A welcome respite

I was awake at 4:22am this morning and went to check on Sophie after her inadvertent poisoning last night! She was fine and went straight back to sleep, even though I had only cracked open her door quietly, but it took me a little longer to go back to the land of Nod! I hadn't had a call from the care home, so I assumed that Mum hadn't gone to the hospital, as they would have let me know.

However, I was woken at 7:00am by one of the carers saying the ambulance had arrived late last night, and as Mum wasn't in pain, they hadn't admitted her. Phew! What a relief! I did wish they'd left telling me for another hour, though!

It was good to get up early and have a coffee with Keith in the kitchen. Sophie left for work at 8:00am, and I caught up with the blog. It was a lot cooler today, and there was a delicious breeze coming through the back door. It was lovely to feel more energetic!

I had an appointment at the Back and Body Clinic at 11:00am, and Keith was going to drop me off, see Glen in Moulton about a pre-holiday service for the VW and pop to Aldi to buy more water as we drank so much yesterday in the heat.

I wasn't seeing Gabriel today, and had a consultation with Ben, who was lovely. I did miss having Sophie with me, though, and hearing the banter between her and Gabriel! Ben talked about the tendon and made me do a couple of exercises to see what range of movement I had with my knees. He wanted to rule out any other problems that could affect the tendon. He then made me lie down and manipulated my hips, which he said were OK. 

I was made to turn over, and he applied one treatment of the shockwave therapy. It hurt as much as last week, but it was bearable. He then used a massager on the back of my left leg, which was very relaxing. He recommended I buy a heel lift for the trip to Berlin and said I could use Co-Codamol for the pain. Sophie had written out our itinerary on Monday, and we will make use of the excellent buses, trains and trams in Berlin, like we did in Vienna.

Keith was waiting for me, and we went to Riverside as I wanted to get the heel lift for my trainers. I texted Sophie to ask if she wanted to meet for lunch, and she agreed. I spent another small fortune in Boots, and we walked to Next to meet Sophie.

I was expecting the Costa in the shop to be heaving as it's half-term, but it was pleasantly quiet. I bought lunch, but Keith only wanted a pot of tea as he had the rest of yesterday's prawns to eat at home in a sandwich. Rather him than me! I only ate half of my meal last night because I was worried about Sophie, and because it was tasteless! We sat and chatted, and I told Sophie about my appointment, telling her I'd been thoroughly checked over!

After we'd eaten, we amused ourselves by sitting on all the sofas and chairs in Next, and I had a play with a rise-and-recliner seat. I don't think I'm quite ready for that yet! We said goodbye to Sophie and headed home. As I was hanging the washing on the line, Mooney appeared, and we had a major love-in. He is so sweet! He loved rolling around in the grass, one ear cocked for all the bird sounds about. We have baby Jackdaws in the house next to us, and I could hear the young squawking for food! I sat with Mooney for a little while and then went inside to catch up with some jobs. 

I spent a good hour preparing tonight's dinner, and I do wonder how the contestants on MasterChef manage to prepare and cook their dishes in the short time allowed. Do they have someone helping? I grated ginger (next time we're going to get a jar, it's so fiddly!), garlic, chopped up broccoli and spring onions, and cubed chicken breasts. I then made a sauce of honey, soy sauce and rice wine vinegar. This was a recipe for Honey Glazed Chicken that sounded delicious, so I was hoping it would work out well (and I wouldn't end up poisoning any of my family!).

Sophie came home with a long list of things she needed to do, and I started on the dinner. I had to coat the chicken in cornflour, which made it lovely and crispy, cook the veg, and then amalgamate it all together and add the sauce. We ate it with deliciously sticky Jasmine rice and prawn crackers. The sauce wasn't as thick as I would have liked, but it was still lovely, and Sophie had enough for two lunches. I'll definitely cook it again, but maybe lessen the wet ingredients.

As Sophie was washing up, she spotted a strange cat in the garden! It was Milo, a big tabby who lives down the road, and he had come along to drink the water we'd put down for the birds! He drank and drank, which was slightly worrying as cats don't normally drink a lot. Gomez had made one of his rare appearances and stood stock still in the garden as he suddenly realised there was an intruder in his territory! Sophie picked Mooney up, who, when he eventually noticed Milo, let out a growl!

We went into the garden, and Milo ran out, which freaked out both of our cats. It set the tone for an unsettled night, when Gomez kept being spooked by people. Twice, Sophie had him in her arms to bring him in as it was cooler, and twice he struggled to get free and ran off.

We watched an episode of MasterChef after dinner, and there are now just four going into the finals next week. Sophie and I have made predictions as to who will win, and I think we're both sure it will be a close-run contest!

Nature's entertainment

I was back at work at the normal time of 8:00am this morning and managed to park opposite our office. Sara was back from her break, so it was great to catch up with her before I started work. Already, the office felt hot, and we had turned on all the fans and drawn the blinds again. Nicola called Sara and asked what the temperature was like, and when Sara said it was warm, she asked her to go and get some big fans that we use in the main sports hall. 

Unfortunately, all they did was move hot air around the office, and they were noisy, so not an ideal solution! With six of us in the office, it became hot and stuffy! I felt for Nicola as her old office was air-conditioned, and she was clearly suffering in the heat, as was Sara, who looked a little red in the face. One of the senior managers came in and made us laugh with his tales of shaving his chest and having his shoulders and back waxed in the summer to feel cooler, so that provided a little light relief! He was on the lookout for sweets or chocolate, but they would have melted in our office at the moment!

Unfortunately, I received a call from the care home at about 11:00am to say that Mum had fallen again and was complaining of pain in her hip. The staff had called for an ambulance, but it would be about ten hours... ten hours? I asked them to let me know the outcome and tried not to worry about my Mum going into hospital again. She had broken her hip last July, and I really didn't want her to go into the hospital again, especially at the moment. I spent my short lunch period researching private rehabilitation homes where she could go if she had to have an operation, but there weren't any, just nursing homes, similar to where she is now.

It was lovely to escape at 4:00pm and turn on the air-conditioning in the car! I returned home, where I stripped off all my clothes and took a long, cool shower. What bliss! It has been hotter today, and the temperature hovered around 35 °C on the way home. We were forecast to have thunderstorms in the evening, and we were hoping they would materialise. However, although the clouds built up and we heard the odd rumble of thunder, we didn't see any rain at all.

I called the care home, and they said that my Mum had managed to get herself up from her fall and had been walking around, so that seemed like cautious good news. The ambulance hadn't arrived yet, but they would let me know the outcome.

Sophie and I watched Masterchef again, and she was delighted to see one of her heroes attend a fabulous dinner. The contestants had to cook at the old Whitehall building for people connected to the Secret Service, and Gordon Corera was one of the guests. We are going to see him live in London in September when he appears with another of Sophie's heroes, David McCloskey! Gordon Corera was the BBC security correspondent, and it was great to see him indulge in the fantastic dinner cooked by the contestants. We particularly liked the Vesper-inspired dessert!

When the show was finished, we prepared our own dinner. Keith and I were having prawn salad while Sophie made do with fish finger sandwiches. When we sat down to eat, she took a bite and said that the fish fingers smelled and tasted strange... she persevered, but in the end, left them. She said they tasted weird. She pointed out the baking tray she'd cooked them on, and I realised that last night, I'd sprayed it with the Fairy no-soak cleaner and left it overnight. Nobody had washed it, and Sophie had put the fish fingers directly onto the pan... I was horrified! Sophie started to panic, so we had a good look at the bottle, but there were no dire warnings about ingesting it, only to avoid getting it into the eyes. She said she felt fine, and she could only have ingested a small amount of cleaner, but it worried me all night. Not really what we needed at the moment, with the worry about my Mum!

Keith and I half-heartedly watched Spring Watch after dinner, but I was more interested in the sky outside! Huge thunder clouds had built up, and with the setting sun were all different colours. They looked beautiful.

Sophie and I went outside to watch and noticed both sheet lightning and fork lightning sparking off amidst the clouds. It was a fantastic spectacle, and I could have watched for hours! It was noticeably cooler with a brisk wind.

The colour of the clouds ranged from pink and peach to light blue, light grey, a bluey grey and white. The sky was ever-changing, and the lightning was brilliant. A lovely end to a somewhat trying day!

A Bank Holiday record!

I was working today with Kathy, so Sophie dropped me off, and she managed to go through the barrier and drop me off by the entrance. It was already hot, and I was dreading how warm our office would be. It was very warm, so I turned on all the fans and lowered the blinds to stop the glare from the sun.

Kathy and I had a pleasant shift, and it was great to leave at 2:00pm and go home with Sophie. She brought me a bottle of water as I'd forgotten to pack one, and I was thirsty! I had even skipped my usual morning cup of coffee as it was so warm!

Back at home, we had a late lunch and sat chatting in the kitchen for a while before going upstairs and lying on the bed with the fan. I hate how the heat makes me feel, and we talked seriously about getting air-conditioning for the bedrooms and living room if this heat becomes the norm. The temperature was saying it was 33 °C on the way home, and our kitchen was about 29 °C. Today has set a record for the hottest May Bank Holiday! Phew!

Before dinner, we watched MasterChef, and the final is drawing near. I think we'll be able to catch it before we go to France on the 12th of June. Dinner was a simple "build-your-own" wrap with salad and crispy chicken, and then Keith and I watched the first episode of the new series of Panda, which was brilliant.

Going to bed was not pleasant as the upstairs of the house was stiflingly hot and oppressive. Imagine how great it would be if we had air-conditioning!

Out for lunch

Before it became too hot, I gave the kitchen a good clean, while Sophie hoovered upstairs. She then hoovered downstairs and cleaned the living room. We're a clean family with two cats that are more often out than in, so why does the house get so dirty? I wiped down all the surfaces in the kitchen, including the fronts of the cupboards, and gave my orchid and the cacti a good watering. The cacti need repotting, but the little family of four seem very happy altogether, so I'm hesitant to separate them!

We had booked a table at the pub for 2:00pm, so we made our way there a little earlier to have a drink. It wasn't as busy as I imagined, and many people were taking advantage of the beautiful weather by sitting in the garden. When we went to the bar, I was amazed to see Izzy serving, one of the children I'd looked after when I worked at the after-school club back in 2017-2018. She was nineteen! Blimey! She told me she was at university in Bristol, and I said I always knew she'd do well, as she was very intelligent when I looked after her, and she was in Year 6. It was great to see her again!

Sophie and I ordered a bottle of Provencal rosé to drink, while Keith chose a lager to quench his thirst. We sat and looked at the menu, and Sophie found it difficult to choose. She thought she wanted a roast, but opted for a burger in the end. Keith did go with a roast - the beef - while I chose the halloumi burger for a change. I am trying to cut down on meat, and it was the ideal chance to go veggie for today! Sophie and I shared halloumi fries to start, and the meal was delicious. We even found room for chocolate brownies for dessert! They were sublime!

We paid the bill and returned to the car to drive home. It was very warm now, but the weather forecast said it was due to get even hotter tomorrow, the Bank Holiday Monday! Phew! We lolled about for the rest of the afternoon, feeling sleepy after the wine and heavy meal. Keith had been itching to get home to watch Newcastle play, but he was asleep ten minutes after the game started!

In the evening, it was too hot to play Scrabble, so we enjoyed a documentary about the CIA instead. It was very interesting and was about the US departure from Afghanistan, and the way that the Americans were trying to get the people who had helped them out of the country. I said it was a shame that Afghanistan was now a no-go area, as it used to be on the hippie trail to India in the 60s, and I would love to have gone there. I can't ever see it being open to tourism again in my lifetime! This then made us discuss all the countries today that are on the FCDO no-go list, including Syria, Iran, Russia and Israel. Let's hope that one day, we're able to visit again!

The heat builds

Sophie was doing a 5K run in Brixworth this morning and met her friend Becky in the country park at 8:30am. It already felt warm outside, and both Keith and I urged her to take it easy in the heat. I stayed at home and managed to catch up with writing the blog, so that was a relief. I hate being behind!

I spent the rest of the morning pootling about, and Sophie arrived home after having a lovely breakfast at The Workhouse in Brixworth. We went over to Tesco in the early afternoon and bought some things my Mum needed, as well as a couple of bottles of wine to enjoy over the weekend. One was a Provencal rosé that Helen had recommended on Saturday Kitchen Live, so we hoped it would live up to our expectations! We also bought salads for dinner tonight, as we had abandoned our plans to go to Market Harborough for lunch.

After Tesco, we drove to the care home and chatted to Mum for a while. She seemed OK today, and I spoke to one of the senior carers when we left to ask how she was. She replied that she was fine, but had played up the other day when she was asked to go to the dining room for lunch, saying she couldn't walk! Naughty!

Sophie and I went home and spent the rest of the afternoon doing very little! The heat had sapped our energy, so it was lovely to relax! In the evening, we decided to watch the Eurovision Song Contest as I'd made sure I'd recorded it. We saw the build-up (we had missed Graham Norton's narration!) and the first song. We skipped through most of the songs, but watched the UK's entry again, Bulgaria and Australia. 

We then watched the voting in full, and we were surprised by the results but thankful to Ukraine for giving us our only vote!

Over the course of watching the show, we enjoyed our salads for dinner and the delicious rosé. It was hard to believe that we were actually in Vienna last week!

It's hotting up!

It already felt warm when I went to work this morning, and I was amazed to find one of the radiators on in the corridor as I walked in! I turned it right down and set up fans in our office to keep it cool. It was just Sharon and me working today, and the suite of offices was very quiet. I had dealt with all the emails before 9:00am, but one of our managers came in and said that lessons had been cancelled again at a local school, and could I send out emails and then call the parents? 

Doing this kept Sharon and me busy all afternoon, and the parents were surprisingly understanding. It may have helped that the half-term holidays start today, so a lot of children may be going away this evening anyway. It was great to escape at 4:00pm and make my way to where Keith was waiting for me. The temperature was registering 30 °C, but it went down to 28 °C on the way home, thank goodness!

Keith wasn't at the pub this evening as John is in France, so he kept himself to himself in the kitchen while Sophie and I watched the two episodes of Race Across The World back to back. The contestants were now in Mongolia, which looked beautiful but cold and remote! We opened a bottle of the Chardonnay I'd bought in Duncan's shop, and it was delicious.

We had a spicy curry for dinner, and then it was half an hour of Have I Got News For You before bed. It's the weekend!

More pain!

I woke up in the night with a terrible headache and took some paracetamol, but when I woke up again at 6:00am, it was still painful. I think it may have been where I tensed up during the treatment yesterday. I reluctantly took two Nurofen and drove myself to work, thankful I was only working until 2:00pm.

At 10:00am, I manned the phones with Nicola's daughter, Macy, and we had a pleasant shift. At 2:00pm, I dashed home to find Kym already treating Keith's feet. She then did mine and tidied up my toenails so Sophie can paint them. We are facing a heatwave over the Bank Holiday weekend with temperatures set to be about 30 °C on Sunday and Monday. Phew! It's certainly not typical of this time of year... It's not even summer yet!

I had a great chat with Kym, as I always do, and she told me all about her Hen Night in Newcastle and her forthcoming wedding in June. When she left, I had to have a little nap as my sleep was so disturbed last night. I woke up again feeling muzzy-headed and think my half hour was too long!

Tonight was the last episode of Race Across The World, but Sophie and I will watch last week's and tonight's tomorrow. I just hope we don't inadvertently find out who the winners are! Instead, Keith and I watched the last episode of Series 1 of Panda. It was hilarious, as usual, and I loved the banter between the two lead characters. I wonder if they have the same chemistry in real life?