coffee bar later that evening and I discovered he was an accountant, I just had to ask his name. He told me it was Green (a name that is vaguely familiar as being a branch of the Irish outlaws) any idea
I had a lovely encounter with a group of ducks this morning under the trees beside the weir (MWNN tells me that's called a college of ducks. They were shovelling in the grass and came so close that I actually thwacked one of them on the head to get him to leave my Harry Potter book alone - he wasn't impressed (the duck, not Harry) but I muttered 'orange sauce' and he got the message right enough.
So, I had a great time;- two full body massages, two medi-jet treatments, a scalp massage and a facial- feel really rested and completely over all the stiffness and aches - I used the pool twice a day and managed to double the number of lengths I could do in 15 minutes (no I'm not telling, suffice to say, I wasn't trying for speed but for non-stop swimming)
MWNN told me I looked 10 years younger when he picked me up and was very impressed with my new outfit from Banana Moon - a singlet and cut-down linen trousers (the boutique had a sale - honest!)