Benllech Break marred by Mid and Post Holiday Tiredness

We have been back from our holiday in Wale for a week now and I have been out of the house twice.  I was poorly and stressed various things before we went and although some of them have resolved themselves there always seems to be something else going on. I do apologise to the OH and our two mums whom we took away on holiday.  I just wasn't up to it, I'm sorry.
 

View from Beach Cottage, Benllech

The view from the window of our holiday cottage was lovely.  When it was clear we could see all the way to Llandudno - that's the sticky out bit on the left in the far distance in the photo above.  The sun shone more than it rained although it was quite windy all week.  

We managed a trip to Caenarfon on the local buses so that the OH could drink beer, we did two pubs, the Wetherspoons, the Tafarn Y Porth (Gate Inn) and a CAMRA recommended pub, the Black Boy Inn, which was very picturesque, although it had a limited beer choice on the day we were there.

Unfortunately after this trip I was so tired I had to retreat to my bed in the cottage for a day and a half.  I just slept ...  The OH did lots of walking and posted pictures from his walks on Facebook most days including pics of muddy boots and closed pubs (closed because it was early in the morning not closed, closed.)

We also had an afternoon out in Bangor on the last day, the mums both like charity shops, and there were plenty of them in both towns.  Sadly Wales seemed a bit run down.  Just behind our little house was a boarded up hotel, the staff in the local shops and pubs told the OH that it had been empty for about 10 years and was going to be auctioned off soon.  On the main road in the village was another empty pub/hotel, which looks fine and in business on Google maps so it can't have been closed for long.  
 

Purple Moose toy

The OH and his mum discovered a nice little bar, The Beachcomber Bar and Grill.  Despite the name the front part is a proper bar and you don't have to eat there to enjoy a few nice real ales.  I managed to make it there on the last evening as I appeared to have got my zing back after two days of rest, but unfortunately the Purple Moose beer (one of my favourites from beer festivals in Cardiff) had run out so I was just tormented by the fluffy toy moose on the shelf behind the bar and the Purple Moose beer mats while I drank some keg mild instead.  There were a couple of real ales on, don't misunderstand me, and a real cider for the OH's mum, but I like my beer dark and on the malty side and the ones available weren't to my taste.

The journey both too and from Wales was horrendous.  Traffic jams on the motorways and all the way though Tintwhistle (which we had expected) held us up for an hour and a half on the way there and an hour on the way home.  

I always try to break our journeys with a stop at a Wetherspoons pub as they provide cheap, good quality food, and toilet facilities.  We did the Thomas Telford in Ellesmere Port on the way out, chosen for ease of on street parking more than anything else but it did turn out to be a nice large open pub with some raised areas more dedicated to dining than drinking which we found very comfortable.  The service was good and the toilets were clean and on the ground floor level, what more could we want?

On the way back, as we'd had to vacate the cottage by 10am we visited Chester, which was nice, but expensive.  The OH was browsing with the mums in a charity shop until he spotted the prices - £10 for a t-shirt! Shocking. Chester has two Wetherspoons pubs, but both were a long walk from the shopping centre car park I had chosen as being the easiest to find.  It turned out they within a few yards of each other on adjacent streets.  Not good planning Wetherspoons!  We went in the the one that was NOT the Lloyds No.1 (as that brand often have loud music and are targeted at younger people) but I regretted our choice quite quickly.  I suppose it was Friday lunchtime so it was going to be busy but it was full, noisy, and the service was slow.  The mums had to queue for the disabled toilet as the ordinary ones were up three flights of stairs.  As we spent over 3 hours in Chester the car park cost us £10.  We could have stayed for 24hrs for that but we'd seen enough expensive jewellery shops and fancy clothes shops.  Yes, very nice for some people, but not somewhere, despite the history, that I'd choose to go for a weekend break. 

When we got home I managed to make tea, unpack the bags and put the washing on before I collapsed.  And a week later I'm still collapsed.  I do keep trying to get up out of bed, but only manage a few hours, making the OH's tea usually.  I didn't even go to Barnsley Archives this week, that's the third week in a row I've missed now, they'll be thinking I've forgotten them.  The OH has taken me out twice shopping, if I have him or a trolley to lean on then I can manage an hour or so of slow doddering.

Warehouse 13 box set

At least the brain fog seems to have cleared today, I am managing to type legibly for the first time in days.  I have watched three series of Warehouse 13 on DVD (thanks to my daughter for lending me these) in the past week as that's been about all I have been able to manage.

Cross fingers that I'll be better tomorrow or the next day as I'd like to do a newsletter for the Barnsley War Memorials Project this week.  I haven't missed a month yet since I started them last May although one or two have been a bit late.  I do enjoy putting them together and don't see it as a chore.  They are one of the few ways we really keep in contact with other interested people out there, I just wish we could afford to print some out for putting in libraries and other public places as it is I send them out as .pdf files and you can download all the back issues from the link above.

Thanks for reading and I hope normal service will be resumed shortly!