A hunt for ingredients!

After last night's jollies I slept in late and didn't wake up until almost 9am! Unheard of!

Keith and I went to Tesco at 10am and bought the ingredients for tonight's dinner - Chicken and Spelt Risotto - plus meals for Monday and Tuesday. The Hairy Bikers' recipe called for Pearled Spelt, but we hunted high and low and had to make do with Pearl Barley instead. We also had to look for dried Shitake mushrooms again (at £2.99 for a 40g pot they are not cheap!) and some herbs such as parsley and sage, as well as Chestnut mushrooms and an Oloroso Sherry!

Keith is out on Tuesday night to see Sileby play so we are planning on cooking Jerk Chicken pasta but again, we couldn't find out usual Jerk paste in Tesco. The bill came to an astonishing £50 for just three meals (plus some beer) but the good thing is that Keith returned an ink cartridge that he'd bought by mistake (we needed black and he bought a colour one) so at least that was £18 credited back to his account!

Back home I discovered that we'd sold some more crystal and of course, I hadn't brought a box home with me! We raided my Christmas decorations stash and put a beautiful fruit bowl into a gift box before wrapping it well! I hate sending fragile items out by mail!

At 2pm Sophie and I drove to Mum's as we had planned on going to Weedon for a cup of tea and a mooch about the shops. I made the mistake of setting the satnav on my phone but she had us heading for the A14 so I turned around and went a better way. The last time we went must have been before Mum and Dad moved house! (I think it was October 2015) We saw that the roadworks by Junction 16 of the M1 still hadn't been finished (A45 link road) and I remember them from last year when I did deliveries for Majestic.

We arrived at about 3pm and headed straight for Darlington's where we ordered pots of tea, slices of cake and a scone for me. Today the weather has been absolutely gorgeous and the conservatory where we were seated was sunny and warm. Long may it continue!

After having something to eat we had a lovely mooch about the shops and noticed that there had been many changes. One shop which used to sell antiques now had other quirky things for sale alongside the older items and it had all been set out beautifully. We eyed up some Christmas decorations, but we bought two in Abraxas which will look perfect on our Scandinavian tree.

We spent a very pleasant hour looking around some other shops before we decided to call it a day. We dropped Mum off and went home via the scenic route, noticing how the Autumn colours are now out in full force.

After relaxing for a while Sophie and I made a start on dinner and I was mightily glad we'd boiled the pearl barley for a while before adding it to the chicken and mushrooms in the pan. It took a long while to cook and become tender! We finally sat down to eat at 8pm and we all agreed it was delicious - the risotto had an earthy flavour due to the mushrooms and the barley and was certainly filling!

A busy day!

Weather-wise, today has been truly horrible, with a steady rainfall and cold temperatures. I'm sure it wasn't supposed to be like this and all plans to go out into the garden and cut back our Virginia Creeper were put on hold!

We had a lazyish morning and at midday Sophie and I went to Jones's to get some bits and bobs we needed. We've had an idea to sell "Mystery" boxes on eBay and we wanted to do a Girls' Night In with some DVDs we no longer wanted as well as some little items we were going to sell along with brand new things that would be perfect for a cosy night in.

We bought some little things that didn't cost a lot and were dismayed to find the wholesaler busy with people Christmas shopping! I just can't look at anything until at least the middle of November...let's get Halloween and Bonfire Night out of the way first!

After Jones's we went to Costa and had a light lunch before popping to Boots. Before we went home we called into Virgin as Sophie wanted to join again, despite her being able to use the gym for free because she's on my staff card at work! I don't blame her, though...the gym is lovely and she can call in on the way home from work.

As she's under 25 she was able to get a discounted membership with just a six month commitment, which I was pleased about. She signed all the paperwork, we declined the show-around as we'd both been members before, and we left to go home.

We discovered, to our delight, that we'd had sensible offers for some of our stuff on eBay so we spent the new hour and a half packaging it all up and buying our postage! I then got ready to go out as we were due at Richard and Michelle's house at 7pm, along with Paul and Sue for our Wine Night.

We had a really lovely evening with delicious food and some wonderful wines. We also laughed a lot, which was great, and did a lot of gossiping, which was naughty! We left at midnight to find Sophie curled up on the sofa with a sleepy Monty. I had eaten too much of Michelle's pasta, salad and crumble dessert so after a quick chat it was definitely time for bed!

A little spat!

Work was very pleasant this morning, right up until about 1.30pm when I was given a job to do by Sara and it all went a little wrong! Why it was given to me and not to Sadie who was at work right up until 8pm, I'll never know. It meant I left without seeing the problem through, which I hate!

I went and collected Mike and as soon as we got home I went out again with Keith to get his prescription from the doc's. There was a big funeral going on in the village and everyone had walked from the church to the cemetery to pay their last respects. I should imagine the pub will be busy tonight!

Back home I caught up with some jobs and awaited Sophie's arrival from work. When she gets home the weekend can begin!

Keith walked down to the pub and Sophie and I enjoyed a glass of wine and 90 Day Fiance, as per our usual Friday evening. However, when I was finishing off the dinner, we had a little spat about politics and I flounced off to get Keith in a huff...not the best way to spend our precious Friday night! We'd made up by bedtime, though, so that was a relief!

Traffic nightmares!

It was horrible, misty and grey this morning and the traffic on the way to work was heavy, with a kind of panic about the way people were driving. I listen to the traffic news on the way in and an accident was mentioned in Moulton which is near to my route. As soon as I got to work I texted Sophie to warn her about the amount of vehicles on the road and I later found out that her and Keith had had a nightmare journey in because of problems everywhere. It set the tone for the day...

Keith took Sophie in as she was going out this evening with her friend Alice who she had met at university. Alice had been on a placement and had returned to Northampton to do her final year at the brand new campus.

Work was OK, but it was busier than Wednesday and people kept annoying me! When I finished at 3pm I went to the post office in the Weston Favell Centre and sent out some items we'd sold on eBay. I then bought ink for the printer and put some petrol in Sophie's car as I'd been using it all week.

It had turned out to be a gorgeous afternoon but I just wanted to get home! I met all the school run traffic so that annoyed me even further! I arrived back at 4pm, just minutes before Keith and I went out again to take Mike to Brixworth and to go and get Sophie and take her into town to meet Alice.

Because the traffic was heavy we were late so when we left, the roads around Sophie's office were gridlocked. I decided (in a moment of madness) to go away from the town to avoid the queues, but we still got stuck near the village of Brafield-on-the Green, which maddened Sophie!

We eventually arrived at Alice's flat at about 5.45pm and headed home. However, we decided to head through Moulton to avoid a problem on the A43 and half way home we discovered the road had been closed, for no apparent reason! We had to double back and go through Overstone because of the problems on the A43. It was a nightmare! We eventually arrived home over two hours later than when we'd started out and we were in no mood to cook liver and bacon which is what we'd planned for tonight!

We had a drink and relaxed for half an hour before eating a corned beef and potato pie that Keith had made earlier in the day. Mike arrived home with Georgia and I don't know whether they were expecting to have dinner with us, but they were disappointed! I felt a bit guilty afterwards but we're going to have to speak to Mike about springing guests on us, especially after such a busy day (and week!).

We went back out to get Sophie at 10.30pm and picked her up in the middle of town. They'd had dinner and been to a Comedy night at a local club that was full of Freshers! I think it's made her even more nostalgic for uni life!

A bit of a tidy up!

Keith took Sophie to work this morning as he had a flu jab booked for 2pm and I needed a car to get Mike. Work for me was very pleasant and we had a young lad training with us so it was good to be able to help him as he answered the calls throughout the morning. There was a great atmosphere today which was a bonus!

After I got back with Mike I decided to tidy up the front garden which was a complete mess. The grass was overgrown, there were dead leaves everywhere and the weeds had taken hold. Keith came out to keep me company and I asked him to try and dig up a shrub that looked messy and horrible. He duly obliged and we discovered the roots were really short. Now we have a nice gap and I'm going to try and re-seed the front verge so the grass looks better. I mowed the verge and swept up all the leaves and weeds and it looked so much better when I'd finished!

I finished at 4.30pm and we dashed off to get Sophie in the rush hour traffic. She was late coming out so we got really stuck and I decided to go home a different way. We still came upon some queues but at least we kept moving!

An early start!

All of us had a very early start this morning as Mike was at work at 6am and Sophie had to be at her manager's house at the same time as they were catching a train from Huntingdon down to Rochester. Gone are the beautiful mornings and the gorgeous sunrises...it's now pitch black at 6am!

I took Sophie to Thrapston while Keith took Mike to work and I was back at home first. I made myself a cup of coffee and got ready for another day of work!

When I picked Mike up we headed to Brixworth as he wanted to go to the Co-op and get himself a sandwich. In the queue he spotted the scratchcards and suggested buying one. I told him to get one with lots of sevens on it and when he asked to buy it, the card cost £5!

I'm not a fan of scratchcards but every now and again (maybe once a year?) it's fun to buy one. There were loads of little games to play and instantly we had won £5 so at least we received our investment back! Mike then carried on and with the last game he thought he'd won £700,000! He nearly collapsed with shock! However, as he scratched away we realised he hadn't so we had to make do with the £5 which he owed to me anyway!

Sophie kept me informed as to where she was and she arrived back in Huntingdon at 6pm. We drove over and picked her up and then headed back for a relaxing dinner and a drink. Phew!

Monday rolls around...

It was back to work today and Keith dropped me off as he had a doc's appointment at 9am. Work was OK and I was kept busy doing a job for Sheila so the time passed very quickly.

At 2pm Keith picked me up and we went to collect Mike. It's been a breezy day today and the leaves are falling fast! After dropping Mike off at home Keith and I went to Tesco to get some shopping for the rest of the week. We hadn't planned what we were having for dinner so we wandered around the supermarket hoping for some inspiration to hit us! Eventually we settled on pork chops for dinner, something that will not go down well with the children, I fear!

After shopping we called to see Mum and Dad for a cup of tea and some delicious biscuits and they were looking really well. Dad pointed out an advert in the paper for a cruise to the Caribbean and San Francisco, which I think they should book. It would do them the world of good and they deserve to get away for a good holiday after all the health troubles they've been experiencing lately!

I cooked dinner tonight, and I have to say it was lovely. We cut up the potatoes into cubes and roasted them in the oven with the chops and I stir-fried some shredded cabbage and spring onions. I'd bought a lemon butter sauce to go with the meal and it all disappeared. It can't have been that bad!