For the past couple of winters in Marina di Ragusa, we have had the pleasure of having Tim as our neighbour aboard his catamaran Rendezvous Cay. The boat is now in the south of France, looking for a new owner and Tim has moved back to the USA, having bought a house in Winston Salem, North Carolina.

We couldn't be just a few hours drive away and not get together. We spent a couple of days with Tim catching up on what we'd all been up to since last May and we visited the old town in Winston Salem, which resembled an English village. It was a bright but cold day and lunch at The Tavern sounded like a good idea. We were greeted by servers wearing traditional costumes and suggestions of hot apple cider to warm us up. Tim also accepted the tot of rum to go with his cider, which we thought was really weird - why would you put rum into an already high alcoholic drink? The cider was delicious but it wasn't until that night that we found out that the cider was actually apple juice, unlike the UK version which can be highly potent! We all laughed about that.