Pooks is really busy at the moment and we only had snatches of conversation on Monday evening. She now has an office all of her own – gone up in the world she has – and is on the look out for funny posters and pictures to cover the walls and make it feel more like home.

I’ve been moaning at her lately about not looking after herself properly, she’s skipping lunch and working late into the evening then she’s too tired to eat anything much more than a bit of toast. So I’m naming and shaming her here, as she’s not listening to anything I tell her at the moment and is going to end up ill; arthritis has a nasty habit of knocking people off their feet when least expected, especially when you’re over tired and not looking after yourself. At least then I can say I told you this would happen and everyone here can agree with me – we can all ‘Look’ at her. So find a mirror and start practising.

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Back to last Monday and my arrival at the hotel – Ms Wag had very kindly put me a welcome pack together. Um…not saying all that was in it, but you know our genre so take a wild guess. What I will admit too is the Spanish fan with my name on it. The letters of which were glittery and kept dropping off everywhere – name dropping I was, glitter everywhere yet again.

She also extended my family…..

Say hello to the ducks. (Photo courtesy of Scally Wag. See it's not just me, she was just as bad and should take some of the blame for encouraging me).

In fairness to her I don’t think it crossed her mind that I’d actually take them places with us – at that point she was still on a sharp learning curve. She knows what I’m like on-line; I just don’t think it had crossed her mind that I was like that in real life as well. What can I say – some people just have to learn the hard way.

So the ducks enjoyed their holiday too and have now taken up residence in my bathroom with my other flock of plastic ducks.

The beach was an experience in itself.....

Very beautiful and we had sunshine for the whole week.

Scally, of course, totally misunderstood my entrance into the sea on the first day (yes, OK and a few times after that as well) – I didn’t fall over at all, I was just entertaining her child….and half of the other people on the beach. There was an enormous wave and it knocked me off my feet, so I slid gracefully into the water like the goddess I am. Yes I did.

Although I have to admit the getting out again left a lot to be desired but in my defence it was a sharp slope, the waves were strong and the bloody sand kept moving from under your feet. No one other than the Child managed it with style and he was obviously closer to the ground. That must have been the reason, after all the only way out was waiting for a big wave to give you a push and then get on your hands and knees and crawl. Both Scally and I have blackmail material of each other to ensure that no one else ever gets to see the pictures of either of us or in her case the video she took of me (although we have promised Pooks a veiwing as she needs a good laugh at the moment).

So after spending the rest of Monday on the beach Scally tried to contact Ryanair about the missing suitcase – thank God I sent her Birthday presents by post and the...er...presents that I brought with me were in the case that didn’t get lost. Having to give details of thoses missing items could have been a little embarrassing to say the least. But no one answered the phone at Ryanair so it was decided to leave it until the next day.

Next Morning Scally managed to get hold of someone – who wasn’t very helpful and didn’t want to speak to her, but she did get them to say that they would ring us on our mobiles (which of course they didn’t).

So she rang them back again when we were with her - I couldn't understand a word of what she was saying to the lady at Ryanair, but there was a hell of a lot of meaning behind it which I did comprehend. The lady (loose term) then decided that she would go and look for our case and ring us later. In the meantime we decided that we’d go back to the airport and report it in person – after that we’d forget all about it. It wasn’t going to spoil our holiday.

Scally rang that nice taxi driver again and off we set. Just before we got to the airport my mobile rang – guess what? Ryanair had found our suitcase – all we needed to do was bring our paperwork and pick it up. See, it’s not only Pooks that finds Scally scary. Ryanair have posted warning notices to all of their employees about her as well.

Anyway we got our suitcase back and headed back to the hotel, we then all walked back up to Scally’s but you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to hear all out that.