The Year 2000 - a diary. July

July 2000

July started with heavy rain and on the 1st we went to MFI to look at units for the preparation room of the Nursery. I also bought Sophie three pairs of shoes at Gordon Scott and took out a mortgage to pay for them...

Keith cooked again on Saturday night and we had a feast - roast Quail served on a slice of fried bread with a large mushroom, Hungarian Goulash and a dessert of chocolate pie. It was wonderful. We also drank a Chenin Blanc/Colombard from South Africa. (Why doesn't he cook dishes like this now??!)

On Sunday, Mum and I spent the whole day cleaning the Nursery and printing off the end of year reports for the business. I arrived home at 5.30pm absolutely exhausted.

Life was very busy in July and I felt like I really needed a holiday but we had to sell the house first. We had two buyers who were interested but they also needed to sell their own houses before they could make an offer on ours. Keith and I were hoping that we'd be able to buy a house at a new development called Knight's Grange but we didn't have any information on prices yet.

We had one more week of being open before we closed down for the refurbishment and it was very busy with groups visiting and Birthday parties. Our cook took two weeks off for a holiday and things finally settled down with SPI. Nevertheless, the lease still hadn't been signed...

On Friday 7th July Mum and I took the day off to do housework as we were going to be working all weekend. On the way to Tesco's I called into Knight's Grange as the show office was open but the sales woman told me to come back on Saturday as she had no idea of the prices of the new houses yet.

Over the weekend we started dismantling the old framework but half an hour into the work, Polly cut her finger very badly and had to go to hospital for stitches. Mum went with her, taking Sophie and Michael as well and they were there for hours. The rest of us slowly took down the frame around the obstacle course and the tots area. It was dirty, hard work and there was dust everywhere. It was obvious that we were long overdue a revamp!

We put up a large banner informing customers that we were closed and after spotting a suspect van in the car park, we hurriedly shut the gates!

On Sunday morning we were all back in again and Polly returned, raring to go despite two stitches in her thumb.

Sophie mucking about. Polly's in the background

We took down more of the frame and dismantled the old Reception area. We planned to pull up the old carpet on Monday as SPI were due in on Tuesday 11th July.

Everybody was in on Monday - builders, plumbers, carpenters and electricians. The telephone rang non-stop and I had to cook lunch for the Nursery. The carpet was firmly stuck to the floor and in desperation we hired a pneumatic drill-like contraption that made lifting it slightly easier.

On Tuesday I stayed at home to wait for the Sky engineer to come and look at our jumpy picture while Keith took my place on the scaffolding. Everybody managed to get a lot of work done and SPI arrived, only to leave again to go in search of accommodation.

Work started early on Wednesday morning and SPI put down the underlay and the new carpet first. We decided to move our office today and chaos reigned! The wall dividing up the large play area was half-built and the builders started work on knocking through the old female toilets. As well as moving furniture down to the new office I had to cook the Nursery lunch again...arrggh!

While all this was going on our estate agent phoned to say that the couple who looked at the house a few weeks ago had made an offer at the full asking price!

In the evening, while Mum and Dad were at our house enjoying a glass of wine, the phone rang and it was one of the friends who'd cancelled the meal at the Huntshouse in Kilsby. He demanded to know why £51 had been taken out of his account by the restaurant. I tried my best to explain (probably because they'd cancelled at the last minute) but he was very rude and angry and my Dad was furious that he spoke to me like that.

On Thursday we finally managed to get the office straight and I went out to buy paint for the new sleep room in the Nursery, which had once been our office. Jill and Rachael, our two Nursery nurses choose lime and lemon.

Friday was spent painting the room and it was hard work! We finished at 6pm and I looked forward to having the Saturday off. Most of the dirty work had been done with the refurbishment now, with all the walls knocked through and the new stud wall almost built. SPI had erected a load of scaffolding and the toilets were being painted.

The two Michaels

Mum and Mike

Polly

On Saturday 15th July, after shopping, I drove to Knights Grange to find out the cost of a three-bedroom house. To my amazement, the price was just within our budget so I drove home, collected Keith and we returned to discuss the situation with the sales woman. Keith really wanted to wait until next year but I was frightened that we would miss out as only six were being built. After a brief, but heated, argument I went back yet again to put a reserve on Plot 39 for the sum of £250.00. We now just prayed that everything would go through with the sale of the cottage.

That same day Mum and Dad went to stay at The Feathers Hotel in Woodstock to celebrate their wedding anniversary. They phoned later to say that the place was shabby and expensive...

Work started up again on Monday 17th July and Mum and I tried to finish some decorating work in the Nursery but we were constantly interrupted by phone calls and whiny children. The weather turned hot  and Brenda, our cook, returned from her holiday. All the days seemed to blend into a blur of work and heat.

Polly and Brenda started painting the walls of the main area and choose a bright orange to complement the yellow above the border and the carpet. Mum and I seemed to be constantly shopping for paint and borders and we also started buying all the Nursery equipment from Toys R Us.

Our friend Pat came around on the Tuesday evening to discuss the forthcoming barbecue on the 29th July. We spent most of the time talking about the enraged phone call I had from our erstwhile friend and the monstrosity of a house being built on the patch of land behind us at home.

On Wednesday I went out for a meal with my friends Lynda, Claire and Paula to The Rice Bowl. We chose the Banquet option but changed virtually all the dishes to suit our tastes! We had a good laugh and it was wonderful to get out and relax for a while.

The weather turned really hot towards the end of the week and on Thursday we had to make preparations for the advertising stand we were having at the Northampton Show. Our stand was within the Herald and Post marquee and we had leaflets printed to give out on the day. We really didn't have time to do this as we had so much work to do but we wanted to promote both the play centre and the Nursery, especially as the business had now been closed for a couple of weeks.

On Saturday I met Mum at work before going down to the show at Abington Park. The tube slides had arrived and the men were making a start on them over the weekend. The weather was cold and dismal with a thin rain in the air making it really miserable. On the way to Abington Park we called into Ventolite, who sell blinds, to see if they have anything suitable for the Nursery windows. We weren't happy with the designs or the cost! We then drove over to Mamas and Papas and chose the nappy changing stations and a border for the sleep room.

Driving into the showground was great as we had car-park passes but it was very busy and we eventually arrived at the marquee at 1.30pm. There was a lot going on, with bingo to the right of us and face-painting to the left. We ate lunch and Sophie had her face painted like a cat. We were able to walk around the show and Sophie went on lots of rides and a bouncy castle. We were charged £1.00 for five minutes! The weather hadn't improved at all and it stayed cold and horrible.

On Sunday we all went into work - Dad, Mum, Polly, Brenda and me. I spent all day painting and Michael was very whiny. We had just four days to go before we re-opened but the place still resembled a building site. The slides weren't in and Mum was worried that we wouldn't be finished in time.

On Monday Polly and Brenda put up the border and I painted the remaining doors. Most of the decorating had now been done and on Tuesday Mum and I swept and tidied the car park which was one big mess. We worked really hard to get it all done and the skips were full of rubbish.

The men from SPI had trouble fitting the slides and there was still loads to be done. The inflatable obstacle course returned from its service and was inflated to show the men how much they had to net...and it was a lot!

On Wednesday one of the Nursery Nurses came to help with Michael so Mum and I could get some work done. He slept all morning and I managed to get the wages done and write to people who saw our stand at the show and requested more information. We spent the afternoon getting the party rooms straight and washed all the chairs.

We spent Thursday hoovering and cleaning and at 4pm Mum and I, along with Michael, drove down to Kent to pick up the Nans. The journey was horrible. There was a wide load on the M1 and then on the M25 there was a chemical spillage and an accident at Junction 27. We crawled along for hours and got to Nan French's house at 7.15pm. After having a quick supper of sandwiches and salad we went to pick up the other Nan and headed for home. Thankfully the journey was very fast and stress-free.

On the day of the opening we were still frantically cleaning and Mum and I went off to get more lengths of the wallpaper border. At 1.30, half an hour before re-opening, Brenda managed to get the rest of it stuck to the wall and at 2pm we opened the doors to the first invited customers. I have to say we were reluctant to let them in in case they dirtied the new carpets!

Some of my friends arrived and it was a hectic time setting out drinks and saying hello to friends and customers. At the end of the day I was absolutely exhausted. Sophie was also tired after playing on the new framework with her friends from Nursery and after I delivered the meat for the barbecue to Pat it was heaven to get home and collapse on the sofa!

Finally, the 29th July arrived and I was able to take the day off. Mum and Dad went into work to sort out the staff and Keith and I went shopping. I bought all the wine, mostly reds from Chile and South Africa. The weather was gorgeously warm and sunny.

As the afternoon wore on, it rained, but it was only a shower. However, by 7.30pm it had started raining again and after running along to Pat and David's house we had a glass of Pimm's in the kitchen. Poor David finished off cooking the steaks on the barbecue and John and Sarah arrived with the salads followed by Mum and Dad who had brought Bruce and a sour-faced Ann. Luckily, after half an hour the rain stopped and we could begin our barbecue properly.

The food was wonderful. We enjoyed Gazpacho soup with garlic bread followed by Cumberland sausages, pork ribs, steak and chicken stuffed with spinach and garlic. There were lots of salads and some really delicious potatoes. Pat and David's garden was truly magical with lots of little lights, candles and hanging lanterns everywhere leading down to the stream. The wines went down very well and complemented the barbecued food beautifully.

We had a very enjoyable evening, spoilt only slightly by the miserable look on Ann's face throughout the night. The next day was spent doing very little and relaxing after the hectic few week's we'd had.

The month ended with the start of the summer school holidays and Mum and I drove the Nans back home. It was a much better journey than the previous trip down to Kent!