A day of celebration!

I had a much better night's sleep, and I was looking forward to today being a little cooler than of late. Today was Keith's and my wedding anniversary, and we were celebrating 34 years together! Where have the years gone? He was off to see Sileby play this afternoon, and Sophie and I had decided to return to Bletchley Park today, as the tickets we were given on our previous visit were annual passes. To celebrate our anniversary, we had booked a table at The Han in Market Harborough for this evening.

Sophie and I set off at about 10:30am and arrived about an hour later. The kindly man at the gate said the normal car parks were full, so we had to leave Olive in the car park we used last time and walk to the entrance. First up was coffee and something to eat before we started exploring. We had a look at the introductory exhibitions and then had a quick look in the gift shop, where Sophie bought a Christmas decoration and a coaster.

We ventured outside, and a very friendly volunteer had a chat with us and told us the best way to explore. We went to the house itself first and had a look around, but it was warm inside, so we didn't linger! We had been hoping that today would be a lot cooler, but the heat seemed to have built up inside the buildings, making them stuffy and hot.

The last time we had missed the garages, so we had a quick look at the motorcycles used for transporting messages around the country and an old car and ambulance.

I was fascinated by the motorcycle riders who had to negotiate routes without road signs (they had all been removed) and were forbidden from stopping.

About 10,000 people worked at Bletchley Park (not all at the same time!) and the history was fascinating. We decided to have an ice cream and then explore the huts. We both chose a flavour and sat in the shade of a tree to enjoy the ice creams. The ground was baked hard, and the clouds had parted to let the sun shine through.

We explored a couple of huts and then went to see a film about intelligence and the D-Day Landings.

A lot of the information about the codes and how they were broken was beyond us; I think it took a special breed of people with differently wired brains to work out how to break the code! We enjoyed an exhibition on AI and played a game, which was great as the building was air-conditioned!

By now, we were flagging, so we returned to the car for our little picnic of Keith's sausage rolls and a can of Aperol Spritz. Sophie added ice and a slice of orange, and we sat in the cool car to enjoy the food and drink.

We returned home via Olney and had a lovely journey. The countryside was looking parched, and even the trees seemed to be suffering now, with dried-up leaves scattering the ground in an early fall.

Back at home, we relaxed, and I fell asleep for almost 45 minutes, far longer than I wanted! Keith returned from seeing Sileby, and we left for Market Harborough at 6:00pm with the intention of having a drink at The Wine Shed.

Our usual car park was empty, and most of the shops were closed. We walked to The Wine Shed, but even before we walked up the little alleyway, we could tell the place was busy! They had no tables free, so we walked to Louisa's Place and had a drink there. I chose a non-alcoholic Mojito, Sophie had a Negroni Sbagliato, while Keth had a cloudy IPA.

We sat and chatted about Keith's birthday trip to Northumberland and then crossed the road to The Han. The restaurant was already pleasantly busy, and we were seated by the window. We ordered drinks and chose the Han Banquet, which consisted of various starters and main courses that you could choose from a list. This worked out better for us as we could include our favourites.

The food was delicious, and Sophie and I shared a bottle of Chilean Chardonnay to go with the food. We enjoyed the starters, crispy duck and pancakes, followed by four dishes. The food was excellent!

We were all too stuffed for dessert, so we paid the very reasonable bill (£117, the same as the pub the other night!) and walked back to the car. Market Harborough was a very different town at night than during the day, and several noisy groups of youngsters were about, so we wondered if there was a local nightclub?

Back at home, Sophie and I had a glass of Mallorcan Hierbas, and we watched television before it was time for bed. What an enjoyable day!

Shock and alarm!

Even though the heat was supposed to abate a little today, it still felt uncomfortably hot, especially at work. Was it because it had built up yesterday?

I found it hard going at work today; Sheila didn't let up at all, and we had a constant stream of people coming into the office. My old workmate, Sue, was most welcome, but the other extra bodies added to the heat! I will be a lot happier when I'm working on my own and can take a short break for lunch, as Sheila just powers on through! At one point, I wanted to scream, so I took myself off to the loo and texted Sophie as a way of letting off steam!

I could not wait for 4:00pm, and it was utter bliss to get into the car, switch on the aircon and head home for the weekend. As soon as Sophie came home, we finished off a bottle of Italian rosé and started watching a Netflix documentary about Charles Manson. The book I'm reading at the moment is loosely based on the Manson family, and we both found the documentary very interesting. 

As we were sitting watching, all of a sudden, both of our phones made a terrible shrieking noise, and we nearly fell off the sofa in shock! It was a notice from the government about not using disposable barbecues (they should have been banned years ago) or starting fires at the moment, which included fire pits, incinerators or fireworks. Surely, only a complete imbecile would do that at the moment, with all the fires that have happened lately? In Stourbridge, nineteen houses were affected by a wildfire which spread from a nearby golf course. Who in their right mind would have a naked flame in the open at the moment?

To calm our nerves, we opened a lovely, fruity bottle of Picpoul de Pinet and put the finishing touches to dinner, a very easy pizza/quiche and Caesar salad. No potato products tonight! As we were eating, we saw Milo sneak into the conservatory to nick some of the cats' biscuit, so we went outside with him. A little gaggle of boys were riding around the estate on their bikes, and they stopped to chat. We had spoken to two of them before (they are fairly new and have a cat called Roxy) and it was lovely to sit and chat with them. They were mostly talking to Sophie, and they were lovely and polite!

There was a delicious breeze wafting about outside, and it was bliss to feel a little cooler. When I went upstairs, the bedroom was gorgeously cool, as I think the wind direction had changed and it was coming from the north. Hooray! Is the heat over?

A sober girls' night out

Keith took me to work this morning, and as I hadn't made myself any porridge, I was weak when Amanda came up to the office and asked if I wanted to join the Thursday Greggs breakfast gang. I said I would have a sausage roll, so that's it now for Thursdays, but I will try and have something a bit healthier next time! 

As forecast, it has been very hot today with temperatures hovering around 36-37c. Funnily enough,  it wasn't too bad in our office, thank goodness! When I arrived home after work, the upstairs of the house was stuffy and horrible. I am so sick of this now!

I had a cold shower and got ready to go out with my friends Lynda and Fiona. Andrea had cried off as she was having problems with her car, so just the three of us met at The World's End pub in Ecton. Lynda was already waiting for us, and we all moved into the restaurant, where our table was ready.

All three of us were driving, so I ordered a Guinness Zero, Fiona tried a 1664 non-alcoholic lager, while Lynda stuck to her lime and soda. I renamed us "The Sober Society" as it was virtually unknown for us to have soft drinks with a meal! We normally have G&Ts to start, followed by at least two bottles of wine and then liqueur coffees or port! Not tonight!

The restaurant was almost empty, with a lot of people sitting outside as it was still very warm. We sat and chatted and chose our meals. I opted for the Bang Bang cauliflower to start, followed by an Asian duck salad. We have been meeting up for a meal for decades, and I was amused that we chatted about our various ailments tonight, such a difference to when we were all in our 30s and 40s and the conversation was a bit spicier!

We were too stuffed and hot to contemplate dessert, so we paid the bill (£117, so still not cheap!) and said goodbye. Lynda has a new VW, so I admired that, and then headed home, with the aircon going full blast!

When I arrived home, Sophie was outside with the cats, whom she let stay out all night. The house was stiflingly hot, and I wasn't looking forward to going to bed!

The solar eclipse

I waved Sophie off to the gym this morning and went back to bed for an hour, which was bliss. It's so lovely to have this midweek break! When I went downstairs to make myself a coffee, Keith was having problems with the house computer. The screen had wiggly lines on it, and I said that it really seemed to be on its way out.

We swapped the screen for the one that was on my Dad's computer, but it was the same, so it was obviously the computer itself. We then spent over an hour mucking about with my Dad's old computer, which was slow and made a whirring noise! I think we're going to have to bite the bullet and buy a new one! It meant I had to install the Microsoft Word and Excel software onto my laptop, and we had to try and remember passwords for Keith's Facebook account and email. It was a pain!

We drove to Sophie's office at lunchtime and took her to a nearby Greggs for lunch. We managed to get to the café just in time as hordes of local workers arrived shortly afterwards! We picked out sandwiches (Sophie and me) and sausage rolls (Keith) with a side order of potato wedges. Sophie and I enjoyed a matcha each, and the food was delicious and good value, which probably explained the long queues!

Before taking Sophie back to work, we popped into a nearby bathroom showroom to get some inspiration for the en suite, which is badly in need of replacing. The tiles in there are cracked (as they're the wrong ones), and the whole room is horrible! We saw some lovely showers, and the man we spoke to said that they would design the en suite for us if we sent them the measurements and what we wanted. I want a bigger walk-in shower and to move the loo and sink to the other wall.

I liked this... almost a wet room

We dropped Sophie off, returned home, and I went out again to see my Mum. Although it's been hot today, I decided to take her out for a drive again. We took the scenic route home so I could get my hair grip, and Keith and  I moved some glass decanters on the windowsills in the conservatory out of the sun just in case. I was worried that the glare of the sun could heat them up and cause a fire. This threat of fires is uppermost in our minds at the moment, and I have never known the gardens and fields to be so parched.

I got back into the car (I'd left the air conditioning on so it was blissfully cool) and we drove into town via Holcot, Pitsford reservoir (no ice cream van again), Brixworth and the new road over to Duston. I then drove past my old workplace to show Mum and saw Sara walking to her car. She didn't see me, but she looked like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders. Before taking Mum back, we enjoyed a McFlurry each, which was perfect for such a hot day. 

I dropped Mum back and returned home to do very little. By now, it was hot, and I didn't have the energy to make myself porridge for my breakfast tomorrow! Plus, it would have made me warm, as tomorrow is set to be the hottest day of the week with a weather warning in place. Phew!

Sophie arrived home from work, and we said we were going to watch the solar eclipse from the layby on the single-track road near the village. We left at 6:00pm, taking our colander and a sheet of paper with us!

We parked up after a short argument between Keith and me. He kept asking where we were going, and I had parked in the shade of some trees with the sunlight filtering through. We could then try and capture the eclipse on the sheet of paper using the colander.

The countryside was looking beautiful, but why did it have to be so hot and dry? I had looked up the eclipse timings and knew that it would be happening from about 6:15pm until 7:15pm. While we waited, we had a good look about, and I noticed some sinister-looking cans littered about...

Nitrous oxide used for inhaling

We saw at least three cans, and I wanted to try and dispose of them safely, but Keith wouldn't let me touch them. It was obvious that youngsters are using the layby to inhale the gas, which is very dangerous.

We also amused ourselves by trying to see the beginnings of the eclipse, and we failed miserably.

   

As we neared 7:15pm, we noticed that it was getting a little darker and the shadows on the fields had deepened. However, we all thought it was a bit of an anticlimax, to be honest, and the colander didn't seem to work for us!

We set off for home, and Olive's lights came on, so there must have been a lessening of sunlight. We hadn't thought to buy the special glasses to see the eclipse safely, so we were a little disappointed! The next one will happen in 2050, and I will be 82! I do remember the 1999 eclipse, and we had a children's day nursery at the time, so we took them all outside to experience it.

Back home, we relaxed with a drink for half an hour and then enjoyed cold roast chicken with salad and crusty bread. It's back to the grind tomorrow!

On my own!

I was on my own at work today as Sheila was on a day's annual leave and was visiting Skegness with a friend. I was a little nervous about working on my own, but I had a very productive day! I managed to do lots of training and worked out how to do a couple of jobs that Sheila had asked me to do. My manager, Dan, was in and out, so I wasn't completely alone. It was an enjoyable day!

Back home, it was great to look forward to my Wednesday off. It hasn't been too hot today, but the temperatures are set to climb tomorrow and on Thursday, in particular. We have an Amber heat warning coming into effect on Thursday morning, with temperatures set to rise to about 35-36c. 

Sophie and I sat and watched a very interesting documentary we'd recorded on Sky this evening before we had dinner. It was about a Norwegian woman who was trying to beat the record for climbing the fourteen highest peaks in under six months. They were all over 800 metres, and situated in Nepal, Pakistan and Tibet. It was quite a sad story, to be honest. I won't reveal what happened, but I will say one thing: perhaps humans aren't meant to be scaling these huge peaks. 

We had pate and toast for dinner; it's becoming a real chore finding meals that don't make us hot or use too much heat!

Happy times

Today would have been my Dad's 84th birthday. Here's a lovely photo of him celebrating his 70th with my Mum at the Wavendon Arms in 2012:

Happy Birthday, Dad xxx

Big fires everywhere...

I didn't have the best night's sleep, and I had no idea why. I woke up feeling a bit mopey and wished it was Saturday morning again! Sophie didn't go to the gym, so we both sat with a coffee and watched most of an episode of the second series of Stanley Tucci in Italy. It was great that I could ease into the day like I used to!

On the way to work, I called into a Tesco fuel station shop and bought milk for our fridge so I could enjoy my Tassimo coffee. The office was hot today, and it was bliss to escape and turn on the air conditioning in the car. As I neared home, I could see a plume of smoke in the distance, and it looked like it was near Walgrave. However, appearances can be deceptive, and I learnt when I arrived home that there was a fire near Corby at a recycling plant.

I then learnt that Mike's old place of work, Kingsthorpe Golf Club, was on fire as well!

Photo from the Chronicle & Echo website

This is getting serious now, and with another heatwave this week, we have been warned that there could be more fires breaking out.

It did feel a little cooler this evening, and Sophie decided to keep the cats in overnight. We had burgers for dinner and watched an episode of Celebrity Hunted. I don't know when it was filmed, but the countryside looked as dry as it is now!