August 2000
The first week of August was busy at work and the takings were great. We had a few complaints from people as we banned food from the main carpeted area and introduced session times but on the whole the response from the public was very good.
We did find, though, that our new office was stuffy, hot and noisy. I escaped several times just to get some fresh air. We were also at the mercy of the staff who seemed to be forever knocking (or not!) at the door. The phones were put in and on Wednesday we learnt that the surveyor's report on our house was favourable so it was all systems go. We made a start on sorting out the mortgage and on Friday the Wilcon sales woman phoned to hassle me about exchanging contracts.
On Saturday 5th August, after going into work to open up with Mum, we headed for breakfast at a Little Chef with the children and then spent the rest of the day shopping at Milton Keynes. I bought new outfits for the wee ones and some books for me.
On Saturday night we went to a restaurant called The Moon and Sixpence near Banbury for a celebration meal after all the work on the refurbishment. My friend Lynda arrived to babysit and Michael started crying. I tried not to worry too much and when we left he seemed a lot happier.
We'd last visited this restaurant a few years ago and we were shocked to find that it was no longer a beautiful Italian eaterie with a gorgeous dining room, big sofas and a sumptuous atmosphere, but was now a pub with blackboards and plastic menus...
Sadly, the food wasn't as memorable as before and the wine I ordered, a Chilean Merlot, was brought to us opened. I suspected it had been swapped with the house Merlot which was considerably cheaper and I should have sent it back.
I chose Tournedos Rossini and ordered it medium but when it arrived it nearly got up off the plate and walked off. The whole meal was a big disappointment. To make matters worse we got lost on the way home and ended up in the wilds of Oxfordshire!
The following week was uneventful and I managed to take Monday off work. We discovered that a new Children's Play area had opened in Kettering (Kids Kingdom, now known as Kids Play) so I went to take a look. It was sufficiently far away from us not to be a problem but it was always interesting to see what other people were doing.
August continued to be busy with lots of children coming to play and the house sale going smoothly. I took out life insurance and we chose a mortgage. At work, the new lease still had not been signed.
My Dad celebrated his birthday on the 11th August with a "busty boobs" cake and lots of balloons!
On Saturday 12th August Mum, Dad and I took the children to Woburn Safari Park for the day and we had a wonderful time. The weather was beautiful and we took a picnic. We saw lots of animals and had a ride on the little train.
I decided to study for the Diploma in Wines and Spirits but found out that the study pack was not available until December. I consoled myself with the thought of having fun tasting until then!
On the 15th August Keith and I celebrated eight years of marriage.
The school holidays continued and the Balloon Festival, held every year in Northampton, approached. After popping to Milton Keynes to buy Sophie her new school uniform we followed the balloons in the car and we watched as they landed in Brafield on the Green. Sophie was excited beyond words but Michael slept through it all!
On Sunday I went in to work with my parents and the children to sort out the area we were renting out. The new occupants, a gymnastics club, wanted to be in by the following weekend so we had a fair amount of cleaning to do and the hoovers had a bit of a shock with all the work we expected them to do!
We spent the next day in there again and I shifted loads of wood and scaffolding with Dad. We called in a welder to dismantle the old slide and hired two men from an agency to help clear all the rubbish.
I took Tuesday off work to do some much needed housework and called the estate agents who told me that we should be exchanging contracts at the end of August. As Keith and I were on holiday from the 28th we were pleased and hoped that it would all go ahead.
On Friday Mum and I went to Milton Keynes for the afternoon to do some shopping but I also needed to get the wine for the the evening's Australia themed tasting. We parked near Oddbins and had lunch at Fatty Arbuckles. The two men in Oddbins were very helpful and pleasant and we spent half an hour choosing wines, some of which were very high in alcohol!
Mum and I then went off to M&S and I bought some beautiful clothes for the children as well as a load of underwear for me. When we got back to work there was a message from our Solicitor to say that our buyers wanted to exchange contracts today but there was a slight delay so it will probably be done next week instead.
The Australia wine evening was held at John and Sarah's house but there were now only eight of us as Ann and Bruce had dropped out. That was no surprise! We had a great night with delicious wines and good company. I enjoyed all my choices, both reds and whites.
The next day, Saturday 26th August, dawned wet and horrible. We'd booked a table at one of our favourite restaurants, The Beetle and Wedge, in Moulsford and for some strange reason I decided to drive to the village with the children in the morning as a sort of "test run". As it was a Bank Holiday weekend the traffic was very heavy and we stopped at the services on the M40 for a little picnic. Unbelievably, both children behaved themselves impeccably.
In the evening, before we set off again, I drove off to pick up our babysitter, Angela, and then we set off once again, managing to miss the right junction on the M40, but getting there in good time nevertheless. The restaurant, situated on the banks of the Thames, looked beautiful in the gathering dusk.
As we sat and studied the menu the waitress brought out four glasses of chilled Champagne which was a perfect start to our meal. After studying the menu I chose Gravadlax with King Prawns and blinis to start, followed by veal. My dessert was a gooey chocolate pudding with almond ice-cream and we enjoyed bottles of Chablis and Moulin-a-Vent. The whole meal was absolutely delicious!
It was a wonderful evening; the tables were beautifully set and dressed with gorgeous flowers. Pre-dinner drinks were taken in the comfortable lounge stuffed with big sofas and antiques and we came back here for our after-dinner coffees and petits fours.
(It's such a shame that the Dining Room at the Beetle and Wedge is no longer available as the restaurant now offers meals in the Boathouse only, which was a much more informal style of dining. Keith and I went back when we visited Cheltenham many years ago and stayed in one of their sumptuous rooms, but the hotel has now changed considerably and we haven't been back since.)
www.beetleandwedge.co.uk
On Sunday we started packing up the house and from Monday onwards, as I was off work on holiday, we managed to get more areas emptied, including the loft which brought a lot of memories flooding back. Some of the things that turned up I thought I'd lost so it was great to see them all again, especially some old diaries and letters. I did throw a lot of things out but the really special stuff was packed away ready to go to the new house.
On Tuesday we emptied our two outhouses and went to the tip with a load of rotting wood.
On Wednesday we took the children down to the Kent coast to have a break. We had a bad journey and didn't arrive in Whitstable until midday. We ate our picnic overlooking the pebbly beach and then drove to Broadstairs where Sophie threw herself into the sea and then covered herself in sand! It was a good job that I'd brought a change of clothes with me! On the way home we called in to see my Nan and it was great to be able to get the children cleaned up and fed there rather than in the motorway services.We had a much better journey home and called to get fish and chips for supper.
My friend Lynda came around on Thursday evening and I cooked her garlic bread followed by Lasagne and a salad washed down with a bottle of Chilean Merlot. It was a great end to a busy month!
September 2000
On Friday 1st September Keith and I looked at two houses to rent with our friend Sarah who worked for an estate agents. Both were fine but we really wanted to stay within our village as Sophie was due to start school very soon. We carried on packing up the house, giving us much more room!
On Saturday we had the Open Day for the Nursery. Previously, we'd only accepted children aged 3-5 years but we were now taking babies and we were very busy with parents registering their offspring. We both left at 2pm and went shopping to get some clothes for a trip to Devon that Keith and I had planned.
There was very little progress with the exchanging of contracts and the house deal with Wilcon was also proving to be slow but we did receive our mortgage offer.
I spent Monday frantically washing and ironing for our trip to Devon and managed to leave Sophie with Mum so we could go and do some last minute shopping.
On Tuesday we dropped off the wee ones with Mum and set off to Devon. The weather was overcast and cloudy and we had a great journey down to the South-West, stopping only once for a sandwich. We arrived at The Old Church House Inn in Torbryan at 1pm and we were delighted with our room which looked over fields full of brown cows.
www.oldchurchhouseinn.co.uk
After quickly unpacking we headed to the pub that we'd seen on the way to the hotel and relaxed over a couple of drinks. Keith was delighted that they were serving Abbot Ale and it was wonderful to relax and not worry about the children. I mentioned to Keith that I wanted to re-visit Cockington and so after finding it on the map we headed towards Torquay and the coast.
I was delighted to find that Cockington hadn't changed a bit since I'd visited, about twenty years ago. It was a well-kept, almost too pretty village of thatched cottages including an ancient forge. We wandered about in the warm Autumnal sunshine admiring the beautiful gardens and had a cup of tea in the grounds of Rose Cottage.
There was a beautiful pond with enormous Koi carp and lots of ducks. Sophie would have loved it all.
After our toasted tea-cakes we walked to Torquay along a special path that meandered through ponds on the edge of the village. It was peaceful, tranquil and very relaxing. When we reached Torquay we briefly admired the view across the bay and then walked briskly back.
Back at the hotel we got ready for dinner and had a drink in the bar. The hotel was very olde worlde with oak panelling around the walls. The Inn dated from around 1400 and was built to accommodate the workers who were renovating the church opposite. Henry VIII was said to have visited and an important carriage route once passed the hotel although this was now little more than a track.
We had a lovely dinner accompanied by a cat who eyed Keith's sardines with a lot of interest!
Wednesday started off damp and drizzly and we headed off to Dartmoor. The grey weather was perfect for a trip across the moors but because it had started to rain in earnest, we didn't stop and headed back to Torquay where the weather improved. We walked around the shops and admired the harbour and then sat and had a coffee in the sun, overlooking the large marina. It was great just to be able to relax and, just the two of us!
Neither of us had slept well the night before so we decided to head back to the hotel for a snooze, but on the way we made a detour to Dartington and bought presents for my parents. I bought them two crystal wine goblets and the children some toys from a lovely shop in the same outlet. Back at the hotel we couldn't resist exploring the lovely old church and ended up staying there for ages and wandering around the graveyard in the late afternoon sunshine. It was beautifully peaceful and quiet.
As the pub didn't serve a very strong beer, we drove to Six Mile Oak for a quick drink before dinner. It was quiet and we enjoyed a couple of drinks and a good chat. The sun was still shining and the views over to Dartmoor were wonderful.
Back at the hotel we were promoted to the main dining room and chatted to a couple at the next table. The meal was very good again and we shared a delicious bottle of Chateauneuf-du-Pape.
Thursday dawned damp and dull again but we were refreshed from a better night's sleep. After breakfast we drove to Ipplepen and bought the newspapers. We returned to the hotel and had a very enjoyable couple of hours sitting in the bar area and studying the form for Newton Abbot, a racecourse that we were visiting in the afternoon.
We arrived at the course very early and went to one of the bars for a drink and further studying of the form! I had chosen all my horses, but as usual, changed my mind at the last minute! We both had a surprise when we saw Miriam Francome walk in, sit down and start writing her notes for her presentation on The Racing Channel! She looked a lot thinner in real life!
The bar soon began to fill up and Miriam was joined by friends who proceeded to ply her with red wine!
We had a great day's racing. I picked the winner of the first race but stupidly didn't back it! Duh! Keith won the second and we both chose the winner of the third. We had a couple more winners and looked forward to a bottle of Champagne with dinner!
We drove back in high spirits and had a quiet drink in the lovely lounge area of the hotel. It must be a wonderful place in the winter as there was a huge log fire and lots of comfortable squishy sofas to relax in. I enjoyed three Camparis and Keith chose whisky. With dinner we drank a bottle of Lanson Black Label Champagne and after eating dinner I rounded off the evening with a new cocktail which I named "Dampers", a blend of Champagne and Drambuie! Before going to bed we had a drink with the owners and I had a few more glasses of the liqueur! Hmmm!
All too soon our relaxing little break was over and after breakfast on Friday we headed home. The news was full of farmers and hauliers blockading fuel depots and refineries so we filled up with fuel before joining the M5.
We arrived home at 1pm and went to the pub for a lunch of cod and chips. The weather was dank and drizzly again and I couldn't wait to be reunited with my two babies! We drove to work after lunch and showed them their presents. Sophie couldn't wait to try on her new pink (pixie) dress while Michael "gummed" his toy blocks.
The weekend was spent cleaning the house and getting Sophie ready for her first day at school on Monday!
She started school on Monday 11th September and was amazingly good, even though she could be clingy at times. There was a huge lump in my throat when I said goodbye but I knew she'd be fine.
I thought about her all day and couldn't wait to go back and pick her up at 3.15pm. My worry was not getting there on time so I made sure my mobile phone was on and charged at all times! She'd had a good day but her packed lunch was hardly eaten and she proceeded to devour this on the way back to work!
The ongoing petrol crisis worsened that week and we just about managed to get Keith's car filled up with diesel. All the petrol stations closed and there was no fuel to be had anywhere in the country. There were pickets at all the fuel depots and soon rumours of food shortages made people start to panic buy bread and milk at the supermarkets. Even the NHS was affected and it was very bad news for the Labour party who were in power at the time. Gordon Brown refused to give in and just as it was reaching a state of emergency, with troops being brought in, the pickets stood down, but by then they had brought the country to its knees. They vowed to carry on unless taxes are lowered in the November budget.
So, my many (many) years of doing the school run began in September 2000 and I was aghast to think of how many times I'd be running both children to school and back (15 years later and I'm still doing it!). I never enjoyed waiting at the school gates in the beginning for Sophie as I didn't know any of the other mothers and was a bit shy of approaching the various little cliques dotted around.
Our completion date of the 15th September came and went without contracts being exchanged. On Saturday 16th we took the children to Gulliver's Land in Milton Keynes for a day out. It was cold and windy in the morning but we had a great time riding the Ferris Wheel, the Boots, the Ghost Train and the little cars. Sophie loved it all and we had a burger lunch in the dimly-lit restaurant. The sun came out in the afternoon and it felt like summer again. After Gulliver's Land we drove to Oddbins and I saw a good selection of Greek wines so I decided upon that as a theme for the next Wine Tasting event on the 29th.
Our Solicitor phoned us the following week and suggested a new completion date of the 6th October with exchange of contracts taking place on Wednesday 20th September. I went to see Sarah and asked her to hold a house that we'd seen in Kingsthorpe which wasn't as near as I wanted to be, but was suitable for us.
On Saturday 23rd September we drove to Milton Keynes to shop for Keith's birthday and to buy school shoes for Sophie and winter clothes for both children. It was very hot and sunny and not like Autumn at all!
We celebrated Keith's birthday on Sunday 24th with fruit cake and a night out while Mum and Dad babysat the children. We tried the Han in Market Harborough but that was closed, and The Fitzgerald Arms in Naseby but they were full. We ended up at The Overstone Arms in Pytchley with a drink beforehand in Orlingbury. I had developed a terrible cough and was suffering from some sort of virus that my Mum had the previous week. The pub was virtually empty so my hacking cough reverberated around the bar causing me acute embarrassment!
We ate a lovely meal at the pub but we were both so tired we could hardly keep our eyes open! When I arrived home I made my special cough relief concoction - hot water, cough medicine, sugar, lemon juice and a generous tot of whisky! It knocked me out!
In the morning I collected the children and Mum came to the school with us. Sophie insisted on showing us everything in her classroom so she had obviously settled in well and was making lots of new friends.
On Wednesday Mum, Dad, Polly and I went to the Leisure Industry Week trade fair at the NEC in Birmingham. We went to the SPI stand to say hello but another firm, Angus Firth, whom we'd contacted about designing the new frame, ignored us completely! We had a good look around and picked up some ideas plus we also ordered some snazzy new bins for the play area in the hope that our messy customers would use them!
On Friday I phoned our Solicitor to say that if we didn't exchange contracts that day then we wouldn't be in a position to do it until the end of October. By mid-afternoon he got back to me to say it had been done and we needed to be out of our house by Friday 6th October.
Dad and I went off to a Greek wine shop in Northampton called Enotika and it was like visiting a tiny part of Greece! We were looking forward to a Greek wine tasting in the evening and the owner picked out six wines for me as well as some stuffed vine leaves and spinach mixed with rice.
After we'd picked out the wine Keith took Michael shopping while I hurriedly cleaned the house and did some urgent jobs. Kathryn was babysitting for us and I went to pick her up with Michael who screamed the whole way there and back!
The Greek evening was a huge success and all the wines and food went down very well. The star of the evening was a Mavrodaphne of Patras red, which, at 15% alcohol, was very Port-like and loved by all of us.
On Saturday 30th September we started packing up the house again and went back to look at the house in Kingsthorpe. It looked better than when we'd last seen it so we agreed with Sarah to move in as soon as possible, with a date of Tuesday 3rd October being a suitable date. I took three days off work to start moving our things over...stressful or what?
