Trepidation!

I was a little bit apprehensive about going to work this morning as I didn't know what reaction I'd get to my resignation on Wednesday. Sara is now off until the 13th, but Nicola is in as normal, and I was anticipating a barrage of questions from her.

Kathy already knew, and when Nicola came in, she was very pleasant and wished me good luck, as Kathy had done. I think that both Sara and Nicola knew I was going for the job, as one of my colleagues had seen me at my old workplace and had tittletattled! 

The shift passed pleasantly, and it didn't feel too hot today. However, when I got into my car to drive home, the temperature was registering as 29.5c! Phew! Not as hot as France, but warmer than I had expected!

Sophie and I went with Keith to the pub tonight, to see John and give him a bottle of Gin for helping out with Keith while we were in France. We were grateful to him for giving Keith a lift to the pub and down to the VW garage. The men drank pints while Sophie and I had an Aperol Spritz that was more soda water than anything else and was not pleasant!

We left them to chat and went home to have our own version of the drink (far more delicious!) and to watch the second episode of the French Netflix drama about the L'Oréal heiress who had befriended a photographer and had lavished him with money and gifts. The financial matters then evolved into possible tax evasion, including top politicians at the time.

Keith returned home, and we had dinner of cold meats and salad. I didn't fancy the Netflix documentary anymore, so we had a real treat and watched The Cure at the Isle of Wight festival for the rest of the evening. It was fabulous!

A little mooch!

Keith went to Tesco this morning, while I stayed at home and caught up with housework. When he returned, I suggested driving to Market Harborough to wash the VW, which was dusty and dirty after the trip to France.

The weather continues to be beautiful, warm and sunny at the moment, with no sign of any rain. Our garden needs some serious work, but this will have to wait until it cools down a bit. We had the car washed, and they did a fabulous job, as usual. I wondered how much the car wash machine cost, since it uses a conveyor system where you sit in the car and it moves along the track through different washes. The end bit, where long furry arms dry it, is especially good! I should think it was a significant investment, but the car wash is always busy.

After the car was restored to a gleaming state, Keith suggested we drive to Sutton Bassett to see if a pub we used to go to had reopened. The Queen's Head was always a favourite place to go for a drink or a meal and had stunning views over the Leicestershire countryside. We passed by in 2017, and it was firmly closed, but when we drove past today, it had gone altogether! In its place was a new house!

How it used to look

It was a shock, to be honest! We drove on to Weston-by-Welland and made sure that The Wheel and Compass pub was still open! We weren't out for drinks today, but it was lovely to mooch about the countryside and enjoy the gorgeous weather.

Before going home, we passed through the village of Braybrooke and noted that The Swan was still doing business. Maybe on a Wednesday in the future, Keith and I will revisit our old haunts!

I went to see my Mum in the afternoon and sat with her for a good while. One of the carers was in the room when I arrived and said she'd been taking part in more activities, which was good news. The chocolates I'd taken in last week had all gone! I was looking forward to having one!

In the evening, when Sophie arrived home, we booked our train tickets and a taxi for next Wednesday, when we have tickets for the Quarter-finals at Wimbledon. An anytime return ticket from Kettering was £100! We don't know when we'll be returning in the evening, so we couldn't book advance timed tickets. In the end, we booked tickets from Northampton to Euston for £43. It was crazy that two train tickets from Northampton were less than one from Kettering or Wellingborough!

Bargains galore!

Keith and I had an appointment with a solicitor this morning to discuss financial matters, and I had been quoted £350 plus VAT for a half-hour appointment. We arrived just in time (the road to the A43 from Holcot was closed, and I'd forgotten) and had a very helpful chat with a lady called Emma. She gave us advice, and when we left, and I asked about paying, she said the short meeting was free! I was expecting a hefty bill for a fifteen-minute session, so that was a true bonus, and most appreciated!

From the solicitors, we drove to Dobbies Garden Centre, and Keith treated himself to a new pair of summer shoes and a lightweight jacket. Even here, he was charged less than the ticket price, so we were on a roll!

We returned home, and I pootled about in the house until my appointment with Gabriel at The Back & Body Clinic at 3:30pm. I told him that while in France, I'd somehow jolted my heel again when getting into the pool, and the shockwave therapy was especially painful today. He really found the tender spot, but I felt it was doing me good!

Back home, it was great to look forward to tomorrow off as well, as I have now given up Thursdays. I can't work from 8:00am until 2:00pm anymore, so I have stopped. In my new job, I will be working from 8:00am until 4:00pm, and will enjoy the next four weeks of a three-day working week!

Keith watched the football at 5:00pm, and despite saying he wasn't interested in the competition, he did a fair amount of shouting at the screen during the match! We managed to get through by the skin of our teeth and now face Mexico in the early hours of next Monday morning. Apparently, pubs are going to stay open and televise the important match. Me? I will be tucked up asleep!

News!

It's the last day of June... where has this month gone? This year has zoomed past, but that's no wonder as we have been away so much! Work was uneventful again, and I had cleared all the emails by about 3:00pm this afternoon, so I made a start on the Moan report! 

I have a confession to make now... I have a new job and will be starting it on the 3rd of August. I'm going back to my old place of work and working for the enemy! I found out tonight, after I had an interview on Monday and will be working for an old colleague with whom I get on very well! I am excited but a little bit nervous at the same time! He called me this evening, so I will need to give notice tomorrow. I haven't been happy at our new place of work since we moved there, and my work has changed with me back on the phones, but still expected to do all the background admin as well, and the customer service emails. The new job will be purely admin, so I'm looking forward to starting.

We opened a bottle of sparkling Vouvray this evening to celebrate, but I found it a bit dry and switched to a G&T! Dinner tonight was a good old sausage and mash, served with lots of vegetables. I love salad, but I've missed a heap of veggies on my plate!

 

Our TV choice tonight was Panda... I miss France!

Ah! Memories!

 Here is a selection of photos from our trip, all taken by Sophie (in no particular order):

Dinner by the pool -chicken burgers and salad

Cards by the pool

Saint-Emilion in Saint-Emilion

Sniffing game

My kind of heaven!

Pasta in Houlgate

Creme brulée Monbazillac

Lunch Monbazillac

Cheers!

The day of reckoning

When I arrived in the car park this morning, Sara's car wasn't there, which surprised me. She normally texts me if she's off, but I received an email from her explaining that she'd taken an impromptu day's holiday.

Our office felt warm, but when Kathy arrived, she said it had been terrible last week in the heat. She had actually felt ill and had had to leave the office for 10 minutes to try to cool down. This was bad news; I could see we had new fans delivered, but all they do is move warm air around. There has been no mention of getting aircon installed, even a small unit to cool things down.

 

My shift passed uneventfully, and I managed to catch up with all the emails before I left. When Sophie arrived home in the evening, we sat down and worked out our expenses from the holiday. The total wasn't as bad as I'd thought and included lots and lots of wine, beer and little mementoes. We have nothing planned now until January, but we're hoping we may have a sneaky trip to Belgium perhaps in October. We'll see. I think both Sophie and I were suffering from a bout of the post-holiday blues!

Dinner tonight was leftover Chinese takeaway, and Keith and I watched the first episode of Best Medicine after we'd eaten. It's the US equivalent of Doc Martin and was almost word-for-word the same. We stuck it out, but I'm not sure we were totally enthralled!

Our wine and beer haul!

Craving a roast!

I had a wonderful night's sleep and woke feeling refreshed. I didn't think we'd have loads of laundry, but somehow we did! It was a perfect drying day, though, with a lovely breeze and plenty of sunshine, so it wasn't an ordeal to work through the piles!

Sophie and I went to see Mum this morning, and gave her a huge box of chocolates we'd bought in Duty Free yesterday. She was pleased to see us, and we sat with her for a while and talked about the holiday. We then popped to Tesco so Sophie could buy some little gifts for her work friend, whose grandfather had died while we were away.

Back home, we mooched about until it was time to go to the pub for our lunchtime booking. We were all craving a roast, so that's what we had! Sophie and I shared a bottle of Chenin Blanc, and we ordered halloumi fries and hummus with flatbread to start.

For mains, Keith enjoyed leg of lamb, while Sophie and I had chicken. It was lovely to have a roast dinner after so long, and we polished off the food! Sophie and I found room for dessert - I had a very sweet tropical Eton Mess, while Sophie indulged in a white and milk chocolate mousse. The pub was pleasantly busy, and it was lovely to relax and linger over the meal.

Back home, it was definitely time to do very little (except more laundry!), and I lolled about and snoozed for a few hours, which was bliss. I'm obviously still catching up on my lost sleep from Friday night!