Happy Birthday, Keith!!

80 years young today!

Feeling annoyed!

I drove Olive to work today, and managed to call the insurance company at 9:00am to sort out the payment. I now need to find another car quickly, but this is not the ideal week to do it! I want to actually look at another car, drive it and make sure it's OK, rather than buy it online and then take delivery.

Sophie and Keith were expecting a new tumble dryer that I'd ordered today, and I received multiple text messages, emails and phone calls from AO to say the machine was on its way. The driver seemed to text or call me every five minutes, and it was a bit over the top! I also had texts from the insurance company, so I felt frazzled! To make things worse, the owner of our Airbnb in Annecy in April texted Sophie to say she couldn't accommodate our booking any longer, as she had a long-term let. Sophie was furious and extremely upset and refused to cancel the booking, as it wasn't our fault. This was all going on while we were at work, but thankfully it happened during Sophie's lunch hour!

When I finished at 4:00pm, I took Olive to the car wash in Kingsthorpe and sprayed the front of the car with insect remover, as there were little creepy crawlies squashed on the bonnet. Back at home, I wasn't pleased with the result and had to go around with a cloth to finish it off!

Sophie was still looking frazzled with the delivery of the tumble dryer and trying to work with texts flying back and forth, so we relaxed with a drink before dinner. We looked at Airbnbs and found another one that we both loved and submitted a request to book. This one had fantastic views but was more expensive...

Dinner tonight was delicious: we enjoyed chicken burgers with salad and decided to forgo the potato wedges for once. "What? You have no potato products?!"

Hunting high and low!

Today has been fine, and I swing from enjoying this new job to disliking it! I think a lot of employees who worked for the old company feel the same! I know many people who left and bounced right back, so it's not a surprise. We are still getting used to the procedures and the way the company is managed.

My insurance company called me today to discuss the value of the car. I was expecting a battle with them, but they offered me more than I was expecting, so I readily agreed. They wanted details of the logbook, which I didn't have on me, so I would call them back after work. Before I left, I called Keith to ask him to find it so it would be ready when I got home.

When I arrived, he had the wrong one out, as I'd transferred the car into my name last January, with the blessing of my Dad. We hunted everywhere for the proper one, and I even called the repair company to check that I hadn't left it in the VW. She told me off for leaving it in the car, but I hadn't anyway, and she couldn't find it. By now, it was too late to call the insurance company back, and then Keith had a brainwave and checked the little plastic folders we take on holiday. We found it, along with the breakdown cover and the headlamp converters! Phew! One of the French laws is that you need to take your logbook with you when you drive abroad, but I have never been asked for it! I put it in my bag to take to work tomorrow, and I'll call them there.

In the evening, Keith went to see Sileby play and Sophie and I made jerk chicken pasta again. We are watching A Place in the Sun avidly at the moment and focusing on people looking for houses in France, particularly in the Charente region. We are both astounded at the prices! Just over £100,000 for a three-bedroom house with land!

Sophie went upstairs with Mooney at 9:00pm while I settled down to watch another episode of Britain's Lost Masterpieces. Keith arrived home slightly earlier this evening, so we had a quick chat about the game, and then it was time for bed. I am back at work tomorrow, as I've swapped my day off for Friday this week. It was a bit of a shock knowing I was back at work in the morning, while Sophie was working from home, lucky thing!

A quiet start to the week

Monday was quiet and uneventful, with not a lot to report. I felt a bit upset when I got into work and found four timesheets on my desk that hadn't been included on the payroll run, and I feared I'd made a mistake. It wasn't a good start to the day! However, I learnt that the staff had put the timesheets in the wrong folders, so it was an error on their part. Next month, just in case, I will check, though! We can do advances on pay, so it wasn't a disaster, but 

The rest of the day passed uneventfully, and when I arrived home, Lynn came around to pick up the car shampoo I was giving away. We had a moan about the tip, both of us disappointed that they don't seem to be recycling as much as previously. I honestly thought that most items could be recycled these days!

The evening passed in the usual manner, but we watched a new French crime drama called Coastal Unit, which is a worthy successor to both Panda and Carpe Diem!

Annoying the spiders!

I was up quite early, and by 9:00am, after a cup of coffee, I was in the garage and starting a mammoth clear-out! I decided to tackle the garage methodically, commencing with the shelves near the door, which were full of paint tins, old plant pots, decorating implements... You get the picture!

Keith came out to join me and went through the drawers where he keeps all of his "man" stuff - boxes and boxes of screws, nails, hammers, tools, etc. Within a couple of hours, Sophie's car was full, and she had booked a slot at the tip.

In the process, I swept up leaves that get blown in and upset many, many little creatures, most notably spiders! Ugh! While we were clearing out the garage, Sophie stayed in the house, preparing breakfast and lunch for work tomorrow, hoovering, sorting out the laundry and making us mugs of tea.

Keith and I went for the first booking, and I was disappointed that the tip is no longer accepting hard plastic to be recycled. It now goes into landfill, which was a huge shame. We try to recycle everything we dispose of, but today quite a bit went into the unrecyclable skip. 

As well as taking stuff to the tip, I advertised some items on Facebook to give away for free. Sophie had brought home a load of paper, staplers and hole punchers, so they found a new home and Lynn, our neighbour, said she would have some car shampoo bottles! I also ordered a box from Vintage Cash Cow and enquired about a cabin at the antique emporium at Weedon Bec. Any money we make will go towards a holiday!

We had ham and cheese baguettes for lunch, and then carried on all afternoon, going to the tip one more time. Predictably, it was busy both times with people making use of the gorgeous weather to tackle their gardens, sheds and garages, just like us!

By about 4:00pm, we'd had enough, and I had a long soak in the bath. I was so glad that Sophie was cooking dinner and most of it had been done. Our dinner was delicious and well-deserved, as we had all worked very hard! Isn't today supposed to be a day of rest?!

Cars galore!

We had planned a weekend of staying home, with only a trip to the recycling centre to get us out of the house, but it didn't work out that way!

We spent the morning looking at cars on online selling platforms like Cinch and Carwow, and I almost bought two! One was an Audi Q3, but it was more than we wanted to pay and would have used a lot of our savings. The other was a white Peugeot 3008, and I called to see if I could arrange a test drive. It wasn't possible, but as I looked at it, it disappeared and said it was sold!

We looked at so many cars that we began to feel a bit shell-shocked, and they all began to blur into one mass! In the end, we started to be ruthless with our choices, such as discounting any without a spare wheel, but in the end I decided I wanted to see the car, drive it and make sure it's OK before I take the leap.

Sophie prepared tonight's dinner of chicken casserole while I took all the hearts down in the conservatory to do some cleaning. They were all festooned with cobwebs, and some of them were well past their best, so we decided not to put them back up. I gazed with dismay at the roof of the conservatory that needed cleaning, and submitted an enquiry to a local company.

We pottered about for another couple of hours, and went to see my Mum in the afternoon. She seemed a bit confused again, but then said as clearly as anything to one of the carers, "Did you have a good couple of days off?" We were speechless, as when speaking to us she wasn't making a lot of sense and seemed to have no idea what day it was! Hmmm! We stayed for an hour and tried to get the television working, as she had lost all of the terrestrial channels, such as BBC1, etc. 

Before heading home, we popped to the pub for a drink and a bite to eat. We hadn't eaten much at all during the day, so we ordered a bucket of chips (a very small bucket!), some tzatziki with Greek flatbread, and chicken satay. The food was delicious, and it was lovely to sit, relax and look forward to our Saturday evening.

We got home after Keith, who had been to see Sileby, told him we'd been to the pub and didn't want dinner... thankfully, he didn't mind! Sophie and I played Scrabble with a Vesper each, and almost had a bickerfest about the scores. I'd been leading, and then Sophie went way ahead! I ended up winning, but I think my daughter was annoyed with me!

We finally watched What Lies Beneath, and Sophie spent most of the time screaming. It was a good, scary film, and Harrison Ford looked very handsome in it! Swoon!

Feeling a little sad...

My heart sank when Liam arrived at 8:00am this morning, but he was very well-behaved and quiet all day! We had a chat about cars, so it was good to have some company. I do miss my former colleagues and the little chats we used to have!

At lunchtime, just as I was about to have something to eat, I had a Teams meeting with Kally, who looks after all the managers in the area. She wanted to show me about taking cash, but most of it went over my head! I learn by doing, not by looking, so I felt a bit deflated in the afternoon. I go from one day enjoying the job to the next wishing I was doing something else, which is very tiring for my family, and this impacted our Friday evening and set the tone for the weekend, unfortunately.

I realised, almost like an epiphany, that I haven't really enjoyed any job I've done, even when I was working with my parents! I was happy for the most part when I worked at the same location with my old company, but there were still days when I walked out, determined to look for something else! It's definitely me! I envy people who love their job and don't see it as work!

So, Friday evening was a bit subdued and the plan to watch What Lies Beneath, starring Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer, was put on hold. We plonked a tray of Tesco curries into the oven and drank a Picpoul de Pinet. After dinner, we caught a couple of episodes of Top of the Pops from the 80s, so that made us smile!