The wormy ones...

Keith took me to work today, and I stopped off on the way to treat myself to a Tesco meal deal lunch, as we had almost nothing at home. I bought myself a sandwich and a bag of Easy Peelers to enjoy as well.

I was dreading Nicola coming into work, and at first, she had a coughing fit so bad that I thought she was going to make herself sick! I disappeared to the kitchen to make myself a cup of coffee, and thought back longingly to the afternoon when Sophie and I sat outside the Whispering Pines house and read our books in peace and quiet. Unfortunately, I need to work to afford things like this!

Luckily, she wasn't so bad for the rest of the morning, and then took a half day in the afternoon. Sara and I concentrated on the cancellation emails and managed to get them down to just over 200. The light at the end of the tunnel is in sight!

At 4:00pm, I rejoined Keith, and we drove home in heavy traffic. The schools are well and truly back now, and Easter is just a distant memory.

Sophie was overjoyed to find Gomez on her bed when she got home, and unusually, he stayed upstairs until after we had eaten. Sophie asked us to be quiet as she didn't want to wake the beast, but he came downstairs just as Keith and I were watching The Capture, which was very noisy (Frank Napier was using awful sounds to torture the new commander of SO15!).

Sophie then noticed that Gomez had worms... just what she needed this evening. She refused to let him out, and we had to catch him and make sure we applied the worm treatment to the back of his neck. After we'd applied it, he jumped off the barstool and shot us a look of pure loathing. And I mean, loathing! It was almost as if he'd spoken to us!

She then fretted about getting Mooney in and spent most of her evening up and down the stairs instead of relaxing. She hadn't gone to the gym this morning because she'd pulled a muscle in her leg, so that didn't help! Keith and I were riveted to the television, watching The Capture, so we weren't much help, either!

Mooney came in and had the same treatment, with the same results! He refused to come near us and ran off! I wish I could make them understand that it's for their benefit!

Irritations!

I had a real "ugh" feeling when Sophie woke me at 6:00am, but I know for a fact that Friday will come around again very quickly!

I took myself to work and chatted with Sara, who had returned after a couple of days off last week. We both believe that the emails are finally slowing down now, and today was the first day that we would really be able to tell how busy the phones would be, as the children are (mostly) back at school.

Nicola was exceptionally noisy today, and I really had a hard time working with the background of hacking coughs, sniffs, sneezing and loud yawns. As she now sits just behind me, the irritation was immense. Thankfully, I could use my loop earplugs to block out a lot of the noise, but why not just use a tissue? She's an adult woman, for heaven's sake, not a toddler! It was bliss to leave at 4:00pm and escape to the quiet of my car!

Keith had prepared dinner tonight and chopped up all the vegetables for the bubble and squeak. We cooked the Yorkshire puddings separately, and he carved the chicken. Before we ate, we played cards with our new Ypres playing cards. They are different to the ones we normally use, with V for Jacks, D for Queens and R for Kings. The aces are also marked as "1"!

After dinner, Keith and I indulged in a new episode of The Capture from series 3, which ended last night. It looks very promising!

Busy Sunday!

After coffee and a Wordle-off, I tackled a job I'd been meaning to do for ages - sort out our bed linen and store it all in a chest of drawers we have in the bedroom, rather than in the bed divan drawers where it is now. I hadn't got a clue what bed linen we had, so I sorted it all out and then transferred it to the chest of drawers, where it's more easily accessible. Several photograph albums took the place of the linen, as I don't get those out every week!

I found these two loose photos:

Mum and I - I'm about 19

Mum and I on a boat trip in Spain - I'm 12

Once this job had been done and I'd hoovered upstairs, we put the curtains back in the living room. While we were doing this, Sophie was preparing the vegetables for lunch. She'd asked if we could have roast chicken today, and Keith was more than happy to agree. Me, not so much!

Putting the curtains back wasn't as much of a chore as I'd imagined, and they smelt lovely from the laundry detergent! By about 12pm, everything was prepared, and the chicken went into the oven, stuffed with a lemon! Sophie cracked open a bottle of Cremant d'Alsace, and we had a pre-lunch aperitif. Now this, I did enjoy!

We sat down to eat at 3:00pm after a lot of hard work in the kitchen, and we all contributed. As well as the roast chicken, we had roast spuds, red cabbage, Brussels and bacon, roast parsnips, cauliflower and broccoli cheese, stuffing, Yorkshire puddings and bacon-wrapped chipolatas. Phew! The meal was delicious, and there was enough for squeaky bubble tomorrow and the other half of the chicken.

After clearing away, washing up and loading the dishwasher, Sophie and I relaxed in the conservatory with Mooney. We read our books and revelled in the warm sunshine streaming through the windows. Bliss! We even nodded off at one point. I loved looking up to see the fluffy, white clouds lazily drifting past.

In the evening, we watched Beyond Paradise, and it was a great end to a busy weekend! Back to work tomorrow!

Curtain catastrophe!

I went with Sophie to the gym this morning and sat in the car while she did a half-hour run. She had promised me a smoothie when she came out, and it was delicious. Virgin have introduced an incentive so that if she goes four times in a week, she gets a free drink, either a hot drink or a smoothie. It's certainly making her attend almost every day! She chooses a peanut butter smoothie, and I can understand why she goes now!

We returned home, and we noticed that the living room curtain pole was leaning at a weird angle! I had pulled on the curtain yesterday, and must have pulled the bracket away from the wall. We took the curtains down, and Keith had to drill new holes and attach the brackets again. It wasn't really what I wanted to do! This, of course, made me have a look at the curtains, which needed washing, and I hoovered the area above the curtains, which was cobwebby, and then I noticed how shabby the two lampshades were! One small thing leads on to many other jobs!

I had asked Sophie to make Mary Berry's panang chicken for dinner, so she prepared all the vegetables and the chicken while I helped Keith, who was balanced precariously on a ladder and drilling holes. With the curtains down, the whole room felt so exposed!

In the afternoon, Sophie and I went over to Tesco, and I bought my Mum some toiletries and chocolates, and we both bought our wine for an upcoming Wine Night next Saturday. We were given instructions to choose a wine with an off-putting label. I chose an Australian wine called "Greasy Fingers"... yuk! Sophie chose a Sauvignon Blanc with Gary Barlow's name emblazoned on it! I also bought a bottle of Grenadine to use in a cocktail tonight.

We visited Mum for an hour, and she was delighted with her toiletries and chocs. It was then home to relax for a little while until cocktail hour! Sophie made us both vodka blushes, from the novel and film, Rosemary's Baby. She added some egg white to the mix, and the result was delicious! We played cards before Sophie cooked dinner, and it was as good as always, with enough left for lunches on Monday.

Our viewing choice this evening was an Indie film called Martha Marcy May Marlene, about a young woman who escapes a sinister cult, and finds it difficult to go back to normal life when she reconnects with her sister. Keith wasn't impressed, so he sat on the computer, but Sophie and I enjoyed it, even if the ending was a little abrupt!

The end of another week!

Sara was off again today, but Kathy arrived before 9:00am, so I had some company! I had another busy day, dealing with annoying emails, which now seem to be mostly about refunds! It never ends...

It was lovely to escape at 4:00pm and join Keith in the car park. It was great to look forward to a quiet weekend with not a lot planned. Hooray! I love Friday nights!

Keith went to the pub this evening, and Sophie and I opened her bottle of Taittinger Champagne. Although we love the Aldi Champagne, you can certainly taste the difference! We nibbled on the mini cheeses we'd bought in France, cracksters, and watched Race Across the World. Sometimes I wish Friday nights could go on forever!

Keith had made himself celery and Stilton soup, so he had that for dinner, while Sophie and I tucked into quiche and pizza with salad and potato wedges. We watched a hilarious episode of Have I Got News For You (there's a lot to talk about at the moment!) and then an episode of Alan and Amanda renovating two houses in Sicily, which they bought for 1 euro each! We can dream!

On my lonesome

I was all on my own at work today, until Nicola came in at about 9:00am. I could hear our lovely cleaner moving about, but this office is much more isolated than our old one, when people were always popping in and out.

I cleared a lot of emails and then tackled the moan report for March, just for the sites we were keeping. It took me a lot less time to do! At 2pm, I hurtled off home, said a quick hello to Keith and then went to see my Mum, taking some chocolates that I'd bought in France.

She seemed OK today, and we sat and looked at old photos on my phone until I left at about 4:00pm. While I'd been visiting Mum, the weather had changed, and a chilly wind was blowing. The sky turned dark, and I was convinced we'd have rain, but the clouds moved on. How different from yesterday! 

One of the photographs I'd looked at was a Martini glass, so I asked Sophie to make me one tonight. She used up the last of our Number 3 Gin, and the drink was just what I had fancied. I cooked dinner tonight, a very simple chicken and chipolata traybake with lots of vegetables and cous cous. Delicious!

After dinner, Keith and I watched the last episode of series 2 of The Capture. The third series is on now and finishes on Sunday. It's been very enjoyable!

Getting jobs done!

I waved Sophie off to the gym this morning and had a little lie-in before enjoying a coffee. There were two jobs I had to get done today: get the VW cleaned as it was filthy, and replace the rear windscreen wiper, which has been annoying both of us for weeks!

Keith went shopping, but before he went, he ordered a new wiper on Amazon for delivery today! I pootled about, catching up with jobs and trying to stay cool. Today is supposed to be the warmest of the year so far, with some parts of the UK hitting 24 °C! Phew! It was a beautiful day, and warm and sunny, but it's best not to get complacent; it can all change again soon!

We decided to take the VW through the carwash in Market Harborough, and it emerged gleaming once we had travelled through the automated system. We drove home, and I had a lovely hot shower and did some foot care to round off the afternoon. 

Before Sophie arrived home, I did a little searching on the internet for a family I'd known when I was about five or six. They were from the US, and the father worked on a US air base in Upper Heyford on the Northamptonshire/Oxfordshire border. Why they came to live very close to us is a mystery, when there were other towns - Bicester, Brackley, Towcester - much nearer. It was my first taste of US living, and I vividly remember the barbecues they used to have, my first sip of 7Up and visiting the base where everything was strange and new. I did a search, but I didn't get anything at all, so it may be a challenge!