Barry the badger!

Our next-door neighbours have been acting a little strangely recently: leaving their food bin out even though it was at risk of being turned over by a marauding badger who has been visiting our garden. Last night, they wedged open their garden gate and left a bowl of fruit on top of the food bin. Whether they were testing our theory that it was the badger doing it, or maybe the local cats, I don't know.

Anyway, this morning, Vince sent me video footage of the badger from midnight last night:

Let's hope they now shut their bin away so it doesn't get turned over and a mess left everywhere!

My day at work passed quickly, so that's another Monday dealt with! It's not my favourite day of the week, but next Monday is a Bank Holiday, and I'm off! Hooray for that!

Another day, another pub!

Our Sunday morning has been taken up with housework, but there was no dinner to prepare as we had a table booked at the pub! 

Sophie treated me to a real pamper this morning as well, cutting my hair and painting my toenails, bless her. She is very good to me, and I ordered a bottle of Tanqueray No. Ten Gin from Amazon as a thank you (Last night, I had finished the bottle we bought on the ferry, so it had lasted well!). Next Saturday, we're looking forward to seeing music from the Bond films at The Proms on BBC2, and I know Sophie will want to make Vespers while we watch!

We drove to the pub for our 2:00pm booking and took our seats. As we were perusing the menu, a couple came in with a small dog who was panting loudly, and asked me to move as they couldn't get past... Quite where they expected me to go, I have no idea!

The couple sat down, and I received a whiff of smelly dog and could hear the mutt constantly panting. Not really what I wanted while eating my Sunday lunch! Keith asked one of the staff if we could move, so we sat at a better table by the window and out of earshot of the panting dog!

The rest of our lunch passed very pleasantly. Keith and I ordered roast beef, while Sophie chose the chicken. We enjoyed halloumi fries and calamari to start and extra portions of pigs in blankets and cauliflower cheese. The meal was delicious and our beef moist and tender, and it went well with the bottle of Spanish Garnacha I'd ordered.

Sophie and I found room for puds: we each chose the peach and raspberry crumble served with custard. We're both looking forward to cooler days and more hearty meals! Keith paid the bill, and we returned home to do very little, although Sophie screamed at the television a couple of times when Newcastle scored and when Liverpool equalised!

Sophie and her after-lunch cocktail!

A tale of two pubs

Sophie was taking part in a 5K run in Rugby today and left at the very early hour of 7:30am. No lie-in for her today! I was awake at 6:30am and waved her off before having another coffee! 

My morning was spent doing some necessary but boring tasks, mainly related to money. I also looked at new flooring for our kitchen and living room and printed off the invoice for when we had our kitchen renovated in 2021. I am extremely disappointed with the floor we have and have noticed that it's Luxury Vinyl Tile, which is supposed to last 15-20 years. The area around our bar stools is scratched, and we have two cuts in the floor where we dropped cast iron lids onto it. I suppose this didn't help! The stone tile we had when we bought our house seemed to fare much better, and I'm determined to get it right with our next floor!

Sophie and I went to see Mum in the afternoon, and it wasn't the best of visits. She was having a "low" day and cried a bit when we were there, despite one of the lovely carers coming in and bringing her drinks and sweet treats. I do understand how she feels, and I hate it when she says she misses her home and all the lovely things she used to have.

After we visited, we decided to drive to Braybrooke and visit The White Swan, which has just been taken over by new management. We took our drinks through to the garden where several other people were already enjoying the afternoon sunshine. Sophie tried a half pint of  Everards Tiger Copper Ale, and didn't think much of it! I stuck with my Guinness Zero after insisting on having a half pint glass! 

We sat in the garden, chatted and munched on prawn cocktail crisps. Sophie had eaten a big breakfast and felt a little queasy again. She thinks that a meal after a run (they'd completed 9K in the end!) wasn't a good idea!

From Braybrooke, we drove through rural countryside to Arthingworth and The Bull Inn, a pub I'd been visiting for decades, but only every now and again. The man serving was very chatty and told us all about his side hustle of being ground crew for Virgin Hot Air Balloons. 

We sat all alone in the garden again and enjoyed the peace and quiet. It was bliss! A little boy kept coming near us every so often, and I could tell he wanted to speak to us, but was very shy, bless him!

Reluctantly, we finished our drinks and drove home, where Keith was watching football. The new season has definitely started, and my husband and daughter are looking forward to seeing Newcastle play Liverpool live tomorrow afternoon. 

Dinner tonight was chicken wraps with assorted salads, and our film choice for the evening was Insomnia, starring Al Pacino, Hilary Swank and Robin Williams, playing an uncharacteristically evil role!

Friday rolls around again!

The last day of the working week has come around so quickly again! It seems that as soon as Monday is over, it's a downhill swoop to Friday!

I had a good day at work, and Sheila left early at 3:00pm as she had been staying later and going in early. I do hope that's not a sign of things to come for me! I was kept busy for the last hour, and it was great to be in the office on my own.

Keith went to the pub this evening, and Sophie and I opened a bottle of Chardonnay, which was delicious. We watched the last two episodes of the Charles Manson documentary on Netflix, and I have to admit to being horrified by the crimes committed. I hadn't really realised how brutal they were until now, and how senseless. To have innocent people murdered was horrific, but it was the killing of eight-and-a-half-month-pregnant Sharon Tate that really disturbed me, and I was glad that the perpetrators either died in prison or were refused parole for so long.

We had a lovely supper of chicken Kievs, asparagus, broccoli and new potatoes and turned on BBC2 after eating to watch a Proms night celebrating Miles Davis. We listened to it for a little while before turning over to BBC4 and watching Top of the Pops from 1982. As usual, I Googled the bands and was amazed to see them as they are now! For me, 1982 was a couple of years ago, so the transformation from young women and men to pensioners was unbelievable!

Missing Mooney!

I had another productive day at work, and things are beginning to fall into place now! Sheila and I enjoyed a bacon roll for our breakfast, and the day passed quickly and pleasantly.

Sophie was working from home this morning and said that Mooney had been naughty; jumping on her chair when she vacated it and acting like Monty used to when she worked from home during covid. It was great to get home and find her already there, and I toasted some crumpets to have as an afternoon snack.

After seeing Mooney in the morning, she never saw him again during the day, but, unusually, Gomez had been asleep on her bed for most of the afternoon. We had dinner, and there was still no sign of Mooney, and he didn't appear during the evening as he usually does. Gomez was still in the house, which was a bonus, but we were both a little worried about Moonbums, as he is never far away and loves to come in for a cat yoghurt or his dinner.

By 10:00pm, we were both worried, and Sophie and I were both calling him. There was no sign of him at all. By 10:30pm, I said I was going to go to sleep, but I couldn't settle until I knew he was in. In the end, at well past 11:00pm, Sophie and I decided to drive around the estate and call for him. We drove to the field entrance just past our estate, and Sophie called him. We then drove around the estate slowly, but there was still no sign of him. 

To our utter relief, just as we were about to give up and go back into the house, he came running towards us with a little shrew in his mouth. He had obviously been hunting and had ignored all of our calls! We scooped him up and scolded him while hugging him! We were both so relieved!

A late start!

I woke up at 6:00am this morning with a horrible headache. I waved Sophie off to the gym, then went back to bed and didn't wake up again until 9:30am! I couldn't believe it! I had slept through my alarm, two texts from Sophie and a phone call!

I pootled about in the morning, and at midday, Keith and I got ready to go down to Riverside for an appointment at Wickes. We had arranged to see a bathroom designer at 2:00pm and went up to the mezzanine floor where the open office was situated. There was nobody there, but when we leaned over the balcony a few minutes later, a man on the ground floor said he would be with us shortly. I took an immediate dislike to him and wanted to walk out there and then!

Eventually, he was ready for us, but I was disinclined to speak to him! He seemed very false and kept getting my name wrong! When Keith produced the measurements he'd drawn up, the man asked for dimensions that Keith hadn't included! In the end, he said he would come out to the house on Friday, and then have a follow-up meeting with us next Thursday when I finished work. As it was all free, I decided to go along with it, but I wasn't that happy with his attitude, to be honest!

From Riverside, we drove straight to see my Mum as I had some colouring pens that she wanted. Keith stayed in the car while I sat with her for a while. She made absolutely no sense at all today, and I wondered again whether she had a urine infection.

Back home, I did the usual chores but didn't have to prepare any porridge as I'm now part of the Thursday morning Greggs breakfast club!

A fruitful day

We have had a little rain, but certainly not enough to make a difference to our parched lawns. I drove myself to work this morning and was warned by Sophie that the A45 was closed due to an incident. Sheila also called me to warn me that the traffic was building up to the turn-off for the Weston Favell Centre, so I went a different way to avoid it.

I had an enjoyable day at work today, spending my time matching up invoices with payments we'd received. I think Sheila had left this as she wasn't too sure about how to do it, but I loved it! I felt like I had achieved something at the end of the day!

Sophie texted me when she was leaving work and said that the A45 was still closed. A woman had fallen (or more likely jumped) and had been hit by several cars, so the police were still investigating. What a terrible thing to happen. It took Sophie an hour and a half to get home, and she made the mistake of trying to get onto the A45 at the Barnes Meadow roundabout, only to find the dual carriageway still closed, and had to retrace her route. 

When she arrived home, we sat in the kitchen and chatted before preparing dinner, a disappointing meal of chicken and mushroom soup and crusty baguettes. I added some potatoes to the soup, and it was a very bland meal! Not something we will eat again!

The evening was saved by an episode of Best Medicine, and I looked forward to a day off tomorrow! Hooray!

Rain?

We are facing a week of unsettled weather, which should help a little. The threat of fires is still with us, and I'm sure Keith and I both smelled burning this afternoon when I returned from work. I had the feeling it was our next-door neighbour, Vince, using a blowtorch in his garage, which was a little shocking. We haven't even lit the candles in the house, just in case!

Work has been uneventful today, and I insisted on a short lunch break. If Sheila wants to work through, then that's up to her, but things will change when I'm working on my own! She is great but very disorganised and flits from one job to another. I can't work like that!

Keith prepared a delicious chilli con carne for dinner, and we watched an episode of World War II with Tom Hanks after we'd eaten. This episode was all about Burma and Japan, and I didn't find it as interesting as the events happening in Europe. We caught the end of University Challenge afterwards, and I was thrilled to identify a painting by Van Gogh that the students didn't get! Perhaps all that culture is finally having an effect!

Making plans

Sophie and I did housework first thing this morning and got ready for a visit from a neighbour who had agreed to look after Mooney and Gomez while we're away in September and October. Isla, who usually looks after them for us, was going to university in September, but another lovely girl, Tabby, was taking over the job.

She popped around, we had a good chat, and we talked through what we needed her to do, which, to be honest, isn't a lot! Neither cat appeared, and I said she probably wouldn't see them at all. Yesterday, we stopped by the gate leading into the neighbouring field and called for Gomez, who we hadn't seen for four days. He appeared, and Sophie went into the field, but he wouldn't go near her. He is turning feral! He did reappear last night, though, so that was good. At least we know he's OK! He is very skinny at the moment, but he obviously loves being free!

Once Tabby had gone, we relaxed, had the leftovers from last night's Chinese for lunch, and booked a week's trip to Annecy for next April. It's a place Sophie has always wanted to go, and we can pop into Switzerland while we're there. We booked the Airbnb for the stay near Annecy, and also for overnight stops on the way there and back. We also reserved an Airbnb for December near St Valery-sur-Somme, from Boxing Day for three nights. We're hoping the house, with a pellet burner, will be lovely and cosy!

I had a shower in the late afternoon, and we discovered, to our dismay, that we had a water leak into the kitchen. We have had this, on and off, ever since we moved into the house, but Keith was very worried when he saw it. This has prompted us to get the en-suite done as soon as we can. We don't want water bringing down the kitchen ceiling!

We almost postponed our supper of chicken and vegetable bake with cous cous, but we cooked it after all! I can't believe the weekend is over so soon. Both Sophie and I had a touch of the Sunday evening blues... oh well! We need to work to pay for all of our planned trips!

A day of celebration!

I had a much better night's sleep, and I was looking forward to today being a little cooler than of late. Today was Keith's and my wedding anniversary, and we were celebrating 34 years together! Where have the years gone? He was off to see Sileby play this afternoon, and Sophie and I had decided to return to Bletchley Park today, as the tickets we were given on our previous visit were annual passes. To celebrate our anniversary, we had booked a table at The Han in Market Harborough for this evening.

Sophie and I set off at about 10:30am and arrived about an hour later. The kindly man at the gate said the normal car parks were full, so we had to leave Olive in the car park we used last time and walk to the entrance. First up was coffee and something to eat before we started exploring. We had a look at the introductory exhibitions and then had a quick look in the gift shop, where Sophie bought a Christmas decoration and a coaster.

We ventured outside, and a very friendly volunteer had a chat with us and told us the best way to explore. We went to the house itself first and had a look around, but it was warm inside, so we didn't linger! We had been hoping that today would be a lot cooler, but the heat seemed to have built up inside the buildings, making them stuffy and hot.

The last time we had missed the garages, so we had a quick look at the motorcycles used for transporting messages around the country and an old car and ambulance.

I was fascinated by the motorcycle riders who had to negotiate routes without road signs (they had all been removed) and were forbidden from stopping.

About 10,000 people worked at Bletchley Park (not all at the same time!) and the history was fascinating. We decided to have an ice cream and then explore the huts. We both chose a flavour and sat in the shade of a tree to enjoy the ice creams. The ground was baked hard, and the clouds had parted to let the sun shine through.

We explored a couple of huts and then went to see a film about intelligence and the D-Day Landings.

A lot of the information about the codes and how they were broken was beyond us; I think it took a special breed of people with differently wired brains to work out how to break the code! We enjoyed an exhibition on AI and played a game, which was great as the building was air-conditioned!

By now, we were flagging, so we returned to the car for our little picnic of Keith's sausage rolls and a can of Aperol Spritz. Sophie added ice and a slice of orange, and we sat in the cool car to enjoy the food and drink.

We returned home via Olney and had a lovely journey. The countryside was looking parched, and even the trees seemed to be suffering now, with dried-up leaves scattering the ground in an early fall.

Back at home, we relaxed, and I fell asleep for almost 45 minutes, far longer than I wanted! Keith returned from seeing Sileby, and we left for Market Harborough at 6:00pm with the intention of having a drink at The Wine Shed.

Our usual car park was empty, and most of the shops were closed. We walked to The Wine Shed, but even before we walked up the little alleyway, we could tell the place was busy! They had no tables free, so we walked to Louisa's Place and had a drink there. I chose a non-alcoholic Mojito, Sophie had a Negroni Sbagliato, while Keth had a cloudy IPA.

We sat and chatted about Keith's birthday trip to Northumberland and then crossed the road to The Han. The restaurant was already pleasantly busy, and we were seated by the window. We ordered drinks and chose the Han Banquet, which consisted of various starters and main courses that you could choose from a list. This worked out better for us as we could include our favourites.

The food was delicious, and Sophie and I shared a bottle of Chilean Chardonnay to go with the food. We enjoyed the starters, crispy duck and pancakes, followed by four dishes. The food was excellent!

We were all too stuffed for dessert, so we paid the very reasonable bill (£117, the same as the pub the other night!) and walked back to the car. Market Harborough was a very different town at night than during the day, and several noisy groups of youngsters were about, so we wondered if there was a local nightclub?

Back at home, Sophie and I had a glass of Mallorcan Hierbas, and we watched television before it was time for bed. What an enjoyable day!

Shock and alarm!

Even though the heat was supposed to abate a little today, it still felt uncomfortably hot, especially at work. Was it because it had built up yesterday?

I found it hard going at work today; Sheila didn't let up at all, and we had a constant stream of people coming into the office. My old workmate, Sue, was most welcome, but the other extra bodies added to the heat! I will be a lot happier when I'm working on my own and can take a short break for lunch, as Sheila just powers on through! At one point, I wanted to scream, so I took myself off to the loo and texted Sophie as a way of letting off steam!

I could not wait for 4:00pm, and it was utter bliss to get into the car, switch on the aircon and head home for the weekend. As soon as Sophie came home, we finished off a bottle of Italian rosé and started watching a Netflix documentary about Charles Manson. The book I'm reading at the moment is loosely based on the Manson family, and we both found the documentary very interesting. 

As we were sitting watching, all of a sudden, both of our phones made a terrible shrieking noise, and we nearly fell off the sofa in shock! It was a notice from the government about not using disposable barbecues (they should have been banned years ago) or starting fires at the moment, which included fire pits, incinerators or fireworks. Surely, only a complete imbecile would do that at the moment, with all the fires that have happened lately? In Stourbridge, nineteen houses were affected by a wildfire which spread from a nearby golf course. Who in their right mind would have a naked flame in the open at the moment?

To calm our nerves, we opened a lovely, fruity bottle of Picpoul de Pinet and put the finishing touches to dinner, a very easy pizza/quiche and Caesar salad. No potato products tonight! As we were eating, we saw Milo sneak into the conservatory to nick some of the cats' biscuit, so we went outside with him. A little gaggle of boys were riding around the estate on their bikes, and they stopped to chat. We had spoken to two of them before (they are fairly new and have a cat called Roxy) and it was lovely to sit and chat with them. They were mostly talking to Sophie, and they were lovely and polite!

There was a delicious breeze wafting about outside, and it was bliss to feel a little cooler. When I went upstairs, the bedroom was gorgeously cool, as I think the wind direction had changed and it was coming from the north. Hooray! Is the heat over?

A sober girls' night out

Keith took me to work this morning, and as I hadn't made myself any porridge, I was weak when Amanda came up to the office and asked if I wanted to join the Thursday Greggs breakfast gang. I said I would have a sausage roll, so that's it now for Thursdays, but I will try and have something a bit healthier next time! 

As forecast, it has been very hot today with temperatures hovering around 36-37c. Funnily enough,  it wasn't too bad in our office, thank goodness! When I arrived home after work, the upstairs of the house was stuffy and horrible. I am so sick of this now!

I had a cold shower and got ready to go out with my friends Lynda and Fiona. Andrea had cried off as she was having problems with her car, so just the three of us met at The World's End pub in Ecton. Lynda was already waiting for us, and we all moved into the restaurant, where our table was ready.

All three of us were driving, so I ordered a Guinness Zero, Fiona tried a 1664 non-alcoholic lager, while Lynda stuck to her lime and soda. I renamed us "The Sober Society" as it was virtually unknown for us to have soft drinks with a meal! We normally have G&Ts to start, followed by at least two bottles of wine and then liqueur coffees or port! Not tonight!

The restaurant was almost empty, with a lot of people sitting outside as it was still very warm. We sat and chatted and chose our meals. I opted for the Bang Bang cauliflower to start, followed by an Asian duck salad. We have been meeting up for a meal for decades, and I was amused that we chatted about our various ailments tonight, such a difference to when we were all in our 30s and 40s and the conversation was a bit spicier!

We were too stuffed and hot to contemplate dessert, so we paid the bill (£117, so still not cheap!) and said goodbye. Lynda has a new VW, so I admired that, and then headed home, with the aircon going full blast!

When I arrived home, Sophie was outside with the cats, whom she let stay out all night. The house was stiflingly hot, and I wasn't looking forward to going to bed!

The solar eclipse

I waved Sophie off to the gym this morning and went back to bed for an hour, which was bliss. It's so lovely to have this midweek break! When I went downstairs to make myself a coffee, Keith was having problems with the house computer. The screen had wiggly lines on it, and I said that it really seemed to be on its way out.

We swapped the screen for the one that was on my Dad's computer, but it was the same, so it was obviously the computer itself. We then spent over an hour mucking about with my Dad's old computer, which was slow and made a whirring noise! I think we're going to have to bite the bullet and buy a new one! It meant I had to install the Microsoft Word and Excel software onto my laptop, and we had to try and remember passwords for Keith's Facebook account and email. It was a pain!

We drove to Sophie's office at lunchtime and took her to a nearby Greggs for lunch. We managed to get to the café just in time as hordes of local workers arrived shortly afterwards! We picked out sandwiches (Sophie and me) and sausage rolls (Keith) with a side order of potato wedges. Sophie and I enjoyed a matcha each, and the food was delicious and good value, which probably explained the long queues!

Before taking Sophie back to work, we popped into a nearby bathroom showroom to get some inspiration for the en suite, which is badly in need of replacing. The tiles in there are cracked (as they're the wrong ones), and the whole room is horrible! We saw some lovely showers, and the man we spoke to said that they would design the en suite for us if we sent them the measurements and what we wanted. I want a bigger walk-in shower and to move the loo and sink to the other wall.

I liked this... almost a wet room

We dropped Sophie off, returned home, and I went out again to see my Mum. Although it's been hot today, I decided to take her out for a drive again. We took the scenic route home so I could get my hair grip, and Keith and  I moved some glass decanters on the windowsills in the conservatory out of the sun just in case. I was worried that the glare of the sun could heat them up and cause a fire. This threat of fires is uppermost in our minds at the moment, and I have never known the gardens and fields to be so parched.

I got back into the car (I'd left the air conditioning on so it was blissfully cool) and we drove into town via Holcot, Pitsford reservoir (no ice cream van again), Brixworth and the new road over to Duston. I then drove past my old workplace to show Mum and saw Sara walking to her car. She didn't see me, but she looked like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders. Before taking Mum back, we enjoyed a McFlurry each, which was perfect for such a hot day. 

I dropped Mum back and returned home to do very little. By now, it was hot, and I didn't have the energy to make myself porridge for my breakfast tomorrow! Plus, it would have made me warm, as tomorrow is set to be the hottest day of the week with a weather warning in place. Phew!

Sophie arrived home from work, and we said we were going to watch the solar eclipse from the layby on the single-track road near the village. We left at 6:00pm, taking our colander and a sheet of paper with us!

We parked up after a short argument between Keith and me. He kept asking where we were going, and I had parked in the shade of some trees with the sunlight filtering through. We could then try and capture the eclipse on the sheet of paper using the colander.

The countryside was looking beautiful, but why did it have to be so hot and dry? I had looked up the eclipse timings and knew that it would be happening from about 6:15pm until 7:15pm. While we waited, we had a good look about, and I noticed some sinister-looking cans littered about...

Nitrous oxide used for inhaling

We saw at least three cans, and I wanted to try and dispose of them safely, but Keith wouldn't let me touch them. It was obvious that youngsters are using the layby to inhale the gas, which is very dangerous.

We also amused ourselves by trying to see the beginnings of the eclipse, and we failed miserably.

   

As we neared 7:15pm, we noticed that it was getting a little darker and the shadows on the fields had deepened. However, we all thought it was a bit of an anticlimax, to be honest, and the colander didn't seem to work for us!

We set off for home, and Olive's lights came on, so there must have been a lessening of sunlight. We hadn't thought to buy the special glasses to see the eclipse safely, so we were a little disappointed! The next one will happen in 2050, and I will be 82! I do remember the 1999 eclipse, and we had a children's day nursery at the time, so we took them all outside to experience it.

Back home, we relaxed with a drink for half an hour and then enjoyed cold roast chicken with salad and crusty bread. It's back to the grind tomorrow!

On my own!

I was on my own at work today as Sheila was on a day's annual leave and was visiting Skegness with a friend. I was a little nervous about working on my own, but I had a very productive day! I managed to do lots of training and worked out how to do a couple of jobs that Sheila had asked me to do. My manager, Dan, was in and out, so I wasn't completely alone. It was an enjoyable day!

Back home, it was great to look forward to my Wednesday off. It hasn't been too hot today, but the temperatures are set to climb tomorrow and on Thursday, in particular. We have an Amber heat warning coming into effect on Thursday morning, with temperatures set to rise to about 35-36c. 

Sophie and I sat and watched a very interesting documentary we'd recorded on Sky this evening before we had dinner. It was about a Norwegian woman who was trying to beat the record for climbing the fourteen highest peaks in under six months. They were all over 800 metres, and situated in Nepal, Pakistan and Tibet. It was quite a sad story, to be honest. I won't reveal what happened, but I will say one thing: perhaps humans aren't meant to be scaling these huge peaks. 

We had pate and toast for dinner; it's becoming a real chore finding meals that don't make us hot or use too much heat!

Happy times

Today would have been my Dad's 84th birthday. Here's a lovely photo of him celebrating his 70th with my Mum at the Wavendon Arms in 2012:

Happy Birthday, Dad xxx

Big fires everywhere...

I didn't have the best night's sleep, and I had no idea why. I woke up feeling a bit mopey and wished it was Saturday morning again! Sophie didn't go to the gym, so we both sat with a coffee and watched most of an episode of the second series of Stanley Tucci in Italy. It was great that I could ease into the day like I used to!

On the way to work, I called into a Tesco fuel station shop and bought milk for our fridge so I could enjoy my Tassimo coffee. The office was hot today, and it was bliss to escape and turn on the air conditioning in the car. As I neared home, I could see a plume of smoke in the distance, and it looked like it was near Walgrave. However, appearances can be deceptive, and I learnt when I arrived home that there was a fire near Corby at a recycling plant.

I then learnt that Mike's old place of work, Kingsthorpe Golf Club, was on fire as well!

Photo from the Chronicle & Echo website

This is getting serious now, and with another heatwave this week, we have been warned that there could be more fires breaking out.

It did feel a little cooler this evening, and Sophie decided to keep the cats in overnight. We had burgers for dinner and watched an episode of Celebrity Hunted. I don't know when it was filmed, but the countryside looked as dry as it is now!

Feeling the heat!

Sophie woke me from a vivid dream this morning in which an old neighbour was taking us to an Airbnb before we went on holiday. I realised I had no luggage with me, just a big bag of stir-fried vegetables. Perhaps the heat is finally getting to me! It took a while to shake off the dream; it was so real!

Sophie and I went to see my Mum at 11:00am, and I bought her a box of chocolates. When we arrived, she was lying in bed, and I found it difficult to wake her. She then didn't seem to realise it was us, which was a bit worrying. Eventually she came to fully, and we chatted, but she didn't seem right. I said I would take her for a drive and an ice-cream on Wednesday, and then popped into the lounge to speak to one of the carers about Mum. She assured me that yesterday, at the Fun Day, she'd been fine, but sometimes in the morning, she didn't want to get up.

Sophie and I said goodbye to my Mum and gave her a hug. Her room was hot, so maybe she was a bit dehydrated. We drove home, with the air conditioning full on as it was another warm day. I am fed up with this heat now and the terrible dryness affecting us in this part of the country.

Back at home, Sophie spent ages preparing tonight's dinner of Hainanese chicken and Basmati rice. She had so much to do, bless her! I helped out with what I could, and then we did some housework before having lunch of fish finger sandwiches and the last dregs of a bottle of white wine that had been languishing in the fridge.

The afternoon was spent relaxing after the housework, and I had enormous trouble submitting the first five hundred words of a novel I'd like to write to a competition. Our home PC is on its way out, and I needed to access Microsoft Word on it. In the end, Keith finally got it going for me!

Sophie and I played Scrabble in the early evening, and after a promising start, Sophie overtook me and won! We drank some more dregs of wine - a sweet Vouvray - before opening a bottle of sparkling wine from the same village. Sophie put the finishing touches to the meal, which was delicious! Her hot chilli sauce certainly made its presence felt!

After dinner, we watched a new French crime comedy called Carpe Diem, which is on Channel 4 on a Friday night. It was funny, and the setting of Nice was especially good. It's a worthy successor to Panda!

Changing plans

Sophie went to Daventry this morning to do a 5K run with her work buddy, Becky, and I had a relaxed start to the weekend. She achieved her fastest run yet, but had a disappointing breakfast afterwards, which made her feel queasy all day.

I pootled about, did a load of laundry and caught up with some jobs, and at 2:00pm we drove to The Tollemache (or Tolly) Arms in Harrington. The plan was to go and see my Mum first as I hadn't visited last week, but then I realised it was the care home's family fun day and we didn't fancy joining the hordes!

We sat inside the pub, in a little nook, and I kept getting told off by Sophie for people watching! There were so many staff that they were almost falling over each other! We had two drinks - I stuck with Guinness Zero - and had a good chat. At about 4:00pm, we left and drove via the A14 to the care home, but the family fun day was still in full swing with loads of people milling about, so we decided to visit my Mum tomorrow instead, when it would be quieter!

At home, we relaxed and then decided to watch Single White Female at 6:00pm. This is now becoming an enjoyable tradition! Sophie was adamant she hadn't seen the film before, but then realised a quarter of the way through that she had... we still enjoyed it, though, even though it was a bit far-fetched!

As Sophie still felt queasy, she didn't fancy dinner of beefburgers, so we made do with some tortilla chips and dip and then toast. Keith was equally happy not to eat and made himself some boiled eggs and toast.

After the film, we watched, in its entirety, Quantum of Solace, one of the most confusing Bond films I have ever seen. I read the plot but still didn't have a clue what was happening, and this was perhaps the third time I had seen it! However, it was nice to sit and watch Daniel Craig for over two hours!

Coffee? Sorted!

I was delighted to use a Tassimo coffee machine in the kitchen at work today! What a bonus! While Sheila made herself a cup of strong tea, I used the disc I'd taken in with me to make a coffee. This is more like it!

We had a very interesting and varied day today, tackling things like block bookings, invoicing, and contracts of employment. The job is certainly more interesting and varied than what I used to do, so I feel a lot happier.

We left just before 4:00pm, and I was home way before 4:30pm. It feels like I have some of my life back, as I'm not leaving until 7:30am in the morning. When Sophie arrived home, we cracked open a bottle of French white wine from near Carcassonne and indulged in some tortilla chips with a dip. We watched a very interesting episode of Fake or Fortune, which was about fifteen Lucian Freud etchings discovered in the garage of a printworks. There was no real conclusive answer, but each etching was still worth about £6,000-£8,000!

After Fake or Fortune, we watched the last Scandinavia programme with Simon Reeves. It was another eye-opener!

Feeling better!

Keith dropped me off at work this morning, and I had a much better day. We tidied up the timesheets and tackled the sickness spreadsheet, so that was all done. By mid-afternoon, we had submitted everything, which was a relief. Starting when I did, right at the beginning of the month, I was thrown in at the deep end, excuse the pun! I felt a lot happier, thank goodness!

It's a novelty getting home before 4:30pm, but that may change when the large school next to us resumes in September. I remember it took me a while to get out onto the main road, but it will be better than where I used to work!

Dinner tonight was a delicious cottage pie, and I was grateful that it felt a little cooler today. However, this is short-lived, as we are due yet another heatwave next week, with temperatures set to be in the mid-30s on Wednesday and Thursday. This is turning out to be one scorcher of a summer, and outdoor attractions must be loving it! It's not so good for indoor play places or the cinema!

Getting things done

Sophie was working from home today and had set up her laptop at the kitchen island. Outside, it rained heavily, but only briefly, which was disappointing. We were hoping it would set in for the day and make a difference to the garden!

I had a coffee and then tackled some overdue jobs, one of which was colouring my hair, and it really needed it! The sun over the holiday had lightened it, and lots of grey was showing through, so I couldn't wait to apply the colour and go back to a brunette!

I still felt a bit mopey about work, and I was glad I had today off to sort out a list of things I had to do. I managed to annoy Sophie while writing the blog, so she put her headphones on and listened to John Mayer! At lunchtime, we drove to Broughton and sent off three parcels; I was glad she came with me as I would have been easily confused with the different QR codes! 

Need I say that after the morning rain, the sun came out and it was another beautiful day? I had an appointment in the afternoon for an eye test and asked Keith to come with me so he could do a little shopping.

I arrived early (as usual) and had to go through a series of tests before I saw the optician. I had a photo taken of my eyes, a pressure test and a peripheral view test, all of which I passed. The optician reminded me of Sophie's ex-boyfriend, Vikesh, and was quite quirky. He pronounced everything was fine with my eyes, and that was that for another two years!

Walking back to the car was a depressing experience. I try to avoid the centre as much as I can and noticed that NatWest was now no more. How many years had we been visiting that almost every day when we had the business?

Back at home, I was delighted to find that Sophie had prepared my porridge for tomorrow, and offered to make me a sandwich for lunch. She also hoovered! I wish she could work from home every day!

A little wobble...

I didn't sleep well last night and woke up feeling a bit down this morning. The change in Sheila had been worrying me, so when I went into work this morning, I asked Sheila exactly how stressful the job was. She had been in very early again, and I mentioned I'd hardly seen her drinking or getting up from her desk. She admitted it was stressful, and I said there was a fine line between being nicely busy and being overwhelmed with work. However, she did say that entering the timesheets would soon be a thing of the past, as this was becoming digitalised, thank goodness! I even found out I need to ask for holiday on a paper form!

I spent the rest of the day entering hours, and we had another Teams meeting at 11:00am with the payroll department, which nearly sent me to sleep. I was beginning to wonder if I'd made the right decision... What was also worrying was whether my contract had been received by the payroll department so that my wages would be sorted out by the next payday. I had a niggling feeling my contract hadn't been submitted in time, which could mean no pay this month, a very worrying prospect.

We worked through lunch again, and tried to sort out some of the problems on the timesheets, which had engulfed our desks again. I absolutely cannot work in a mess, or with loads of bits of paper everywhere. It just feels like I'm being overwhelmed!

I left at 4pm and felt even more miserable than this morning. When I got home, I burst into tears and said to Keith that I wished it was how it used to be... working for my old company, in my old office (not where we moved to) and doing my old job. It was an impossibility, but I needed to vent!

When Sophie arrived home, we sat in the kitchen and talked about my day. She quite rightly said that I had a history of getting tearful in a new job, but I admitted honestly that I really didn't want to work anymore; I'd had enough! I also said that I felt like I'd had no choice but to leave my old job, so I was trapped.

It felt good to let it all out, and by the time we had dinner, I felt a little better. To cheer me up, we watched an episode of Best Medicine, which was excellent. I've almost forgotten about Doc Martin now, as this new series is just as good!

Being the "newbie"!

It felt very strange indeed to be going back to the place I used to work this morning. It was the same, except it wasn't, if you know what I mean...

I said hello to Amanda, who was working on reception, and made my way upstairs to my new office. Our old office is being made into an extension of the gym, and we weren't allowed in there as it's a building site. Sheila was already in (she gets in at some unearthly hour), and we had a chat before making a start on my training. We had the office to ourselves today, but we still had a lot of people popping in with questions. One of the first things we did was gather up the timesheets to enter people's hours onto the computer. This turned out to be a time-consuming job that I really thought needed modernising! Surely, people could enter their own hours onto our payroll system and then get them checked by their supervisor? An app on their phones would work well!

We had a Teams meeting with two members of staff and spent the rest of the day sorting out the payroll. There were reams and reams of paper, and lots of them had to be checked again with a supervisor. This meant there were loads of sheets of paper everywhere with scribbled notes on some of them. I can't work in a mess! I'm hoping that things will improve when I work on my own, as Sheila can be a little disorganised!

I went to get a coffee mid-morning and was horrified to be charged £3.80 as I hadn't yet received my staff fob! I definitely won't be doing that every day! Can you imagine how much that would amount to every month?

Sheila doesn't take a break for lunch, so we both worked through, which I wasn't keen on. An eight-hour shift needs a break! She also didn't go and get herself as many cups of tea as she used to and hardly left her desk... hmmm!

At 4pm, I went to re-join Keith, who was waiting for me, and we had a much shorter commute home. I was parking on our driveway before 4:30pm! That was definitely a bonus!

Dinner tonight was an easy supper of fishcakes with mash, and then we watched World War II with Tom Hanks, which made for uncomfortable viewing. Sophie had wanted to watch the episode because it was about the resistance, but immediately wished she hadn't!

Making plans

Today has been spent catching up with housework and preparing tonight's dinner of chicken casserole and dumplings. It's been another sunny, dry day, and I'm certainly not having any trouble getting the laundry dry at the moment!

In the afternoon, we made an effort to sort out Keith's birthday celebrations. He is celebrating a special birthday this year and insisted on going to the coast so he could have fish and chips. But it had to be the coast in this country!

Sophie and I searched and searched, and I even went all the way around the coast of England to try to find somewhere suitable! Most houses were lacking in some way, and a lot were very expensive! I tentatively explored France, but he said he wasn't going to France; he wanted somewhere on the north-east coast! We eventually settled for an inland village near Alnwick and booked for his birthday weekend. From the cottage we booked, it's about forty minutes to the sea, so not too bad!

We also, sneakily, booked a few days in Antwerp in November (just Sophie and me) and a short weekend break to France in October for the three of us. Well, you have to have something to look forward to! I have to say that the bookings of these trips coincided with a little peach vodka cocktail! Life is to be enjoyed as much as possible!

We enjoyed the chicken casserole for dinner this evening, and I made some hearty dumplings to go with the dish, as well as roast potatoes and an array of vegetables. This weekend has been immensely enjoyable, and I started to feel a bit nervous about tomorrow!

Saturday indulgence

Sophie and I, after a lovely relaxed start to the day, drove to Market Harborough this morning for lunch and some shopping. We went to Just So Italian first and enjoyed a coffee and pastry each. As usual, the ambience was great and the food delicious.

Sophie didn't want to visit any charity shops today, as she felt she had enough clothes, so we concentrated on bookshops instead. Outside Waterstones, she ran into a friend from work, and they had a good look at the books on the ground floor, while I went up to the second floor and mooched about there. Sophie ended up buying several interesting-looking books, and we headed for the Oxfam next. On the way, we spotted a new art gallery, and we were drawn in! There were some beautiful works of art, and we spotted one by Damien Hirstent! A lot of the artwork was priced in the hundreds of pounds, but we saw a couple that were tens of thousands! I know that Market Harborough is an affluent town, and Leicestershire a rich county, but the gallery looked like it would be at home on any elite London street (and in fact, later, when I looked them up, they do!).

In the Oxfam shop we both bought books, and I picked up a great hardback book by Bill Bryson, "The Road to Little Dribbling." It was only £2.99! 

From the bookshop, we popped into an old-fashioned bedding/towels/carpet shop as I was on the hunt for king-size pillowcases, something I find difficult to find. I did find some, so I'll make a note for future reference. My pay this month has been dire, as I owed the company holiday pay (well, we did go for it in the first six months of this year!) and the expenditure will have to be carefully watched until I get paid again!

It didn't stop us from having lunch at the little Thai, though, and we enjoyed prawn crackers, fishcakes and chicken moneybags followed by Mussamun curry with chicken. We chose a small glass of wine each and a bottle of sparkling water. After we'd paid the bill, we called in to see Duncan, had wine tasting, and bought a bottle of wine each. It was great to chat with Nick and Duncan and catch up with their news.

Our last stop before going home was The Wine Shed, and we sat outside enjoying the lovely afternoon sunshine. It was relaxing to sit and natter and do some people watching!

Minutes before our parking ticket expired, we returned to the car and drove home via the scenic route (Maidwell and Draughton). Along the way, we stopped to take some photos of the sun-baked countryside:

Sophie and Olive

Back home, Keith was out watching Sileby play and Sophie and I pootled about before deciding to watch the film Copycat starring Sigourney Weaver and Dermot Mulroney. We don't normally watch films so early in the evening, so it made it a bit of a treat! While watching, we later enjoyed a plate of garlicky doughballs, and I made a strawberry Eton Mess. Delicious!

We finished our evening with The Proms and the beautiful Concerto de Aranjuez by Joaquin Rodrigo! It was so gorgeous, it brought a tear to my eye!