Retirement dreams!

I'm not going to mention the weather today because I'm fed up with it! Sophie went to have breakfast with Daisy and Laura in town this morning and I picked my Mum up at 11am to go and look at a retirement village on the outskirts of Northampton.

The Hawthorns is a beautiful community where you can rent a one or two bedroomed apartment and enjoy retirement to the full. All meals and snacks are provided - it's like living in a five star hotel. They had an Open Day and we met a very pleasant young man called Oliver at 11.30am. He served us delicious coffee and we chatted before looking around the building and admiring the fantastic facilities, which include a gym, hair salon, spa and cinema!

The building itself was immaculate and the apartments were lovely and had views over open fields. Everything is included in the weekly price but Mum and Dad need to work out whether it's affordable and whether they can rent out their house to help pay the fees. It's definitely not a Care Home as there are no medical staff on hand and the residents are encouraged to be still independent. I asked what age people could live there to be told it's 55! Rats!

I drove Mum home and had a quick chat with Dad who was being a bit resistant to the idea. It's not cheap to live there so maybe he will get his way after all!

Back home I hoovered downstairs and tidied up and as soon as Sophie returned home we went over to Beckworth for a cup of tea. We had planned on going to Market Harborough but the weather was foul and it was cold so I didn't fancy trailing around the town in the damp.

Beckworth was very busy and we queued for quite a time to get a table. I hadn't had any lunch so I treated myself to a fruit scone while Sophie had a tiny piece of cake with her tea. After a quick look around we retreated back home where it was time to relax. Keith was out watching football and we lounged about with the heating on catching up with some recorded programmes.

Dinner tonight was a delicious curry cooked by Keith. He excelled himself!