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!

Hooray! It's Friday!

I closed my office door this morning and worked on the payroll, but I still had people coming in and out. It's mainly because we have the photocopier in the office, and people need to get to it at all times. This Friday has flown by as I've been so busy, and it was 4:00pm before I knew it and the start of the weekend! Hooray!

Keith went to the pub to have a drink with John, while Sophie and I decided to watch a film called Cold Creek Manor starring Dennis Quaid and Sharon Stone. It was a bit silly and quite predictable, but I enjoyed it nonetheless, and  it was interesting to see a very young Kristen Stewart (of Twilight fame) appearing as the young daughter.

Sophie and I couldn't find a wine we liked this evening, so we gave up on a Chenin Blanc and tried a Viognier instead. We found both a bit tart and acidic. Maybe it's time to concentrate on reds now that it's Autumn!

Here's a belated pic of Celine, nose to nose with Olive:

Getting to know you!

I drove to work on my own today, and felt a little nervous. We had charged up Celine last night, and it only took a couple of hours, as her battery is not as big as Olive's. However, I was delighted to discover that my entire journey was all electric, so I didn't use any petrol at all! 

I gave my order to Amanda for our Greggs breakfast and spoke with her about my manager, Dan, who is off ill at the moment. He had complained of a bad headache on Monday, so maybe it was connected.

I had a busy day, and Kally came in to see me so we could go over a few things. It's the start of the month, so the payroll run is looming, but I have decided to spend all day on it tomorrow. I made sure I checked every folder this morning!

When I arrived home, I put Celine on charge again and was hoping that, with my journeys to work and back, I would be able to run on electric only, thereby saving on petrol! Let's hope so!

A new addition to the family!

We took Sophie to work this morning in the usual heavy traffic, which was worse on the way home because of problems on the A45.

We just had time to get showered and then drive to Corby for our 11:00am appointment with Cinch. I had booked a slot to have a look at the Citroen and arrange a test drive, and we were shown to a comfortable seating area to wait for someone to show us the car. We had already seen it in the car park, and it was a lot bigger than I had expected!  

Just as we went out to have a proper look at the car, it began to rain! We sat inside, and I asked the man, who was known as JP, if he could drive, as I was a bit nervous about taking it out and driving! He agreed, and we went for a short drive towards Corby. It felt beautiful and smooth and seemed to be very responsive when he put his foot down! We explained about driving to France frequently, and I joked about buying a French car so I would please the French drivers! He showed me how the controls worked and explained the hybrid engine and how it switched from petrol to electric.

Back at the Cinch office, we sat down, went through all the paperwork and paid for the car. We then booked a slot to pick it up after we'd arranged the tax and insurance. JP said there was a café nearby, so we set off and found a large Tesco supermarket with a café. 

By now, we were both ready for lunch and had to order on large screens! It was all very high-tech! The wifi signal kept dropping while we were sitting in the café, so after eating and buying something for my lunch on Thursday, we sat in Olive, and I managed to contact my insurance company, pay a small amount to change the car, and then pay for a year's road tax.

The earlier rain had passed, and it was a glorious day. We had a call from JP at about 1:00 pm, and we went back to pick it up, which was a very easy process. When I got in, I realised that it was both empty of petrol and had no charge, so we had to call at the fuel station next door to fill it up with petrol. 

We set off for home, and Keith followed me in Olive. It was beautiful to drive, but I was a little concerned that at a higher speed, I could feel a slight vibration on the steering wheel, almost as if the tyres weren't aligned properly. I told Keith and said he would need to drive it today so he was familiar with it when he popped to Tesco.

We put Celine (as she is now known) on charge for a short while, before we went to see my Mum. I explained to her that I didn't have a lot of time to be with her today, as we were running short of time! The day was speeding past!

Once I said goodbye to Mum, Keith took Celine for a spin along the A14 and drove faster than I had on the way home, but said he couldn't detect any vibration at all. Perhaps it was the road surface? Anyway, I was hugely relieved as I am in love with the car and very pleased with it!

We had about half an hour at home before it was time to collect Sophie, and we took Celine, despite the heavy traffic. She was delighted to see us and came out with Becky and Grace, who admired Celine as well!

I was well and truly glad to get home and relax!

Bombarded!

To my delight, Sheila came to see me at work this morning after an early morning swim. We hugged, and I told her about my woes from yesterday. She sympathised with me, and we sat with a hot drink and a Northumberland biscuit while having a chat. She wanted to know what I'd put aside for her to do tomorrow, and I was grateful that she was in to take over for a day!

The rest of the shift went quickly, and it was great to go home at 4:00pm and catch up with Sophie, who had been working all day at home, but had managed to escape at lunchtime to take the cats for a walk! How lovely!

Sophie and a delighted Gomez

She told me all about them and how they had been at the house for most of the day, clearly happy that Sophie was at home! I think they missed us last weekend, even though they would never admit it!

The courtesy car had been picked up today, and I had been inundated with texts and calls from various companies (the repair people, Cinch), including the care home, which said that Mum had taken a tumble and hit her head. They called for an ambulance, and when the paramedics arrived, they decided to take her to A&E as her blood pressure was low. I was dismayed by this news, as I really don't want her to go to the hospital. They said they were going to do some tests and then hopefully take her straight back. This was just another thing to worry about, but at 11:00pm they rang to say she was home, which was a huge relief. I am planning on visiting her tomorrow after we have sorted the car out. I'm just hoping it will all turn out to be OK!

Work troubles!

Last night, I had a burst of inspiration and saw a car I liked on Cinch. It's a 23-registered Citroën C5 Aircross and is a petrol hybrid in a midnight metallic blue. I made an appointment to view it on Wednesday, as I just knew that the repair people would call today and ask for the courtesy car back, which they did. I asked if we could keep it for another day, but they refused. So that was that! I texted Sophie and asked if she could work from home tomorrow, and thankfully, she was able to, so that solved a problem!

Work hadn't been pleasant today; we all got paid last week, so I had quite a few queries from staff about their wages today, and I realised I had made a mistake last month, which I was mortified about. I felt like sitting and crying, to be honest. I still don't have access to the payroll software at work, and it's hugely frustrating. I needed to text Sheila again, poor thing, so she could give me access with her login. It's not ideal!

So, it was a bit of a subdued evening, but at least Monday is over, and I was glad Sophie was working from home tomorrow!

Birthday celebrations in Northumberland 25th - 27th September 2026

Homeward bound

We had toyed with the idea of going to Durham this morning, but with the charging issues, we decided to head home and stop for a late lunch at The Dovecote Inn in Laxton, Nottinghamshire. We'd stopped at this pub before, and it was a convenient place to have a bite to eat before continuing our journey.

I'd had a better night's sleep and felt a little more refreshed than yesterday! We showered (perhaps the worst shower we'd ever used, unfortunately), packed the car and made sure we left the cottage clean and tidy. Sophie had had an altercation last week with the owner of the Airbnb who had cancelled our April booking in Annecy, and we'd reported her in the end because of her offensive messages. We didn't want to annoy our lovely host in Northumberland! It had been a lovely, very comfortable stay in a gorgeous cottage that had everything we needed. We just didn't like the weak electric shower!

We set off at 9:00am and turned onto the A697 towards Morpeth. From here, we joined the A1 and headed for Washington Services, where we intended to charge up Olive to 100%. Even this would only get us to Nottinghamshire, though, where we'd identified another rapid charger at Blyth Services. 

The roads were good, and we had a great journey to Washington, passing Newcastle again and seeing The Angel of the North. At the services, we charged up Olive at a Gridserve charging point that was very rapid indeed. It gave us a chance to use the facilities and partake of a Greggs breakfast. We had a slight bickerfest in Greggs when I threatened to stuff a stottie cake in Keith's mouth as he kept wittering on about bringing Olive and that we should have taken the courtesy car. Sophie collapsed into giggles, making everyone in the queue turn around to see what was so funny!

Once Olive was charged, we set off, taking the A1(M) but deciding to follow the advice from Jeeves about avoiding Doncaster, where there were hold-ups. We briefly went onto the M62 towards Hull, then the M18, and then back onto the A1. All the way, we stared at cars on the road, trying to get some inspiration for our next vehicle. To me, a lot of cars look alike, especially the SUVs!

Our next stop was at Blyth Services and another Gridserve charger. We joined some hefty cars here, including a big Audi, Teslas and BMWs. It was nice to sit and relax for about forty-five minutes, giving us just enough time to get to the pub at Laxton, where we had a 2:30pm lunch booking.

We had stopped here a while ago, on our way back from the North-East, and I was keen to have a meal here again. There were already quite a few people eating, and we were taken to a table at the back of the pub.

We perused the menu, choosing roast chicken and lamb and Sophie and I shared a bottle of Portuguese Rosé, which was an agreeable 9.5% alcohol. The staff didn't appear to know what they were doing, and we eventually gave our orders and settled down to wait. We were all starving!

Sophie was looking forward to her lunch and had been craving a roast all weekend! However, when our roast chicken arrived, we were disappointed to see the promised crispy skin looking pale and anaemic... Keith had chosen a lamb shank, and our meals were accompanied by a Yorkshire pudding, runner beans, cabbage and leeks, roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, heritage carrots (they looked like dead fingers), underdone parsnips, a wedge of rock-hard stuffing and extra portions of pigs in blankets and broccoli and cauliflower cheese. Sadly, the meal was disappointing, with the gravy tasteless and thin. We suspected most items had been frozen, especially the roast potatoes, which were dense and unappetising. When I think about how we turn out a roast at home, I could have cried...

We decided to forgo a pud, paid the bill and fled. We all wanted to get home now, see the cats and relax before work tomorrow. The unpacking and washing could wait!

We had a good journey home and turned off the A1 and onto the A43 at Stamford. Overhead, the skies were cloudy, and it looked like there had been rain. We made a brief stop at the Co-op at Kettering, and I bought another pack of sticky toffee pudding and custard.

Of course, there were no cats around, so we unpacked the car, put away as much as we could, and collapsed on the sofa. I had an indulgent hour watching All Creatures Great and Small, and we enjoyed our puds with lashings of creamy custard. Both cats came in eventually and were hugged and kissed!

Tomorrow it's back to reality!