Broken toe?

Sophie badly stubbed her littlest toe on her right foot this morning on the bookcase on the landing, and looks like she may have broken it. She was in agony but still insisted on going to uni even though she was hobbling about, poor thing!

Keith and I drove Mike to college and came home to find her almost in tears with her toe looking very swollen. I advised her to take some painkillers but our plans to go to Market Harborough this afternoon look in jeopardy!

While Sophie was at uni for just an hour and a half this morning, Keith and I went to do the weekly shop in Aldi. First, though, we went to Costa Coffee next to Waitrose and had a very pleasant half hour drinking Flat Whites and chatting. Aldi was very busy but we were still all done with twenty minutes to spare. We sat and waited for Sophie who came limping along slowly but said she still wanted to go out.

After putting all the shopping away we drove to Market Harborough and we were surprised to see it so busy...then it dawned on me - Leicestershire schools break up for the October half-term a week before Northamptonshire and today must be a training day as there were lots of children about. I can't believe that half term is coming up so quickly and I think I'm in denial that it's actually October!

We decided to have a treat and went to Pizza Express for lunch. We chose the dough balls with dips to start followed by a Pepperoni pizza. We were very good as well and drank a bottle of sparkling water rather than wine!

We looked around the shops and Sophie bought a lovely hat and scarf in Accessorize which will be perfect for Berlin and New York. By the time we'd finished in there, she'd had enough of walking around and I could see that her toe was beginning to bruise, so we headed home. When she took her shoes off her toe looked like a little fat sausage and the bruise had spread to her foot. Ouch! I don't think she'll be going to work tomorrow!

Making tracks...

Early this morning Keith and Sophie went for a walk while I dropped Mike off at college. I picked up my daughter and husband on the way home at Pitsford and both of them were quite sweaty! They'd had a good walk in a really quick time.

After taking Sophie to uni I came home and got ready to go gardening with Sue in the afternoon. We were at two houses in Brixworth today and as Sue had a load of gravel in her car I drove myself. We put a layer of sheeting and the gravel down over a small area that had been used as a kind of earthy path but the weeds had kept coming through all the time. When we finished it looked really good and seemed as if it had been there forever. Sue had bought the gravel from a local man for £1 a bag so that was a bargain!

The little cat stayed with us again all the time we were there and decided to sit on my kneeling mat! He really is very sweet and it was great having him with us. After we'd finished in the garden we went to another house, this time with a much smaller garden but with a lot to be done. It belonged to a friend of Sue's who wanted a large bush cutting down. My job was to gather all the branches and take them out to the front of the house and put them in a huge builder's bag, ready to go to the tip. It was hard work, let me tell you! When this had been done, Sue carried on with the choppers and her electric hedge cutter and made her way around the garden pruning everything in sight...I've renamed her Slasher Sue!

We filled the huge builder's bag, the garden wheelie bin and about four other bags and went to the tip after we'd finished. I helped Sue unload all the waste and then drove off to get Sophie from uni. Back home we sat in the conservatory and drank the tea I'd made to take with me but hadn't had time to drink!

After a delicious dinner of grilled pork chops and baked potatoes with a pepper sauce, we settled down to watch the last episode of the Hairy Bikers who were back in the UK and preparing some lovely dishes, including Jerk Chicken. I now have their cookbook from the series and can't wait to try out the recipes!

Changes are afoot!

Unusually, Sophie was at uni today and was starting at 9am so, as Mike was also at college and starting at nine, I said I would drop her off on the way to my stint at the Citizen's Advice Bureau. We left at 7.45am and made very good time. I was parking a good fifteen minutes earlier than usual so I had time to sit in Caffe Nero with a coffee and a chocolate twist!

When my shift started I turned on the main computer to find it wouldn't work. As this tells us who we have waiting and for how long, this was a bit disconcerting! When Gill arrived she said that we were no longer going to be using this "Q-flow" system as we had no control over it and couldn't turn it off when we were really busy. From now on (or until the end of October) we were going to be giving the clients a number. This meant that we had to keep going out into the waiting room to ask if anybody was waiting to see us, which made things a bit difficult!

Hadeer came in to work with me today so at least I had some support and we worked together very well. It also meant she could cover for Gill and Priya when they took their lunch. It was a steady day today and didn't really get manic at all, which was a relief! We were finished at 3pm and I walked up to the car park with Gill and Priya and then drove to pick up Sophie from uni.

Mum and Dad came around for a glass of wine in the evening and went to have a look at the en-suite which they hadn't seen since it was finished. They were impressed but I do need some pictures on the walls now to completely finish it off. We had a good chat over a bottle of Chilean Merlot and discussed Christmas plans...it's only ten weeks away!

After they'd gone we realised we had no prawn crackers to go with our dinner of chicken in a black bean sauce so Keith had to drive us to the Brixworth Co-op to buy some. I hadn't high hopes they had any in the shop but they did...hooray!

Scary spiders!

This morning I caught a large spider climbing up the stairs - it was the same one from last night that had nearly climbed onto my shoulder when I was relaxing on the sofa! Sophie had thankfully spotted it and the look of horror on her face was a sight to see! I screamed and it scuttled off behind the sofa but it really unsettled me for the rest of the evening! I went to bed expecting to see it in the bedroom, so it was a relief to find it this morning and take it outside, well away from the house!

Keith, Mike and I went over to Mum's house this morning as she wanted the men to move a chair out of their study as they're decorating the room and having a carpet laid. Keith and Mike really struggled with the chair but eventually they managed to get it into Mum and Dad's bedroom. I'm not sure they'll ever get it out again!

In the evening we had a parents' evening at the college for Mike and he took us up to one of the classrooms which was full of Apple screens and keyboards. I was really impressed with the facilities at the college and everything was so modern and new. At the front of the class was a huge screen and when Mike's teacher came in she showed us a short film they'd all made when they went to the Sky studios a few weeks back. Mike was the cameraman so we didn't get to see him, but it was a good film and looked very professional!

After watching the film we had a good chat with his teacher, Hannah, who said he was doing well and that his first assignment was due this week. Each assignment goes towards his final grade so is very important!

We were finished at the college a lot earlier than we'd anticipated but we'd decided to have a fish and chip supper and called into Broughton on the way home. It was a gorgeous evening and the sun was just setting which made the sky a mix of blues, pinks and peaches. Beautiful!

Season of mists...

As it was such a beautiful day again, Sophie, Keith and I decided to go for a walk at 8am. The roads were full of people hurtling off to work but we walked into the village and down the stony track to the Nature Reserve. It was a gorgeous morning with a slight mist over the fields.

We walked for an hour and then it was home to a quick breakfast before I asked Keith to put up the new  hooks on the en-suite bathroom door. He had a real job with them and there was a lot of cursing as he was doing it. I stayed with him in case he needed help but I managed to clear out my wardrobe of summer clothes and have a clear out of stuff I no longer wanted, which made me feel good!

I cleaned the rest of the upstairs and then it was time to take Sophie to uni. On the way we called in at the tip as we had a load of old cardboard boxes and some plastic tubs that we couldn't really put out for the weekly recycling. It does feel good to have a clear-out!

After dropping Sophie off at uni we popped into Aldi to do some more shopping and then headed to B&Q as we needed a  new deadlock for the front door. I was fed up with having to manually lock the door as the deadlock had broken some weeks back. These little jobs all need doing! B&Q had sent us a voucher for all the hassle we'd had with the en-suite bathroom so we used some of it to buy the new lock.

Once back at home we just had time for lunch and for Keith to fit the lock before it was time to get Sophie again. Mike was busy doing his assignment so that was great. He even cleaned and hoovered his room! Wonders will never cease!

Sophie wanted to go to the bank so we drove over to our favourite place, the Weston Favell Centre, and Sophie transferred some money from her savings account to her current account as she had to pay the remainder of her balance for next January's trip to New York. She's very excited about going again!

The glorious weather of this morning disappeared this afternoon to be replaced by heavy rain. It was certainly much colder...Autumn is definitely here!

A great find!

We awoke to beautiful blue skies and sunshine this morning and Sophie and Keith decided to go for a long walk. I dropped them off at Pitsford and then headed home to clean the downstairs of the house and prepare the veggies for dinner tonight.

I felt a bit left out as everyone seemed to be out walking and enjoying the sunshine, but someone has to do the cleaning and I didn't fancy spending the rest of the day doing it after we'd been for a walk! I went and picked Keith and Sophie up and then it was time for a late breakfast in the conservatory.

Sophie and I went out in the afternoon to Olney but the small town isn't the place it used to be on a Sunday when there were lots of little antique shops to browse in. Admittedly, we arrived there quite late but the few shops that were still open were in the process of shutting up. We headed for a small cafe situated off a cobbled alley and enjoyed a cup of tea and a hot chocolate. I indulged in a warm blueberry muffin, which was delicious!

We did manage to browse in one shop and spotted some clothes for pets...none of them looked like they would fit Monty, though! I suggested to Sophie that we head to Castle Ashby on the way home and see if the shops there were still open and I'm glad we did as we bought our October candle! The courtyard was open until 5pm but there were very few people about and we were able to get parked right in front of the shops. We spotted the candle heart straight away and it was perfect!

We also had a quick look in the farm shop and I treated myself to some shortcake biscuits that I will enjoy with a cup of tea. We then saw another heart that would have been perfect - a rough wooden candle holder with a heart shaped cut-out on the side but the shop was temporarily closed for a couple of minutes. We hung about and waited and noticed how chilly it was...I think the end is nigh for wearing sandals now!

Unfortunately, the woman running the shop didn't return so we reluctantly left, but decided we would go back and get the heart another day. Once we got home we decided to try and sort Monty out with the cat nappies we'd ordered. They'd been delivered today (along with the Hairy Bikers' book, Chicken and Egg) and as it was getting colder, we thought that when Monty was in the house we could fit the nappies on him so he wouldn't be able to spray.

Needless to say, our efforts weren't that successful! When we did manage to fit the nappy onto him he hated it and kept cocking his leg up as if it was uncomfortable. Somehow, we managed to get Keith to agree to keeping him in, but if he sprays again, that's it!

Not really a good look!

It all ends well!

Sophie really didn't want to go into work today and it made matters worse when we arrived and Maureen's car wasn't in the car park...our fears were confirmed when Sophie called us as we drove home to say that she had called in sick which meant that Sophie was cooking alone.

I was really worried about her as I know what it's like on a Saturday in October, and no doubt they were fully booked with parties. It also started raining mid-morning, which I wasn't expecting, so I was even more worried that she'd been left to cope alone.

To cheer her up when she finished work I made a chocolate bread and butter pudding, but realised I didn't have enough cream! Keith and I had to trek out to Broughton to get it and the weather was appalling. I sent a text to Sophie and she replied by saying that another member of staff had been sent to help out and luckily it was someone who could cook!

Keith and Mike went out in afternoon - Keith to see another local football team play and Mike to a friend's house. I painted our en-suite bathroom door, a chore I'd been putting off for quite a while, but as we needed to put up our new hooks (J&K) it propelled me to do it!

When we collected Sophie from work she was in a better mood than I expected and we had a lovely evening to make up for her stressful day. I'd practised the meal I'm planning on doing for this year's Come Dine With Me, a sausage and caramelised red onion casserole. As soon as we got in from picking Sophie up I started making it as it needed a fair amount of preparation. Sophie kept me company in the kitchen and we opened a bottle of Californian red to drink while we cooked.

After dinner we enjoyed the delicious chocolate bread and butter pudding and watched an old film, Cliffhanger, starring Sylvester Stallone. A lovely end to a somewhat trying day!