I woke up early next morning, and had to kind of fall out of the car, my back so stiff that it took me a good half hour of stretching and massaging the muscles in the small of my back before I could stand up straight. Anna was about a head shorter than me, so she could lie quite comfortably, but old long Meg me had to sort of curl up in a ball, and seeing that both of us were in that small space, efforts to roll around to find a comfy position was almost nil!
But it was another lovely day, and when I spotted a woman boiling water in the outdoor kitchen, I called her to the gate, and asked her for some hot water, which she was pleased to give, after I told her our dilemma! I made coffee in the flask, and then sat down to watch as people started to make haste to the ablution block for their morning pee, while others made for the kitchen to boil some water. The coffee was steaming in the chill of the morning air, and I drank it slowly, enjoying every sip!
It was still very early, but Anna woke up about an hour after me, and after drinking her coffee stated that she was going to wait for the gate-man, as she wanted her money back. I told her that there was no chance, as we knew the rules, and we came about twenty minutes late, but to Anna at that stage, money was all important, as she could not live without her cigarettes and red wine!
So we waited, and the woman who gave me the hot water came over for a chat, and gave each of us a cheese toastie wrapped in a square of kitchen roll. It was so nice of her, but she told Anna that there was no way in which we would get our money back. But Anna being Anna, she had her own plan up her sleeve.
When the man came to open the gate, Anna was ready with the toothiest smile ever, and using her sauciest voice, the very hoarse and low one, and calling the poor man "Bollie", a name she always used when trying to influence people, she worked on him for about fifteen minutes, but all of her trouble was in vain, as the man was unrelenting, and in the end, after having had a nice and steaming hot shower, as we were entitled to that, we left, Anna growling like an angry tiger.
We walked around, visited a shoe warehouse where I bought a lovely pair of calfs leather shoes for next to nothing, and had our lunch again on the wharf, this time it was salmon cooked over an open fire, served with brown bread and a beautiful salad, and it was delicious!
We then put our money together and bought some groceries for the lonely old woman, and she couldn't understand why we did it. Shame, she was really neglected by her kids, and living so far from a shop must have been a great problem.
One thing about Anna, she can be a pain in the backside when it came to her men -chasing, and a little bit of selfishness, but her heart was in the right place, and she would always try and help!