A good ending to the week!

Liam came waltzing into the office this morning, and my heart sank. He's a lovely lad, but the pen clicking the other day drove me crazy. I had vowed that if he started again, I would say something, and I did... he was absolutely fine about it and said he didn't realise he was doing it! He also asked for another pen to use, so all was good!

I struggled with the cinema at first, but then, miraculously, it all fell into place. I replayed the meeting that I'd recorded the other morning and managed to get Digger, Verity, Tad the Magic Lamp, and Heart of the Beast onto our system, with the resized images on the website. I was so relieved and proud that I had persevered and done it! Hooray! I spent the whole day on the cinema admin and sent off the figures to the various companies, as our contact at the Independent Cinema Office had asked where they were! This was another aspect I had to figure out for myself and decide which report to use!

It was great to escape at 4:00pm and go home to relax. Keith went to the pub, and Sophie and I opened a bottle of Chardonnay and watched Compartment No. 6. As I predicted, Sophie loved the film but not, sadly, the wine, and switched to a Viognier instead!

Sophie and I stayed up late this evening to watch Graham Norton as Alexander Skarsgård was on the show with Olivia Colman to promote their new film, Wicker, which looks a bit quirky!

Early morning frustrations!

I hit a new low this morning when I went to work and discovered that Sheila had ignored the list of things I'd asked her to do and had concentrated on the payroll instead, something I was planning to do today. I was furious, as what's the point of asking her to do things I need help with? She had printed off the corrections sheets, which I wasn't planning to do (there's absolutely no need) and had even queried what I'd done! I felt utterly despondent. She called me mid-morning, and I was quite short with her, which then made me feel guilty!

As the day wore on, I felt a bit better and managed to get a lot done. I am going to concentrate on the cinema admin tomorrow, as I have to master how to put films onto the system! Before going at 4:00pm, I submitted the corrections sheets even though there were no corrections to be made! I just hope I've done everything correctly!

Sophie went out for a meal with her friends Daisy and Laura in the evening, and Keith and I had a lacklustre dinner. He ate one of the ready meals he'd bought, while I settled for cheese on toast. After eating, I soaked in the bath as it's been colder today and we had the heating on for the first time since last winter. Brrrr!

Sophie arrived home at about 10:45 pm, and we had a chat before going to bed. I'm so glad it's Friday tomorrow!

Splashing out!

Keith and I were determined to sort out the en-suite today, and choose the shower, sink and loo, as well as the tiles. Sophie woke me just before she went to work, and I had a coffee before getting ready to go to Wickes.

We drove to Riverside in pouring rain; it was a horrible day and was chilly and wet with heavy grey cloud. We had a look at the tiles first, and Keith was amused that I was carrying a beautiful bottle around with me, my inspiration for the en-suite colour scheme! Upstairs in Wickes, where various bathrooms were set out, I found a lovely shower enclosure that was bigger than the one we have now. This set off a slight bickerfest about the space we have available, but I loved the roomier shower and made a note of the make.

We wandered around some more and spotted a loo/sink combination, but on reflection, I think the sink is too tiny!

Too small? And the cabinet in green.

And I loved these tiles for the walls:

I'm going for a green theme, carried over from the bedroom, which is teal/greeny blue.

Jamie wasn't in, so we left a message with one of his colleagues and asked if he could call us to make another appointment. We have abandoned the idea of a pocket door and moving the radiator to simplify the plan.

Before going home, we went to depression central, the Weston Favell Centre. I avoid going here as much as I can, but I needed to go to the post office to pay in a cheque for the unused car tax on the VW, for the grand sum of £8.75!

We decided to have a coffee and something to eat in Greggs, and we both chose a corned beef pasty. This was a big mistake, as it was so hot that we could barely eat it, and I burnt my mouth. I won't have that again!

After popping to the post office, we bought a few bits in Tesco, and I treated Sophie and me to a bottle of white Burgundy as an antidote to the misery that's the Weston Favell Centre! We sloshed our way home, where I did some housework and tidied up. Jamie called us in the afternoon, and we arranged to go and see him again on the 21st of October. I'm hoping we can get the en-suite plans finalised and everything ordered. I would love to be able to use my en-suite again!

Later in the afternoon, I hoovered, but there is something wrong with our vacuum cleaner now! The brush wasn't turning properly, and the lights were going on and off. Keith suggested we get a new one from Amazon, so we did! We chose a Vacmaster vacuum with a pet attachment, due to be delivered on Friday. Hooray! Our old Shark vacuum hasn't worked properly for ages and makes hoovering an even bigger chore!

We watched the last two episodes of The Little Drummer Girl this evening, and the ending was most satisfactory, even though we are sad it's now finished. I don't think we watched the series in its entirety last time, as I didn't remember much beyond episode three! We now need to find a good alternative!

White Burgundy and the en-suite inspiration bottle!

Frustrations!

I decided to concentrate on the cinema admin today and arranged a meeting with one of the staff from our support hub to go through how to input the films again. I asked if I could record the meeting, so I had it for reference later, but I still struggled, especially with resizing the film stills that had to be uploaded to our website. In my old job, our marketing manager did this, and I have had no training on this aspect at all!

It was extremely frustrating, and I hated that I didn't know what I was doing. I've had no training on Teams either, which I loathe - seeing myself on the screen is a form of torture - and the young man who I had the meeting with must have thought I was a complete idiot as he sent me stuff via the portal, which I then couldn't find. I went through exactly what he told me to do with resizing the images on Adobe Express, but it wouldn't work. I even enlisted the help of two of our younger staff, but they were perplexed as well!

I had a long, hard think about this job on the drive home; I gave up my old position in which I knew how to do almost everything, to go through the ordeal of not having a clue most of the time what I'm doing, and having nobody with me to help. Dan is off sick still, and will be for the next month at least, so I don't have him as a sounding board.

Back at home, I relaxed on the sofa with Sophie, who had a headache and then fell asleep. We left Keith to cook dinner tonight and afterwards went upstairs to watch episode six of The Little Drummer Girl. It was riveting!

A frantic day!

I have had a frantic day doing the payroll, made worse by the fact that one of the centres was late bringing their timesheets to me. I sat in splendid isolation all day, which made me miss my old colleagues! I closed the door for most of the day, though, so I could concentrate!

It has been warm for October today, but this is set to change midweek. I will have to bring out the winter boots, which is not an enticing thought! Oh, how we moaned about the heat in the summer! That's a distant memory now, and the fierce temperatures of France, when it was an ordeal to walk short distances, seem unbelievable!

It was great to leave at 4:00pm and head home. Keith hadn't charged up Celine after he got back from Tesco, so the car switched over to hybrid for the last few miles. Even so, the petrol gauge didn't change!

Keith and I played cards this evening while Sophie read for a while and then prepared dinner, the meal we should have had on Saturday night!

Disappointing dishes...

Sophie's friend, Becky, came over this morning and did a 5k run with her. They walked into the village, ran along the single-track road towards Mawsley, and then returned to the pub for lunch.

Keith and I were going to look at shower enclosures and tiles for the en-suite, but we postponed until next Wednesday. I pootled about doing laundry and housework before going to Tesco, and then to see my Mum in the afternoon. It was not the most cheerful of visits, unfortunately, and she shed a few tears while I was there.

Back home, Sophie had returned and made us a cup of tea. We sat and chatted about her run and lunch, and I tackled yet more laundry! I was just glad I could get it out on the line, but I fear these days will soon be over as it's set to get wetter and windier next week. Autumn has arrived!

Sophie and I played Scrabble in the early evening, and after Sophie had beaten me (what a surprise!) I prepared a lacklustre dinner of leftover Chinese takeaway and a chicken chow mein ready meal that Keith had bought in Tesco. We knew that Sophie wouldn't be eating with us this evening, so I had asked him to get a Tesco Finest meal to enjoy, but he came back with the chow mein meal, an uninspiring pasta dish and a fish pie of all things. Yuk! He maintained there was no choice, but I saw plenty of options while I was in Tesco today! Neither of us enjoyed the meal this evening, even though I had padded it out with some Chinese spring rolls and prawn toasts. I think we will leave off the Chinese takeaway for a while!

After eating, we watched two more episodes of The Little Drummer Girl, and I couldn't remember any of it from when we watched it back in 2018!

Getting things done!

We were due to see Sharon, Sophie's old boss, today about buying a property in France, but sadly she had to cancel because of a family bereavement. We were able, therefore, to tick off some jobs on our lists, and we had a few! These included changing the car for our trip to France in a couple of weeks, and we were hoping there wouldn't be an additional charge.

After a coffee, I changed bedding and coloured my hair, while Sophie put some unwanted clothes on eBay. I also sorted out items to send to Vintage Cash Cow. It was surprising how much we had to send off and everything had been languishing in drawers and cupboards for ages, just gathering dust. All proceeds will go towards some treats! 

It was a beautiful day outside, so we managed to get some laundry on the line and used our new tumble dryer as well, which dried the towels and the bedding very well. Just before Keith was due to go and see Sileby, Sophie made us a cup of tea, and we sent poor Keith off to the village shop for some chocolate! He grumbled about going but felt it wasn't a good idea to stand in the way of two women who crave chocolate!

We also chose three Airbnbs for our holiday to France next September, and one was in the village of Meursault, which produces beautiful creamy Chardonnay wines. Sophie and I have decided to return to the lovely house in Sablet that we visited in 2024 for ten days, and we're hoping the weather will still be warm when we go!

Sophie poured us both a Negroni in the early evening, and the bottle was so beautiful I couldn't bring myself to put it in the recycling bin, so I kept it. It will provide the inspiration for my colour scheme in the en-suite shower room and may take pride of place in there!

Keith suggested a Chinese takeaway tonight, rather than chicken wraps, so we ordered the set meal for three again as we'd enjoyed it last time.  It took us ages to settle on something to watch after dinner, and in the end we settled on The Little Drummer Girl again. We had watched episode one a while ago, so we rewatched it and then the next. It was a real treat seeing the gorgeous Alexander Skarsgård in the drama!