A quiet day

Fridays tend to be quiet at work, and today was no exception! Not one member of our senior management team was in, and even Nicola had taken today off work. Sara left in the afternoon, so that meant it was just Kathy and I working, and one other woman in the finance office. It was bliss!

The shift passed quickly, and it was great to escape at 4:00pm and look forward to the weekend. When Sophie arrived home, we opened a bottle of rosé and watched Ever After, filmed at the Château de Hautefort. It was wonderful to see the gorgeous house on the screen and to relive memories of spending time there!

Keith had made a curry, so we didn't need to do anything for dinner, just cook some Basmati rice and the naan bread.

After we'd eaten, we watched the end of the film, and then caught up with an episode of Amanda and Alan in Italy. Amanda had wanted a golden floor in her bathroom, which I thought would look horrible, but it worked!

A sobering afternoon

I am quite enjoying having an extra day off a week, so I'm going to make the most of it! Keith went shopping while I did some chores, and I helped him put the shopping away when he returned.

It was lovely to pootle about for the rest of the morning, and I went to see my Mum in the afternoon. As soon as I walked into her room, I knew she wasn't feeling well, and I had a miserable visit, with her in tears several times. The sad thing is that today would have been Mum and Dad's 60th wedding anniversary, and she welled up when I told her. One of the carers came in and said she hadn't had a good couple of days, so I said I'd see someone about a urine sample as she may have an infection.

I went home feeling a bit miserable and started the dinner which we should have had last night. Sophie was delighted when she arrived home and saw that it was all done! All we needed to do was cook the rice, and that was it!

I carried on watching the Tour de France after dinner; the route ended in Chalon-sur-Saône, where we'd stayed a couple of years ago, and I wanted to see if the route passed through the Burgundy vineyards. It made a very pleasant end to the day!

The parched earth...

Things were a little tense between Sophie and me this morning! She was working from home, so she stationed herself in the kitchen until Keith and I pulled out the fridge to clean behind it. Before we pulled it out, I took everything out and cleaned all the shelves. This disturbed Sophie, so she moved into the conservatory, and I don't think she was very happy about it!

We had to do this job this morning, though, as Keith was going shopping tomorrow, and I wanted the fridge to be clean and tidy. When we pulled the fridge out, I gasped with horror; there was a sticky black stain on the floor, loads of broken bits of glass and pottery, and the cats' toy balls. Keith poured some very hot water and detergent into a bucket while I hoovered and got rid of the cobwebs. It badly needed doing!

When I'd culled all the old jars and Keith had washed them out, we were all done, and it looked so much better! I also swept and mopped our little laundry cupboard, so I felt like I'd made a difference this morning!

At lunchtime, Sophie went for a walk with the cats and took some photographs. Both cats seemed to love posing!

Gomez

Mooney

Mooney

Gomes of the Gomezes

Moonbums

Things between us had thawed out a bit, and when she showed me the photos, I couldn't believe how dry and parched the grass was. We now have a hosepipe ban in place (since the 11th of July), and there is still no sign of rain in the forecast for the foreseeable future. I am avidly watching the Tour de France, and the fields there are the same. We all need a few days of sustained rainfall to bring the grass back to life.

I had an appointment with Gabriel in the afternoon, my penultimate session of shockwave therapy, and he really hurt me today. I said that my foot was feeling better, especially after walking for a little while, so it must be doing some good! He had another physio with him, and they both thought it was highly funny when I groaned my way through the treatment!

Back home, Sophie had suggested we go to the pub for a drink, and this turned out to be an impromptu evening meal as well. Keith hadn't fancied our dinner for tonight - chicken stroganoff - so we indulged in pie and chips (Sophie and me) and fish and chips (Keith). I drank, and enjoyed very much, a couple of Guinness zero alcohol beers, so I might buy myself a couple in the shopping to enjoy during the week.

The food was good, and the pub gradually grew busier as people arrived to watch the England-Argentina game. Sophie and I enjoyed a dessert each (mousse and crème brûlée), and we paid the bill. Keith wanted to be home to watch the game, and Sophie and I went upstairs and decided to catch up with a couple of episodes of Simon Reeves in Scandinavia. We thoroughly enjoyed the two programmes we watched and learnt a lot about Norway, Finland and Iceland! While we watched, we indulged in a tiny glass of Berliner Luft... delicious!

A morning drama!

Our weekly fire alarm test happens every Tuesday morning, and it went off as usual. However, five minutes later, it went off again, so Sara and I went downstairs to find out if it was genuine. Unfortunately, we learnt that a man had collapsed in the pool and one of the staff had to dive in to rescue him. He was then given CPR before paramedics arrived. Luckily, he was revived and went off in the air ambulance, but we all said if you're going to have a heart attack, have it at a gym, and preferably one next to a hospital! He should make a full recovery, thank goodness. So that was a bit of drama to start the day!

I finished the moan report today and put most of the holiday activities on, as I wasn't on the phone. It really irks me that I now only have one day of admin, but not for much longer!

The temperature climbed again this afternoon, and I left the thermometer with Nicola so she could check tomorrow and Thursday. I rejoined Keith in the car, and we went home to pootle about. Sophie came home and wasn't pleased that we hadn't prepared any vegetables for dinner, and unfortunately, we had a bit of an argument this evening. We don't argue often, but when we do, we can get a bit shouty! As all of our doors and windows were open, I'm sure the neighbours witnessed our bickering! 

Catastrophe!

This morning has been cloudy, and the temperatures have been more comfortable, especially in the office. I took my new thermometer in so we could keep an eye on how warm it became. It reached 28c just before we left as the sun made an appearance in the afternoon.

After work, I drove to my old place of work to provide documents to Dan and Sheila for my new job. When I left and drove home, I realised I was on autopilot and went home the way I used to! Sometimes, I now drive to Overstone and cross the A43 instead, and I was surprised at how quickly I slipped back to old habits!

As we were sitting in the kitchen chatting before dinner, we heard Vince reverse down the drive, and then there was an almighty crunching and scraping... Keith rushed out to find that his wheel had hit the central brick and wooden strut, and the downpipe for the gutter was hanging off and badly bent. Oh dear! Amazingly, his car wasn't damaged! He spoke to Keith about it, but we suspected he would do the repairs to put it right, as he is very handy. 

We enjoyed leftover Chinese for dinner, and Keith and I watched the last episode of Panda, which ended well. Will there be a third series, I wonder? I hope so!

Sinner's a winner!

I woke up to the stunning news that England beat Norway last night! They'll now play Argentina in the semi-finals on Wednesday. Can we really go all the way?

First thing this morning I started preparations for a strawberry and ricotta tart - a recipe that was in You magazine. We thought it would be perfect as a dessert with our buffet lunch today. Our big plan for this afternoon was to watch the Men's Finals at Wimbledon between Sinner and Zverev, but it wasn't starting until 4:00pm.

With the dessert, I mixed porridge oats, brown sugar, honey and butter to form the base and popped this into the oven for ten minutes. I would whip lemon zest into the ricotta before serving and topping with strawberries.

Sophie and I went to see Mum and called into Costa on the way to get a couple of matchas and a  cappuccino.  My Mum seemed a bit bemused by the coffee but enjoyed it, nonetheless! We sat and chatted and then popped to Tesco so Sophie could pick up her new glasses.

Back at home, we relaxed before making a start on lunch. We opened a bottle of fizz from Bergerac and had lunch at about 2:00pm. We were a little surprised by the late start of the tennis as normally is starts at 2:00pm. Starting later risked a long night if it went to five sets!

Like last year, we all made predictions: Sophie said it would go to five sets, with Sinner winning, Keith said three with Sinner the victor and I predicted a four set match with Sinner winning. The winner would be treated to a pint in the pub from the losers!

I have to say that I thought the match was a bit boring. Sinner broke Zverev's serve in the third set but the first two resulted in tiebreaks. In the fourth set, Sinner broke Zverev's serve again and went on to win in four sets, just as I had predicted!

We had eaten dessert later in the afternoon, and I was a little disappointed with it. I wish I had used double cream rather than ricotta as it gave the pud a slightly savoury taste!

There was a lovely breeze in the living room all afternoon and our new thermometer registered 26c before dropping away as the evening wore on. Perfect!

A relaxed Saturday!

Sophie was doing a 5k run in Daventry this morning and I waved her off before 8:00am. I pootled about, getting lots of washing done and tackling housework. It felt a lot cooler today with a heavenly breeze coming in from an easterly direction, so it was lovely. A perfect temperature! Why can't our summers be sunny but about 22-23c? We all hate it when it's too hot! And talking of which, I ordered a little thermometer from Amazon today to tell just how hot it is in our office at work. It will also come in useful at home.

Sophie arrived home as I was eating my lunch and she had two bags of clothes with her; she'd hit all the charity shops in Daventry and had bagged a good haul, as usual! In one shop, she and Becky had paid £7.50 each for a bag and they could fill it with as many clothes as they liked. Sophie had found three lovely dresses, so not bad for £2.50 each!

We had a good chat and then we both went upstairs so Sophie could try on her new clothes. To my delight, North by Northwest was showing so that gave me a perfect excuse to sit and watch it! I had a moment of wishing that Cary Grant was still alive and looking like he did in the film... so gorgeous and sophisticated. I don't know why he was never chosen to be James Bond. He would have been perfect!

Once North by Northwest had finished, Vertigo started, with another of my favourite actors, James Stewart. I had a long, cool shower and we went downstairs to watch Stage 8 of the Tour de France, from Périgueux to Bergerac. I watched it in its entirety and loved every minute. To our utter delight, they featured the Chateau de Hautfort, and it looked gorgeous as the camera panned over it. However, this was only one; there were loads of other chateaux featured. What a fabulous area! We are definitely thinking of going back next year.

While we were watching the race, we had a couple of Aperols with tonic and then opened a bottle of the Euphonie wine we'd bought at Chateau Monbazillac. It was on the sweet side and had to be really chilled, but it was delicious.

As a treat, we ordered a Chinese takeaway and bought enough to have leftovers on Monday night. The Tour de France finished just before 10pm, so it was time to put on the football to see England play Norway in the quarterfinals of the World Cup. As I haven't watched any games and they've won, I didn't stick around and went to bed. I didn't want to jinx it!