Spooky happenings!

Sophie and I were up early for a Park Run in Towcester this morning; my daughter to take part, while I spectated! We left the house just after 8:00am and had a good run to Towcester, leaving Celine in a small car park opposite where the run was to take place.

It was very misty this morning and perfect for Halloween! The run started at 9:00am and before we went into the park, we treated ourselves to a coffee from a van opposite. My flat white was very good indeed! Lots of people arrived and some were dressed up for the occasion in witches hat or spooky outfits.

Before the run started, the man in charge said a few important things about safety, and then everyone was off, for four laps of the parkland. I stood under a huge Oak tree and was amazed to see the first of the runners emerge from the mist about four minutes after they started!

The front runners literally tore around the course and were finished by about 9:15am, some of them sprinting hard as they made their way to the finish. There was a lovely atmosphere, and it was great to envisage this happening all over the UK, and Europe and the US as well!

"Come on, Sophie!"

Sophie thought she had done the course faster than any other time, and this was confirmed later in the day! Well done! It was a great experience, and I will look forward to accompanying her again!

After the run, we walked into Towcester and enjoyed a delicious breakfast at Ten Hands café. Sophie had originally booked a table for three of us, but we felt it was best for Keith to stay at home in the warm. He would have been frozen standing around in the cold!

Sophie enjoyed Eggs Royale, while I went for the full English, which defeated me. I had to give a sausage away to Sophie! We enjoyed a flat white and a matcha before heading back to the car and driving home.

When we pulled onto the drive, Sophie noticed that someone had scratched the front of Celine, which was very upsetting. I've only had the car four weeks! There were scratches on the front bumper so I'll have to get them sorted, which was huge annoyance. This put me in a foul mood, made worse by the discovery in the conservatory, of a half-eaten bird and a dead shrew. There was blood and feathers everywhere! Mooney was the culprit!

Sophie and I went over to Olney once she had showered and changed and we had difficulty parking at the rugby club as there was a match taking place. We didn't even try with the car park in the centre of the town and luckily found a slot on the main road, quite a way from the shops. 

We walked down to the shops, had a look in a couple, and then had a pot of tea and cake in the Courtyard Brasserie. It was quiet as the lunchtime rush was over and we sat and relaxed with a scrumptious scone and Victoria sponge cake.

We ambled slowly back to the car, stopping briefly in The Nest where there was a scrum of people, and drove home through the Autumnal countryside. On the way we spotted the sun lying low in the sky, and through the mist it was a giant orange orb! We didn't know whether it was the moon or the sun at first!

At home, I rushed around putting up the Halloween decorations (I found our cackling witch!) and making the front of the house suitable scary! We had quite a few trick or treaters, and they arrived steadily between 5:30pm and 7:00pm. Our bowl of sweets was almost gone by the time they stopped coming! Sophie scared the living daylights out of one little boy when she opened the door and went "Arrggghhh!" It was very funny!

We watched the 1973 film, Don't Look Now, written by Daphne du Maurier as a short story. It was great, as ever, and scary at the end! It was another early night for us as we are going to London tomorrow, to visit Highgate and have lunch at Ognisko!

Health worries

When Sophie went downstairs this morning, she found Keith up already, and he said he hadn't slept at all. She texted me when she left, and I said there was no way I would allow him to drive me to work and then go to the doctor's for his morning appointment. I said I would work until 10:30am, go home, take him to the surgery and then go back to work, but my lovely daughter volunteered to work from home and take him instead. She briefly went to the gym, drove to her office to pick up her laptop, and was home before I left for work at 7:30am.

Sheila was in with me today, and she helped enormously with the complicated bookings that needed to be changed because of the refurbishments taking place. By the end of the day, I was mightily glad she was in to help!

I went home to find Sophie looking a little fed up, but I had been so relieved she'd been with Keith all day. She'd bought him a bottle of Covonia Night Time in the pharmacy to help with his sleeping, as he badly needed a good night's slumber. He had seen a nurse today, and she'd said his chest was clear, but she made him another appointment for Monday to see how he was then. This infection is dragging on and on and getting all of us down, but especially Keith, who is suffering the most.

We had a simple supper of Tesco curries for dinner, and before and after eating, Sophie and I watched The Company of Wolves, a horror film based on the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale. I had seen it in the 80s and thought it was great, but films have become a lot more sophisticated since then, and tonight it seemed a bit amateur!

The prices!

I had a most enjoyable day at work, and was alone in the office for my whole shift. It was bliss! My lovely day started with a Greggs sausage bap, and I had the occasional visitor come in to chat, but I got a lot done and felt so much better about my job at the end of the day.

Keith picked me up at 4:00pm and warned me that he had been coughing a lot. On the way home, he coughed nonstop, without even a brief pause between bouts, so I said we'd go to Mawsley and buy some honey to help soothe his throat. I had never known him to be as bad as this, and at one point I was frightened by how intense his coughing was. 

As soon as we got home, I made him take some cough syrup and then made him a hot toddy. This seemed to calm the cough a little, but I felt sorry for Sophie having to put up with it this evening! I was meeting Lynda, Fiona, and Andrea for a meal at The Griffin's Head in Mears Ashby, so at least I could escape for a few hours!

Before leaving, I tried to look at the restaurant menu on their website but was unable to access it online. I walked into the pub to find my three friends there already with the menu on my placemat. I nearly fell off my chair when I saw the prices for the meals! The starters were £12 each, the main courses ranged from about £25 to £39, and the desserts were also £12 each!

We chatted at first and caught up on our news, and then perused the menu. We all chose soufflé to start, followed by three of us opting for pork belly, and Andrea choosing the lamb. Lynda and I were driving, so we stuck to soft drinks (I had a Guinness Zero), but Andrea and Fiona shared a bottle of Italian wine priced at £40!

The cheese soufflé starter

I wasn't that impressed with the cheese soufflé, to be honest. It wasn't particularly hot, and the crispy onion shards were difficult to eat! Fiona wasn't that impressed, either!

I gamely worked my way through my pork belly, but it defeated me, and Lynda refused to eat the black pudding bonbon on her plate. The food was good; there's no denying that, but I was still astonished at the prices! Keith and I used to come here regularly, and the landlord of the pub in Walgrave ran it at one time, but I had no idea that it had become so upmarket!

It was lovely to chat with my friends, though, and we discussed Christmas, families, jobs and my accident in the VW. When our main courses were cleared away, the pub had emptied out and it was very quiet. Andrea, Fiona and Lynda shared a plate of cheese and biscuits while I had a delicious chocolate fondant that oozed beautifully and was served with prune and armagnac ice cream, a chocolatey crumb and a honeycomb tuile (someone has been watching Masterchef!).

The bill came to an eye-watering £259, the most the four of us have ever spent on a meal. Andrea deducted the wine and Gin and tonics from the bill for Lynda and me, and we both paid £60 each. Phew! She and Fiona paid £85, and Fiona had been quibbling about the price of an M&S turkey earlier that was £135! Am I really that out of touch with prices?

We said goodbye, hugged in the car park and said we would meet up in the New Year. It was starting to get misty as I drove home. A spooky weekend awaits!

A bit "bleugh"!

Today has been a bit of a "bleugh" day, and not particularly enjoyable! Sophie went to the gym, and after seeing her off, I went back to bed, but I didn't return to the land of Nod. Keith was already downstairs and still not feeling great with his cough. 

I had a Pensionwise appointment first thing, and I was surprised it went ahead, as I was calling about my Dad's pension and what it meant for my Mum. I didn't think they would be able to talk to me about his lump sum. I was on the phone for nearly an hour, and the advisor was great, but I still think I need advice. I may need to contact a later-life financial advisor as well.

Needless to say, while I was talking, I closed the door to the living room so Keith's cough didn't disturb us! I spent the rest of the morning catching up with jobs, and went to see my mum at 2pm to discuss her care plan with a member of staff. I took a new universal remote control with me, as my Mum has lost her other one. It took me ages to get it paired with her television, and in the end, I used AI for advice. It then worked straightaway!

My Mum was very confused today, something that had been confirmed in her care plan, and it wasn't the best of visits again. I told the carers about the remote control, and they suggested keeping it on a high shelf. If it's there when I visit her next, I will be amazed!

I drove home through showers of falling leaves and a grey, misty landscape. It's truly Autumnal now!

Forty-nine pints...

Keith and I left for work a bit earlier this morning, so he could get back home and call the GP Surgery at 8:00am. I faced another busy day at work and shared the office with Gina. Two members of staff were sitting outside, but that will all change soon when the balcony area will be used for classes and a group meeting, and the big tables and sofas will be stored elsewhere. We are in for a period of disruption as our dance studio and sports hall will be refurbished. It's good news for the centre, but I can see there being some noise and dust for us in the office!

As Keith had dropped me off, there were no issues with parking this afternoon, but I had a blood donation appointment at 4:30pm at a local school. Keith dropped me off, and Sophie said she would pick me up on her way home.

The nurse who initially screened me asked me lots of questions about the travel I'd done in the last six months, and I had to tell her I'd been to France (three times), Austria, Belgium and Germany. West Nile Virus is present in some of the areas, so she constantly checked my dates.

When it came time to take blood, she said she was a bit worried about a vein that branched off, so she sought advice from another nurse who expertly inserted the needle and started the donation process. I was all done within about twenty minutes, my forty-ninth pint!

Sophie texted me to say she was waiting outside, and after a quick cup of water and a Club biscuit, I went out to join her. We drove home in the dark and watched the end of a George Clark programme we'd started watching this morning. Sophie still had a headache this morning but now felt a lot better, and Keith had been to the doctor's and had seen a paramedic rather than a GP! He had another course of antibiotics, and we're praying this will cure him! The coughing is constant!

Mooney also seemed a little better and ate some treats I gave him. He still wasn't interested in a cat food pouch, but he wasn't sick again, so that was a relief. If he had been, it would have been a visit to the vets tomorrow!

Down in the dumps...

The weather is set to be windy and wet for the next couple of days, and with the darker nights, it was not a pleasant prospect. Those hot and sunny days of summer seemed a long time ago! Did we really moan that it was too hot?

Work passed very quickly today as I had so much to do. Keith hadn't gone shopping today, as the meal we were supposed to have had last Thursday was on the agenda for tonight! When I went out to the car park, I found a mini wedged almost up against my car, making it impossible to get in. I was furious that someone had parked so badly and thoughtlessly. My fear was that it was a customer having a swim, but when I went to reception, they recognised the car as belonging to a new member of staff who was sitting in her little nook where she sells memberships.

I asked her to move it, and she burbled on about the cars on either side of the space being right on the line. Mine wasn't, but if you can't park, go somewhere else! I then had to navigate out of the car park as a van had broken down and was being picked up by a recovery vehicle. I was mightily glad to get home!

This set the tone for the evening, unfortunately. Sophie came home with a bad headache, Keith's coughing is getting worse and driving everyone mad, and Mooney was sick three times. We were a very despondent little family tonight, and Sophie and I urged Keith to make another appointment at the GP surgery tomorrow.

Mooney was definitely not himself this evening, and when Sophie picked him up to say goodnight, he let out a series of little grunts, as if trying to tell us he felt poorly! We felt so sorry for him!

Meeting old friends!

Although the worst of the weather was behind us, it was still very windy today. It was sunny, however, and lovely to see blue skies after all the grey of recent days. We had a lazy start (the clocks went back last night), and at 10:30am I left to meet my colleagues from my old job. I had suggested the café at White's Farm Shop near Earls Barton, and Kathy was already there when I arrived. We hugged and went into the café, and we managed to grab a table for six to accommodate our little group!

Sheila, Jo, and Angela arrived shortly afterwards, followed by Sue, and then Denise. The atmosphere in the café was quite loud, and our chatter definitely added to it! We ordered our own drinks and some of us had a bite to eat, including me. I fancied a couple of crumpets with butter and jam, which were perfect!

We sat and nattered for over an hour, and said we'd definitely meet up again to catch up. Maybe somewhere a bit quieter next time, and for lunch! I said goodbye and had a look in the farm shop, selecting some squashes for Halloween decorations, a box of cheese biscuits, cheese and a tin of soup for my lunch at work next week.

I drove home, noticing small twigs and branches on the road, and a busy covering one half of my lane near Holcot. Storm Boelo was still causing mayhem! 

The afternoon was spent relaxing, and I read for a short time in the conservatory. Sophie and I played Scrabble in the early evening, and my daughter opened a bottle of Champagne that a friend had given her. It had a lovely, soft rose tinge and was delicious as an apéritif before our dinner of chicken stroganoff.

I think Sophie and I had a twinge of Sunday syndrome this evening. This weekend has sped by, but once Monday is over tomorrow, it's downhill again until Friday!