Busy, busy!

After a sort of lie-in (difficult when the children are getting ready for school) Keith and I went off to the new Asda at Kettering to do the weekly shop. We are die-hard Tesco shoppers but we fancied a bit of a change and we were pleasantly surprised. First up was coffee as our dear son had drunk all the milk on Thursday evening leaving us none for tea or coffee this morning. I had a cooked brekkie while Keith had a bacon bap. With a mug each of coffee and tea it came to only £5.62!! Bargain!!! We'll be back for breakfast, that's for sure!

Shopping somewhere new is always a risk as we tend to forget half the things we came for and today was no exception. Somehow we missed the whole of the toiletries section so I'll be off to Boots tomorrow to get the things we forgot! However, it was a lot quieter than Tesco and some of the prices were cheaper. We will definitely try it again (plus diesel was much cheaper than a lot of petrol stations so I filled the tank of my car).

When we got home a letter arrived about our mortgage. Our endowment mortgage is due to finish next month after 22 years and although we knew there'd be a shortfall it's not looking as bad as we thought. If the Stock Market keeps as it is we may gain a little bit more before June so we're keeping our fingers crossed. We dug out the original documents and it seems incredible that we took out the mortgage so long ago, when we weren't even married to one another!
 
In the afternoon we went off to Dreams and bought a bed for Mikey. It was flat-packed and we did have a few hilarious moments trying to get it into my car but we succeeded in wedging it in in the end, no doubt to the amusement of the sales staff who reckoned it would fit in the back of a Fiesta...Yeah!

Dismantling the old one and putting up the new one was fun and half way through I had to leave Keith and go and pick Sophie up from school as she was working. I think my dad expected me to stay and help but as I was in my scruffs and the house was in uproar I politely declined. When I went back to pick her up at 6pm I spotted an old flame from years ago...talk about embarrassing! I was 19 and he was married so nothing serious happened but it was a little awkward nonetheless! We had a little chat and I discovered he had five children...maybe I had a lucky escape!

Huh?

I'm sure I posted a blog last night...something about Wednesday being a busy day with horrible (and stupid) customers but it seems to have disappeared! Looking at some of the other blogs I think there was a problem so I don't think I'm going mad!

So...to recap - Wednesday was busy and a bit stressful and I was at work until late after getting in really early.

Thursday was just as busy and I was at work until really late but I didn't mind so much as I knew I was off on Friday! Yeeha!!!

Wednesday 11 May - A serious case of the post holiday blues!

Yesterday at work was not nice. Polly, our stalwart Receptionist, is on holiday at the moment so mum, dad and me are doing her job, as well as our own. We were busy (which is a good thing!) but I had a severe case of the post holiday blues and would rather have been anywhere than at work...

We had horrible customers in as well. And not only were they horrible but they were stupid. One customer dared to ask for a cup of hot water, fully intending to make herself a cup of coffee with granules she'd brought in with her! The nerve!!!

I'd been at work since 7.15am as our cleaner was off for the day but when I went to let myself in I realised I didn't have one of the keys (long story...we needed a new lock on the door and mum and dad had borrowed mine to get new ones cut). I won't repeat what I said as I drove to mum and dad's house to get mine back...

Then we had a group of people who just did not want to leave at 6.30pm last night and all I wanted to do was go home...arrggggh!! On the way - when Soph and I eventually left - we fantasised about what we'd do if I'd won the Euromillions (I hadn't checked). Top of the list was not going into work today!!

I won £2.60 - I had two numbers. Not quite enough to retire yet!

Ouch!

I took my car into the garage this morning for an MOT and to find out what all the warning messages were that kept flashing up...oh, and the groaning noise it makes when I turn the wheel to the right...

At 5pm I called the garage and was informed of the long list of things that had been done and that I had to have two new tyres fitted before it would pass its MOT. Grrrr! Mum and Dad dropped me off and I picked up the bill for the repairs - a shade under £300... Then there's the tyres tomorrow, plus the MOT bill...

I've put three lines on the Euromillions tonight...please let me win!!!

Monday 9 May - Calamity Jane strikes again!

We had to strip the floor again at work on Monday, a job we all hate! I was the one using the buffing machine and did as I always do, attached the pad to the bottom and flicked the switch to turn it on. The pad should then spin into place and fit snugly into the grooves, but this time it didn't - it got firmly stuck. Of course, I wasn't the most popular person around and it eventually took three men (our neighbour happened to be passing by and our handyman was in) to get it removed and back in place correctly...

I was much happier when I got home in the evening and sat and watched The King's Speech which had arrived from Amazon that morning. It was a fantastic film!

Family research

Last night, after dinner, I did a bit of research into The Ship Inn in Southfleet and discovered that one of my family - my Great Grandfather's brother, William - ran the pub in the late 19th century. He was listed as Landlord in 1858 and 1862. This morning I looked into him a bit more and found out that his wife Catherine was born in Guernsey and that he died at the very young age of 43 in 1864. Catherine then married a man called William Mitchell and ran the pub with him. He was 22 years younger than her!

I find it all completely fascinating and would like to go back and see if the present Landlord has any more information. No wonder I liked the pub yesterday!

In the afternoon Mum, Soph and me went to the cinema to see Something Borrowed, the film of the book I've just finished reading. It was very good and stayed faithful to the novel which was great. I hate it when you see a film after reading the book and it's completely different.

The weather has been dry today after the torrential rain we had last night. The garden is looking much better after its drink and I'm just grateful it's sunny as we're barbecuing again tonight!

Wandering around graveyards again!

Mum and I went down to Kent again today to see Nan as I haven't seen her for ages. We had lunch and then went for a drive to Swanscombe to see if I could find the graves of my great-grandparents. We'd been told to turn left when we entered the graveyard but it took us ages to find them and I was on the point of giving up. It was great to find the grave which was a bit over-grown so the next time we go down we'll take some flowers and tidy the plot up. The grave contained my great-grandparents and their son Harold who had Downs Syndrome and died when he was 47 years old.

After visiting the graveyard we drove back to Southfleet, the village where a lot of my mum's relations come from. We parked in the car park of The Ship Inn and went inside for a drink and I discovered that part of the pub was built in 1385 so my relations must have used it at one time or other in the past! There was a fete going on in the village and when mum and I went for a wander around the graveyard we could hear someone doing a very bad impression of a U2 song! Not the sort of thing I expected in such a quiet little village!