Haircuts, handwashing and Bill Bryson's opinion on blow up dolls!

Hi everyone. Well, we are finally experiencing the type of Meditteranean that we hoped for! We in a beautiful part of the world called Rovinj in Croatia. Definitely worth a look on Google Earth if you are that way inclined!!
I had fruitful trip home to Scotland for three nights, during which I managed to get a new laptop, some 'real' clothes (as opposed to boat gear!), some books written in English (enough to do me for a good few months) and a TOASTER for the top of the gas stove. I was sooooo excited by the last purchase I nearly hugged the shop assistant. It took me a day to travel there (the plane flight to Zagreb was cancelled due to snow and instead I had a 4 hour bus trip through the Croatian landscape in metres of snow - what a blow), and a day to travel back. Have now totalled 13 separate flights since we left Australia......
Anyway back to Shirley Valentine and my darling husband, who spent 3 nights in the Marina at Pula in dead calm weather waiting for me to come back and sorting out the boat.
We left to head North (I know, we are supposed to be heading South!) to return to a little place called Rovinj which we had been told not to miss. Our informants were spot on as this is fantastic. The weather is slowly getting warmer and the whole town is preparing for the summer season; almost like it is gradually coming back to life. People are everywhere, painting, varnishing, cleaning restaurants, streets etc etc. It is a great vibe.
We have had our top temperature so far today of 14 degrees which is lovely. We are sitting in a street cafe eating a ridiculously cheap meal at the moment and sneaking an equally ridiculously cheap alchoholic beverage. The sun is out and we are gazing out over the harbour which is full of small boats up the church at the top of the hill in the old town. Adorable!
I finally plucked up the courage to cut Craig's hair with our $10 clippers this morning and so far he is still alive (only a select few know my fear of cutting hair!!!) and it doesn't actually look too bad if I say so myself. I have just had my hair cut for $15!!!
What is really expensive however is internet access and telecommunications. We now have a Croatian phone and I will post the number next time I blog.
Washing clothes is becoming increasingly difficult. We are still wearing 3 or 4 layers most days so we have a lot to wash. I arrived at Mum's house in Scotland with a bag full of dirty laundry (isn't that what kids are supposed to do!) which I managed to get done. The advertised laundry in Rovinj is closed for the winter (so much for pilot guides once again!) so I had to tackle a massive handwash yesterday while the weather was warm enough to dry things. Shirley Valentines safety rails are covered in our knickers etc etc. Hopefully everything will dry before the weather turns.
We are getting much more savy about watching the weather, however by all accounts we were actually in quite a good place during the Bora. Where we originally were in Monfalcone got winds of up to 200km/hrs (cyclonic force) where we only got 120 - 130kms/hr in Pula. Boats at the marina in Monfalcone had sails ripped etc etc so we were fairly lucky that the only casualty was our dinghy outboard. We also were lucky that we had an anchor more than twice the recommended holding strength for our size of boat (a Kobra).
About the Bill Bryson thing.... We have both been devouring Bill Bryson's travel guides which we are currently addicted to. Craig belly laughs every couple of minutes and was particularly taken by a critique on different types of blow up dolls. He is happy that someone else is as debaucherous as he is! :-))
Anyway, better go. Good to talk to you all again and will chat soon. Hope you are all well!

xx

Lesley, Craig, Shirley Valentine and Costas (our new name for our dinghy!)