Back to school...not!

I realised this morning that today was the first time in 16 years that we didn't have a child attending school. It felt quite sad, to be honest, and although I certainly don't miss the traffic and the rushing about in the mornings, it was a strange feeling to have no connections to the school at all.

Sophie doesn't start back at uni until the 3rd of October and Keith is officially retired so it was just Mike and me who need to sort out what we're going to do! I've had this feeling before (notably when I first stopped working) that I'm not really "tethered" to anything, that I have no commitments and I'm just sort of "floating about" It's hard to explain! Luckily I now have the volunteering position at the CAB and the gardening work with Sue so it's not as bad as it could be! I do need to think about earning an income soon, though! Mike has an appointment at the college tomorrow evening and the new term starts next Monday so we're all hoping he will be starting then.

Yesterday I read an interesting article on a Danish phenomenon called "hygge" and it was in the newspaper again today. Hygge is a feeling of happiness and being appreciative of the moment and involves lots of cosiness, happiness, being with friends and really enjoying the present. I realised we'd been doing it for years, without really knowing what it was! Examples are:

Watching bats in the evening
Sitting in the garden with a glass of wine and just chatting
Curling up on the sofa to watch a good film
Going for a lovely walk on a Spring or Autumnal day
Walking in the snow
Coffee with good friends
Baking cakes for family
Making bread
Walking Monty around the estate and going to see the horses
Playing cards in the evening before dinner

While I can, I'm going to appreciate the freedom I currently have! I don't know when it will come to an end!

Despite "hygge" Keith and I had a stressful morning sorting out the en-suite. I had decorated as much of the wall and the ceiling as I could and had asked Keith to help me with the corner above the shower enclosure. He started painting and first of all noticed that it hadn't been sealed behind the splash panel at the very top.

Somehow he then noticed that the connection for the shower head was loose and when he attempted to tighten it up, realised that it wasn't screwed to the shower panel properly. This then involved discovering that the connection was on upside down and that he needed to fit a rawlplug into the hole to keep the screw secure.

He had to drill the shower panel which caused a lot of worry as it could easily have cracked. Finally he managed to secure it properly but then he noticed that there was a leak in the small connection of the shower head where it joined the main shower pipe...

Keith was appalled at the bad workmanship (especially the upside down bracket) and called Triton to report the leak. They said that someone would come out next week to have a look. Is this bathroom nightmare ever going to end?

Thankfully we managed to get the rest of the wall and ceiling done and it looks lovely. I had initially had doubts about the colour but it looks so much fresher and cleaner!

After our stressful morning Sophie and I went off to Beckworth in the afternoon and treated ourselves to a cup of tea and a slice of cake. It was blissfully quiet and although we looked around the plants I didn't buy anything. We looked in vain for a candle for the conservatory but didn't see anything suitable. We now need one for August and one for September!

As another treat I bought a Scotch egg and we went to Mum and Dad's house to eat it! We had to bring the bins in anyway and we felt very naughty scoffing a delicious Scotch egg in their kitchen. We excused the naughtiness by saying it was "hygge"!!