I thought our last week in Goa would fly by but it hasn’t even though, now we are on the brink of returning home, I cannot quite believe we have been away for almost two months!

Since I last blogged, we have spent most days on the beach, collected the last two items of clothing from the tailors in Cavelossim, had a few internet problems which our host (Atul) managed to get sorted in 24 hours, and met a nice couple from Doncaster who are staying at Ida’s for 4 weeks… We actually kind of already met these when Ida was FaceTiming them at Christmas & New Year!

We have also watched India beat England in the T20 cricket twice (yeh, 2:0 so far in this 5-match series… boo!). England played so badly in the first match the BBC online headline invites you to “Relive India’s crushing victory over England in the first T20” – no thanks (watching it the first time was bad enough but here’s the link if you want it! https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/live/czen73dddy4t)… Kumar, the guy who always reserves us a table in Michette’s restaurant where we watch the cricket & the odd football match, says it’s because India have a much younger team than England who are fearless… well, that’s what we think he’s trying to tell us in his limited English (with our non-existent Hindi!)! He reckons Indian will completely trash England in this series and really, on what we’ve seen so far, sadly, he might be right even though the last match got down to the final over…

Anyway, here’s some pics from the past week on the beach…

The weddings seem to take all day to set up on the beach but when you get there the next day it’s all gone, with no trace that anything actually happened! I wonder what time they have to work into the night to clear it all away…?

By all accounts, the effort that goes into fishing this way seems remarkable for the amount of fish caught. Whilst we didn’t see the end result of this haul, the guy from Doncaster that we met the other day, who watched to the end, said it was a pretty poor result with many of the fish jumping the net as it got closer to the shore (good for them!)… When you think there are at least 20 guys working together on putting out and hauling in the nets if, as another guy, Canadian this time, told us, they share the catch out (it’s a village thing…), you can’t imagine the haul goes too far. I guess though, something is always better than nothing, right? 🤔

Today was our last day on the beach and what a treat it was to see dolphins swimming just off shore whilst we sipped our fresh orange juice in Pearl’s! It was like they had come to say goodbye! 🤣 Sadly, no pics though…

Now, it’s almost 9.30pm and our bags are packed, the taxi is collecting us at 11.30pm tonight and all the chores are done – we’ve returned the scooter to Joe, enjoyed the walk back from his place in Tamborim to Fatrade, popped in to say goodbye to Ida (except she wasn’t there! Hopefully, Conney (her hubby) will pass on our message) and enjoyed a final meal at Michette’s… we will soon be on our way back to the UK – I am glad we seem to have missed storm Eowyn as really do not fancy a bumpy flight or landing!

I am looking forward to getting home – although we both like spending time in hot climates we both love the changing of seasons we get in the UK and I am actually looking forward to a bit of rain (not too much mind! 🤣) & having to wrap up warm! Other things we are looking forward to include seeing the hills, having a roast dinner, watching telly without the internet wheel of doom, a long soak in the bath, starting our house-hunting, and catching up with friends & family… we have had a fantastic time and, hopefully, we’ll be back again next year!

Before I go, just want to say a huge “Thank you” to Billy & Terri for all you are doing for our friend Ruth – we are sending all three of you our love & positive thoughts… we will see you all soon ❤️😘😘

Thank you Goa – it’s been a blast… ❤️

UK here we come… 🇮🇳🧳✈️🇬🇧