Nah then, ar lad!

"Nah then. ar lad!"

Immortal words uttered in a West Yorkshire accent from somewhere around Huddersfield.

The Best Beloved and I spent five days in Los Alcazeres in Spain last week. We caught an Easyjet flight to Murcia and stayed at an apartment owned by some good friends. On the Friday before coming back on the Saturday, we decided to catch the bus to Cartagena. The friends had recommended it as a worthwhile day trip out so we pondered over which bus to catch. Should we go for the earlier bus at 0930 or the later one at 1130? This was the choice - not like one evry 10 minutes - you understand? We decided to have a more leisurely morning and go for the 1130 and arrive just in time for lunch in Cartagena. We had a bit of a search for the bus stop as there is a different in season as to where the bus decides to stop. We had a bit of a wait so chatted amicably with the steadily growing queue. Best Beloved climbed on first to pay the driver for dos. I followed her on and up the aisle.

"Nah then, ar lad! What the 'ell are yer doing on this 'ere bus?"

Now I am not often gobsmacked or at a loss for words but this was one of those occasions when I did my goldfish impression. There, as large as life, was my cousin Robert and his wiife Anne, grinning at us from their seats. The last time I had seen him was at his mother's (my Auntie Annie) funeral and wake last year. We see each other very occasionally but sure enough here he was.

Later we discovered they are spending nine weeks in the area at a villa they rent and will be there until the end of March. Anne's brother and wife were with them. By sheer chance they had decided for no particular reason to visit Cartegena that day and to use the 1130 bus.

Cartegena was lovely and the city are renovating a glorious Roman ampitheatre discovered by chance under the front door of the old cathedral accidentally when some demolition work was been done. As a young guide told us there had lonng been folk tales about its existence but it had only recently come to light. Cartegena was founded and known by the Romans as Nuova Cartage after the Punic wars to celebrate their victories over Hannibal and his lot.

One of the things we discussed with Robert was a world cruise they had gone on when they first retired about seven years ago. We don't want to emulat their exploits but what was interesting was the fact that once they had completed their world trip, they didn't want to do such a big trip again. They were now more than satisfied with much less ambitious holidays such a sthe curent one in Spain! I got to thinking and have now resurrected an earlier idea I had. I would love to do the USA Coast to Coast by train. You fly out to New York for a few days, you then cross the country in a series of rail journeys, taking in some specialised tours such as the Grand canyon, the Rockies, Monument Valley, etc, ending up in San Francisco. From there you fly back to the UK. I am thinking of making the trip in May 2009 to celebrate the Best Beloved's 60th! It is expensive but nothing as compared to this year's extension plan.

After that we would tailor our holidays to the February, early summer and early autumn periods and flying only if necessary. That way I might finally be able to consider rescuing a greyhound as a pet. I would hope we would be able to take it with us on our camping trips rather than leaving it with others or putting it in kennels. I would like a bitch (having grown used to a feminine household) and call her perhaps "Rosie" , although she would probably come with a name already.