Sinner's a winner!

I woke up to the stunning news that England beat Norway last night! They'll now play Argentina in the semi-finals on Wednesday. Can we really go all the way?

First thing this morning I started preparations for a strawberry and ricotta tart - a recipe that was in You magazine. We thought it would be perfect as a dessert with our buffet lunch today. Our big plan for this afternoon was to watch the Men's Finals at Wimbledon between Sinner and Zverev, but it wasn't starting until 4:00pm.

With the dessert, I mixed porridge oats, brown sugar, honey and butter to form the base and popped this into the oven for ten minutes. I would whip lemon zest into the ricotta before serving and topping with strawberries.

Sophie and I went to see Mum and called into Costa on the way to get a couple of matchas and a  cappuccino.  My Mum seemed a bit bemused by the coffee but enjoyed it, nonetheless! We sat and chatted and then popped to Tesco so Sophie could pick up her new glasses.

Back at home, we relaxed before making a start on lunch. We opened a bottle of fizz from Bergerac and had lunch at about 2:00pm. We were a little surprised by the late start of the tennis as normally is starts at 2:00pm. Starting later risked a long night if it went to five sets!

Like last year, we all made predictions: Sophie said it would go to five sets, with Sinner winning, Keith said three with Sinner the victor and I predicted a four set match with Sinner winning. The winner would be treated to a pint in the pub from the losers!

I have to say that I thought the match was a bit boring. Sinner broke Zverev's serve in the third set but the first two resulted in tiebreaks. In the fourth set, Sinner broke Zverev's serve again and went on to win in four sets, just as I had predicted!

We had eaten dessert later in the afternoon, and I was a little disappointed with it. I wish I had used double cream rather than ricotta as it gave the pud a slightly savoury taste!

There was a lovely breeze in the living room all afternoon and our new thermometer registered 26c before dropping away as the evening wore on. Perfect!

A relaxed Saturday!

Sophie was doing a 5k run in Daventry this morning and I waved her off before 8:00am. I pootled about, getting lots of washing done and tackling housework. It felt a lot cooler today with a heavenly breeze coming in from an easterly direction, so it was lovely. A perfect temperature! Why can't our summers be sunny but about 22-23c? We all hate it when it's too hot! And talking of which, I ordered a little thermometer from Amazon today to tell just how hot it is in our office at work. It will also come in useful at home.

Sophie arrived home as I was eating my lunch and she had two bags of clothes with her; she'd hit all the charity shops in Daventry and had bagged a good haul, as usual! In one shop, she and Becky had paid £7.50 each for a bag and they could fill it with as many clothes as they liked. Sophie had found three lovely dresses, so not bad for £2.50 each!

We had a good chat and then we both went upstairs so Sophie could try on her new clothes. To my delight, North by Northwest was showing so that gave me a perfect excuse to sit and watch it! I had a moment of wishing that Cary Grant was still alive and looking like he did in the film... so gorgeous and sophisticated. I don't know why he was never chosen to be James Bond. He would have been perfect!

Once North by Northwest had finished, Vertigo started, with another of my favourite actors, James Stewart. I had a long, cool shower and we went downstairs to watch Stage 8 of the Tour de France, from Périgueux to Bergerac. I watched it in its entirety and loved every minute. To our utter delight, they featured the Chateau de Hautfort, and it looked gorgeous as the camera panned over it. However, this was only one; there were loads of other chateaux featured. What a fabulous area! We are definitely thinking of going back next year.

While we were watching the race, we had a couple of Aperols with tonic and then opened a bottle of the Euphonie wine we'd bought at Chateau Monbazillac. It was on the sweet side and had to be really chilled, but it was delicious.

As a treat, we ordered a Chinese takeaway and bought enough to have leftovers on Monday night. The Tour de France finished just before 10pm, so it was time to put on the football to see England play Norway in the quarterfinals of the World Cup. As I haven't watched any games and they've won, I didn't stick around and went to bed. I didn't want to jinx it!

Feeling hot,hot, hot!

My office, even at 7:30am this morning, was already warm. I dreaded to think what it would be like later in the day! I came into 182 emails waiting for me, so I was busy throughout my shift. Kathy arrived at 9:00am and we were the only ones in the office as both Sara and Nicola were on annual leave.

Kathy went and fetched some cold water from our water cooler in the gym, and I managed to drink two bottles of water that I'd brought with me. We also made a point of getting up and moving about, but we had a very hot shift, and it was uncomfortable and sweaty.

When I got into my car, the temperature was registering 36c and it went down to about 32c on the way home. As soon as I arrived home, I had a long, cold shower and then sat in front of the fan to dry off. That was bliss!

Sophie and I watched the match between Sinner and Djokovic in the evening, and we were sad that Fery had lost to Zverev earlier in the afternoon. Both of us were in a bit of a despondent mood this evening, mainly due to the heat, which is now becoming uncomfortable. It's not in the same league as France, but there we had an air-conditioned house and a beautiful pool to jump into when it all became a bit much!

We witnessed Sinner win in three straight sets and then caught two episodes of Amanda and Alan in Italy. They looked hot as well! The highlight of the day for me was watching Gardener's World, which came from the RHS Badminton Flower Show. There were some gorgeous gardens!

Sexy stockings!

I had an appointment at the GP surgery this morning to see the nurse about my puffy feet and ankles. She wanted to try me with compression stockings... oh, how sexy! She also urged me to drink more water and make sure I get up and move about regularly during my eight-hour shift, which I have promised to do!

Keith went shopping, and I made a start on loads of jobs that I had to do. It's been hot again today, so in the afternoon, I resorted to wearing my swimsuit, and while updating my blog, I had the fan on and felt lovely and cool. I just wished I'd had a pool to jump into!

As it was so hot - about 30c - I called the care home to say I wouldn't be visiting my Mum this afternoon. I made the right decision, because the residents were being treated to a football party and entertainment, so I was very pleased Mum had gone to that rather than sit with me in her room!

For supper tonight, we had cheese and biscuits (no cooking required!) accompanied by grapes, celery and apples. Keith took advantage of the cooler night air and sat in the garden. He wanted to try to catch a glimpse of our bats wheeling about as dusk fell.

Mooney came in during the evening with one eye closed, and it looked like he'd got something caught in his eye. Sophie held him while I had a look, and I realised it was a blade of coarse grass. I gently pulled it out - boy! Did he struggle! - and then we bathed his eye with a piece of tissue soaked in water. He had obviously wanted us to help him, as he'd let out a long yowl when he came into the living room. How long it had been in his eye, we'll never know. We gave him two cat yoghurts, and he was fine!

This little episode had a happy ending, but I forgot to mention Sophie's rescue mission on Tuesday when she took an injured crow to the vets at Moulton. The poor bird had hit the window at work and had broken its wing. Sophie called the vets, who agreed to take it in, so she'd put it in a box, with help from her colleagues, and driven it to Moulton. They sadly told her that it wouldn't survive and was badly injured, but at least she hadn't left it to die in pain. We were all sad about it, especially as I love crows and loved feeding them when we had our soft play business.

Mooney was fine after all his fuss, and we let him back out so he could continue his roamings!

A Fery good day!

Sophie and I were very excited about our day at Wimbledon, and although we had been a little disappointed that Sinner wasn't playing (he was on Court 1 anyway on Tuesday), we were delighted that we'd be seeing the Fery-Cobolli match instead. Arthur Fery was a British wildcard and had done brilliantly at getting through to the quarter-finals. We were hoping for a fantastic match, and knew that there would be a huge amount of interest!

Sophie had frozen a bottle of German white wine (she thought we would be seeing Zverev) and chilled a bottle of Cava for tipples while we watched. Keith had spent yesterday morning making sausage rolls for us, and these were all packed into a cool bag. We took the two plastic Wimbledon glasses Sophie had acquired on her previous trip, and we were all set to go!

Keith dropped us off at Northampton station, and we bought drinks and pastries to eat before we boarded the train. It was already warm, and we were hoping we wouldn't be too hot later in the day. We had dressed in loose trousers and tops, and I took the hat I bought in France with me.

We grabbed seats on the train and chatted. As we drew near Euston, the train became more crowded, and a young woman standing next to me sank to the floor to try to sit down. I offered her my seat, but she wouldn't take it, even though I offered it twice. The sun was shining relentlessly out of a clear blue sky outside, and the glare from the cars and glass on the buildings was intense.

At Euston, we had a few minutes of difficulty locating our pre-booked Addison Lee car. We found him in the taxi rank with one of the station staff talking to him. We jumped in, and he set off straightaway, thank goodness, but the air conditioning certainly wasn't very strong, and I nearly had to ask him to cool down the car as I was so warm!

It took us over an hour to get to the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (a.k.a. Wimbledon) through a maze of London streets teeming with cars, cyclists, pedestrians and scooters. The driver dropped us off a short walk from the entrance, and we joined a throng of other people heading into the grounds. We had to show photographic ID and then our tickets on our phones, which Sophie had sorted out for me. 

Once into the hallowed grounds (it was so good to see the familiar ivy-covered Centre Court), we made our way past The Hill (formerly Henman Hill) to get a glass of Pimms.

The grounds were very busy, and there were long queues for drinks and food. I managed to grab a seat in the shade while Sophie bought the drinks - £13.45 for a glass! While we sipped our drinks, we munched on Keith's sausage rolls, watching other people eating expensive sandwiches and salads!

Our next-door neighbours, Vince and Sue, had kindly lent us their hand-held fans, and they came in very useful today! One of the things that I noticed was the lack of shaded areas to sit at Wimbledon and the lack of seating itself. Seats under an umbrella were hugely coveted!

We finished our drinks, put the plastic glasses into a bin for recycling (we could have had a £1 back, but you can donate to charity) and decided to have a look around. It was very crowded and hot, and the idea of going to look at the outer courts didn't appeal. There were matches taking place on these, but I hadn't heard of any of the players. I was so pleased we had managed to get Centre Court tickets; you can get a Grounds ticket, but that definitely didn't appeal!

A wheelchair match was taking place here

As it was getting close to the 1:30pm start time, we made our way into the underneath area of Centre Court. Here, there were big display screens with all the previous winners, some going right back to the late 1800s!

We found the correct entrance and walked up a flight of steps, where we had to show our tickets again. We then turned right, went up to Level S and along to our seats. We had a fantastic view!

Gradually, the seats filled, and we had a row of people in front of us who had Hospitality lanyards around their necks. I could tell that they were wealthy just by looking at them, but they didn't seem interested in the tennis at all when the Ladies' Quarterfinals started between Marta Kostyuk and Jasmine Paolini. They were solidly engrossed in their phones, checking emails and messages (I could see clearly from where I was sitting) and showed no emotion at all.

We watched avidly as the spectators in the Royal Box arrived, and I spotted Queen Camilla immediately. She had a lovely blue dress on! We also think we saw Roger Federer and his wife (I later found out that Jason Isaacs was there, as well as Dominic West!).

The Royal Box

Sophie and I thoroughly enjoyed the Women's Quarterfinals and predicted that the Ukrainian player, Kostyuk, would win. She did so in two sets. There was a short break before the Men's Quarterfinals started, and we finished off the sausage rolls and the Cava!

Luckily, our seats were in the shade the whole time we were there, and I did feel for the spectators opposite who were sitting in full sun. The people were using fans to cool down, but it must have been so hot.

Shaded seats, thank goodness!

We were looking forward to a great match between Cobolli and Fery, and I hoped it would have some drama and tension. Fery won the first set 6-4, and there was a tie-break in the second, with Fery winning. The crowd went wild whenever he won a point, and Sophie said she felt a bit sorry for Cobolli, as he was definitely the underdog. This is a huge thing for Great Britain, though, as we don't seem to produce winners at tennis (I sometimes forget that Andy Murray is British, as he seems so passionately Scottish first and foremost!) in any great number!

We both thought that Cobolli gave up in the third set as he lost without winning a game. I couldn't believe the great roar of noise when Fery won the last point, and everyone stood up to cheer and go wild! He will face Zverev in the Semifinals on Friday, and Sinner and Djokovic will play as well. Who will be in the Final on Sunday?

We stayed for the interview and then made our way out with thousands of other people. Sophie wanted to visit the shop to buy a towel (£40), and she also bought some hair scrunchies as well. We then went in search of the loos and stopped to buy a bottle of Evian water on the way. We had consumed two bottles of wine over the four hours and hadn't drunk any water at all, so we needed some desperately. We had no choice but to buy a bottle for £5 each; if we had bought them earlier, they would have been filled again for free.

After using the loos, we made our way out of the grounds, but left a different way. Sophie tried in vain to get either an Uber or an Addison Lee car, but a lot of the surrounding roads were closed, and hundreds of people all had the same idea...

I had to stop and take some tablets for a thumping headache (I only had myself to blame), and we started going up a long, steep hill. It was utterly horrible and still relentlessly hot! Sophie then said we were going the wrong way, so we turned around and went back towards the grounds. We spotted a taxi rank queue (horrendous) and one for the bus to take people to the train station.

Some people were being picked up by sleek, black Mercedes and cabs, but it was fruitless searching for an Uber, and we were quoted £120 for one to Marylebone. Sophie descended into a bad mood after the elation of the match, and I tried to cheer her up by saying we would sort something out, but we might have to forego a nice dinner!

In the end, we had no choice but to join the bus queue, which cost us £4 each! People were also queuing for the Park and Ride, and they looked fed up as well! It took us about an hour and a half from leaving the grounds to get to the station, and thankfully, the bus was air-conditioned, so we had a pleasant journey. On the High Street, we saw lots of lovely restaurants and every other person seemed to be carrying a Wimbledon bag!

We used our debit cards to buy tickets and took the District Line to Victoria, where we could change. At first, the train was quiet, but at Southfields Station, a huge swarm of people boarded, obviously all from Wimbledon, so there was a huge crush. I was glad the train was air-conditioned as well!

A lot of people disembarked at Earls Court, which gave us some room. At Victoria, we took the Victoria line and had three stops to go before Euston. We had given up on having anything to eat as we didn't want to be too late back to Northampton.

Unfortunately, the underground train we were on was hot and stuffy and at Oxford Circus, the train stopped, and there was an announcement that there would be a slight delay. I was already uncomfortable being on the Underground (I hate it), so we decided to go and get a taxi. Standing on a hot train was not my idea of fun, and we had no idea of how long the delay would last.

Up at ground level, we hailed a black cab that took us to Euston. We were able to board the 8:56pm train immediately, and made the mistake of sitting next to a very strange man who reached out to touch Sophie's Wimbledon bag. We rapidly found another couple of seats!

On the way to Northampton, we chatted to a woman in the opposite seat who was very interesting, and ever so slightly mad! She was three years older than Sophie and told us all about her job and how she gnawed at her fingers when she was anxious!

Keith was waiting to collect us and take us home. Driving back, it was still registering 27c! Phew! Sophie spent some time outside with the cats while I had a drink and made myself cheese on toast. We watched a few bits of the matches today, and then it was definitely time for bed!

Awkward situations...

I was in the kitchen at work making myself a coffee this morning when our MD walked in, saw me, and looked very awkward. I presume he knows I'm leaving, but he didn't say a word, not even to wish me good luck, and scuttled off to his office, not even holding the door open for me as he went. I was very disappointed, to be honest, as I've worked for the company for almost nine years, and had a close association with him when we sold our soft play business eleven years ago. 

I spent the rest of my shift writing the moan report and catching up with emails. I also mentioned to Nicola that the school holidays are looming and that I've had no holiday activities to put onto the system or swim camps... I don't have long left!

As we were leaving, Angela and Jo mentioned my puffy ankles, which was a bit embarrassing... Gabriel, my physiotherapist, had urged me to contact the doctor about them, as he thinks I'm retaining water. They have been bad in the summer ever since I started working eight-hour shifts three times a week. In the good old days, I finished at 2:00pm so I could go home and potter about.

I went straight home and made an appointment with a lovely nurse called Angela for Thursday morning. On holiday, they were fine because we were drinking gallons of water and I was in the pool every day. I was also moving about a lot more, but working for eight hours at a desk in the heat does me no favours at all.

Sophie had watched some of the Sinner match at Wimbledon today, and said he'd won in three straight sets, so it was a bit boring.!

Before Sophie came home, I started on the dinner, cooking the chicken first and gently frying the leeks and garlic. I felt so hot! Doing this put me in a bad mood, and when Sophie came home, she insisted on taking over. I went upstairs and had a long, cool shower before trying on a new dress for tomorrow. It was a beautiful, long, flowy dress, but it gaped at the cleavage, and I knew I'd be forever fiddling with it. Sophie forbade me from wearing it!

Sophie had finished the preparations for the meal and popped it into the oven when I reappeared. We sat and chatted over a glass of wine and had it confirmed that tomorrow we'd be seeing Arthur Fery play the Italian Flavio Cobolli on Centre Court! Woohooo!!

Freaking hell!

I woke up twice in the night to check on the football scores. The first time was 2:05am, and I learnt that the game had been delayed and had only just kicked off. The second time, at 3:17am, the score was 1-2, and then I had a dream that England lost 5-3. When I woke at 6:00am, I was astounded to see that England had beaten Mexico 3-2! I was totally gobsmacked and kept saying "Freaking hell!"  What a result! I can only imagine the atmosphere in the pubs and clubs when they won!

At work, one of our directors came and sat with Kathy, and I and we chatted about the game. That was a nice touch, I thought, and he told us how he'd gone to bed, but then woken up at 1am, saw the game had been delayed and snoozed on the sofa until the start. I should think a lot of people did that!

The heat is due to build this week, and it was already warm in the office in the afternoon. Milena, one of our finance bods, came in and said she had heard I was leaving and said she'd miss me, which was lovely. We don't work closely together, but have become closer since moving to this new office as we bond over coffee in the morning!

Back home, we all watched Wimbledon, and we were delighted to witness our only British hope, Arthur Fery, beat Dimitrov! What a great double for us today! We're hoping we will see him when we go on Wednesday!

Supper tonight was chicken wraps. We are having the Tangle Pie tomorrow, when it's due to be even hotter. Not a great idea!