At last! Some sun!

We had a relaxed start to the weekend, and it was great to see the sun shining. It was cold, though, and we had frosty patterns on the conservatory roof again.

At 11:00am, I drove Sophie to Daisy's house in Moulton, as they were going to Olney with Laura to have a mooch about the shops and eat lunch. I had forgotten it was Valentine's Day today, and the girls had renamed it "Galentine's Day"!

I haven't done a lot today, and I didn't feel guilty one bit! I pootled about the house, and in the afternoon, I researched houses in Normandy for my birthday in 2027! I picked out seven possible contenders to show to Sophie when she came home later. We want to stay closer to Deauville next year as we both love this stretch of the coast.

Keith went to see Sileby play, so I put the heating on and had a long, hot shower as I felt cold. Afterwards, I watched a couple of episodes of Ever Decreasing Circles and had a little nap. What a relaxed afternoon! Both cats have been in today, and I didn't blame them as it was so cold outside!

Keith came home at 5:00pm, chilled to the bone, and immediately switched on the England-Scotland rugby match he'd recorded. Sophie texted me to say she was on her way home, so after they'd dropped Laura off, I drove to Moulton to pick her up from Daisy's house.

On the way home, she told me about her day. She'd bought two of David McCloskey's books, some tulips for me, and a couple of items of clothing. Neither Laura nor Daisy bought anything, not even a book!

We sat and had a look at the houses I'd picked out with a small cocktail. Each house was lovely, but in the end we decided on a sweet bungalow in Houlgate, one of our favourite towns. It's where we collect shells on the beach, and the town is beautiful and very close to Deauville. We didn't even have to pay a deposit! The owner contacted us straightaway, so we were delighted. Another little trip to look forward to!

Sophie had eaten Italian today, so she didn't have dinner with Keith and me, which was prawn salad, served with wholemeal bread. I prepared it while Keith watched the Newcastle-Aston Villa game, and Sophie and I opened a bottle of Italian Pinot Grigio. 

After eating, we watched Alan and Amanda in Corfu, followed by an episode of Masterchef: The Professionals, as Matt Tebbutt is now a judge!

Yippee! It's the last day of the working week!

I was mightily glad it was Friday and the end of another week. I apologise if the blog has been a little lacklustre lately... this winter is dragging on and on, and the weather is getting to all of us. My painful cyst hasn't really healed, and the antibiotics that I've been prescribed aren't suiting me at all. I long for warmer, sunnier days, as we all do!

Sara had told me that she had asked Nicola if we could postpone the moan report for a while as we were so busy, but our MD had wanted us to carry on, so I finished December's report this afternoon. At least in May, I won't have so much to do! I also enrolled a number of people on a lifeguard course that's taking place next week, and tackled as many emails as I could.

Back home, I caught up with an episode of Ever Decreasing Circles, which never fails to make me smile and cheer me up. When Sophie arrived, we opened a bottle of "Orange" wine from Austria and watched the last hour and a half of Rebecca. I wasn't keen on the orange wine at first, but it grew on me!

With an easy dinner of fishcakes and mash for dinner, and the figure skating from the Winter Olympics on after we'd eaten, we had a lovely, relaxing evening!

Another week speeding by!

I was helping to cover our 10:00am to 4:00pm shift today, so I didn't have to go to work so early. I was able to have a little lie-in, and Keith and I left the house just after 9:00am.

Kathy had also volunteered to help, so she covered the phones until 2:00pm, and then I took over. Needless to say, we had lots of emails to deal with, and the calls and queries are ramping up after posts have appeared on Facebook about the changes taking place, with people criticising Everyone Active, West Northamptonshire Council and us. It's horrible reading some of the comments, and we're obviously not allowed to hit back at what people are saying.

It was a relief to leave at 4:00pm and head home. As there was so much pasta bake left last night, we decided to have it again tonight, with any remaining food left for Sophie's lunches. It was great not to have to cook tonight, and Keith and I played cards while Sophie read her latest book by Salman Rushdie. Rather her than me!

In search of lost items...

Both Keith and I had an appointment at the GP surgery for routine blood tests this morning, so once that was out of the way, we decided to go to Beckworth Emporium and have a look at the food side of the store. 

It was a wet, miserable day again, and the roads were awash with water. I don't think I've ever known such a prolonged period of rainfall for the country. I was expecting Beckworth to be quiet, but it was packed, so we made our purchases and fled home. Keith wasn't in the mood for looking around anyway, as he's not a fan of the place!

Back at home, I pootled about doing a few jobs and then went to see my Mum. She had lost the remote control for the television, so it was a difficult visit as she wasn't making a lot of sense, and I didn't even have a programme such as A Place in the Sun to alleviate the gloom! I searched and searched for the remote control, but I had no idea where it was, so when I left, I let one of the carers know, so at least Mum could watch some television. The thought of her sitting there staring into space didn't bear thinking about.

 

Back home, I did some more jobs, hoovered and lit the candles to make the house cosy. Sophie cooked a delicious beefy pasta bake for dinner, and it was lovely, accompanied by a fruity Malbec!

A manic Tuesday!

I started work at 7:30am this morning because I needed to leave early for my nurse appointment. As I predicted, we had over 150 emails to deal with, and although I did my best, there were still over 80 left to do when I finished at 3:30pm.

I followed the SatNav advice and arrived at the surgery just after 4:00pm. No sunshine to accompany me home tonight; it was grey and rainy! The nurse called me in, and I explained that I'd seen my GP in October, but that over the last couple of days, the cyst had become red and sore. I'd tried hot and cold compresses, but nothing had worked. She examined it and said she was going to prescribe me a course of penicillin, and she also took my temperature, which was fine.

As soon as I arrived home, I took a tablet, with another one planned for just before bed. I really want to get rid of this cyst as it's painful and horrible! When Sophie arrived home, she'd had a stressful day, so we had a drink while watching Rick Stein in the Languedoc-Roussillon area of France. How I wish we were there with him!

A little Spanish celebration

I duly called into a Tesco store on my way to work and bought myself an egg and cress sandwich. There is no sign of our "restroom" being finished, so we are still eating at our desks.

Before I started, I had to call our GP surgery to arrange an appointment with a nurse. I was hoping to go on Wednesday when Keith and I have appointments for blood tests, but I was able to get one for tomorrow after work. The little cyst I saw the doctor about last October has become painful and red, and I'm worried it's infected. Just what I need!

We had many, many emails to deal with today, and we had Tilly, the assistance dog, with us for an hour. She was perfectly behaved, bless her, and Nicola made a huge fuss of her. Our MD wasn't aware, and Nicola dreaded him coming in when she was lying on her mat!

To add to my woes, I was on the phone until 1pm today, and the booking system went down, so I had to keep telling customers I'd call them back when it was up and running again. In the end, I used Sheila's computer while an IT man tried to get it fixed!  

Just after lunch, we had a fire alarm, and we all had to go outside. At least it was dry! This is the second one we've had in four days, and it's very inconvenient, especially when we have so much to do! I tried my best, but I couldn't clear the emails, so there's more to do tomorrow. Oh joy!

Keith and I drove home, and the weather was lovely, with blue skies and sunshine. What a difference it made to my mood and really made me think that Spring was just around the corner!

Another boost to our mood was our Puerto Rican night, in honour of Bad Bunny, who appeared in the half-time show at the Super Bowl. Keith had recorded the game last night, so we could watch the performance. We started the evening with gorgeous Margaritas and nibbled on olives. Sophie then prepared Spanish tortilla, cheeses wrapped in ham, a selection of Spanish hams, crusty bread and aioli, as well as stuffed peppers. The food was lovely, and the cocktails went down very well!

After we'd eaten, we watched Bad Bunny's fabulous performance, and Lady Gaga joined him with a fantastic version of Die With a Smile. The whole show was brilliant!

An interesting discovery...

We have spent another day pootling about, doing housework and laundry. The weather has been a little drier today, but more rain is in the forecast. There seems to be no end in sight!

After our lunch of Chinese takeaway leftovers, Sophie and I drove to Mawsley, where she sent off a parcel of books that she'd sold, and then we drove to the care home to see Mum. We stayed for a while, and I showed her the photos I'd found yesterday of the snow 17 years ago. She didn't seem to remember the day at all, and all the hard work clearing the snow. We were so reliant on the weather for business, and having snow really did it for us, as people didn't venture out at all!

Back home, I was tidying up some old files on the computer when I came across 132 pages of a novel I'd written back in about 2002-2003. It kept me hooked, so maybe I'll have to do something with it, and also bring it up to date, as there were some references in the novel that definitely belonged to the early noughties!

We had Sophie's vegetable and chicken soup, but I don't think any of us really appreciated it and all the hard work she'd put into making it... She took what was left over for her lunch tomorrow, and I resigned myself to calling into Tesco again to buy a sandwich!

After eating, we treated ourselves to an hour of Caribbean sunshine and watched Death in Paradise. Oh, how we all long for blue skies and sunshine!