Good news at last!

We woke up to a very light covering of snow this morning, but it soon disappeared. It remained cold all day, though, with a freezing wind. How unbelievable that we were sweating last week, and sitting in the warm sunshine on Sunday!

I have today and tomorrow off work, and first thing this morning, Keith and I contacted Anthony from Highfields about the quotes he'd sent through. Keith was confused as to why he'd quoted for the kitchen twice, and said it looked like we'd be paying VAT twice. Once is bad enough!

Anthony explained the quotes, and the total price the building firm quoted is for everything and includes all the appliances, the new external kitchen door, the new window... all of it! I said to Keith that I would love a stable door as then we can have the top half open in the summer and it would bring more light and fresh air into the kitchen. It's slightly more expensive than the door they have quoted, but I think it will be worth it. Anthony is coming over to us next Wednesday to discuss further and we have said we'd be delighted to go ahead with the work. We are so pleased! We now just need to choose the tiles and a new fridge freezer. Before the work starts we're going to have a ruthless cull of the stuff on the shelves and in the cabinet!

After speaking to Anthony, I busied myself by doing the shopping list, cleaning the kitchen window and the windowsill, and pottering about. Once we'd picked up Mike from work, I went out into the garden and planted the violas that I'd bought on Monday. It was still very cold outside, but I soon warmed up by shovelling compost into pots, and carrying them around the garden!

Back to work...

I have to confess I'd been dreading going back to work, as last time we were inundated with problems. I was working 10am until 4pm with Jo and Denise, but at least we weren't answering calls, and we could wear whatever we wanted as there were no customers in the building!

It took all three of us a while to get going on the computers again, as our passwords had expired, and there were some changes to our email system which took some getting used to! It was very strange seeing invoices I'd processed back in December - the last time I worked had been the 29th!

Once we had explored the changes, Sara gave us a list of people to call, all of whom had been old members. We had some offers on memberships, but none of us managed to sign anyone up today. I think people are still a bit cautious about joining a gym, even though we were offering memberships with a short commitment.

It certainly wasn't as bad as I'd feared it would be and it was lovely to be back with my work colleagues and the atmosphere was very relaxed.

During the day we had seen some more light snow flurries, but driving home it started to come down quite hard. At one point on the journey, I saw what looked like a blizzard in the distance, and as I neared home it was quite bad!

At home, Keith had checked my emails and had seen one from the kitchen designer, with a quote for all the building work attached. It came in at a shade under £30,000 which was a bit more than we wanted to pay. The appliances were over £3,000 so we will have to look elsewhere for them! As I subscribe to Which? I can look on their website for reviews, and appliances that are good value for money.

Sophie arrived home from work and I was glad that she was not still travelling, as the snow started to come down pretty heavily!

A quarter of a century!

Day 91

We let Sophie have a lovely lie-in this morning and when she woke up, she opened her cards and presents for her 25th birthday. I think she did very well, receiving a bottle of spiced rum and an ASOS voucher from Keith and me, Champagne from my parents, Honey Bourbon and Prosecco from Mike, and some beautiful glasses from her new manager at work. Is there a theme going on here?!

To our amazement this morning, it started to snow! Very light flurries, but unmistakably snow! It has snowed before on Sophie's birthday, but thinking back to last year when it was so warm and sunny, it was amazing to see!

After a lazy morning, Sophie and I drove over to Milton Keynes to take two boxes of recycling. From there we visited M&S in the main shopping mall to get something for dinner this evening. We had originally planned on going to the coast for fish and chips, but with the weather being so cold, and very windy by the seaside, we'd changed our plans.

M&S was quiet and we were surprised to see that you could shop for clothes, as well as visit the food hall. We trawled up and down the aisles, very conscious of the time we had in the car park, trying to get some inspiration for dinner this evening! M&S were doing an Easter meal for four, but Sophie wasn't impressed, so in the end, we decided to leave it and shop nearer to home later in the day.

From Milton Keynes, we drove to Woburn where we hoped we'd be able to get a coffee and some treats from the only teashop that was doing takeaways. However, when we arrived, to our dismay, we found the car park all shut up... why? What difference could it possibly make? A lot of people were still visiting the lovely little town and walking about in the sunshine (the snow had long gone) so there was obviously a demand for the car park to be open!

We carried on and decided to go and see the deer in the grounds surrounding Woburn Abbey. However, today, there was not one to be seen for miles... it was beginning to be that sort of day! Giving up on Woburn we drove to Olney where we knew there was a Costa open, if nothing else! We managed to park right outside the small Tesco Express and, at last, found something for dinner this evening - two Tesco Finest meals of chicken Kiev, and chicken in a mushroom sauce. We padded the meals out with more vegetables, and headed to the self-service till where everything we put through caused the machine to call for assistance! As there were hardly any staff about, this was a pain and in the end, we had to go through another checkout. By now, we were almost gibbering with rage and definitely needed some sustenance! A large Vodka would have been nice!

We did manage to get a coffee and a toastie in Costa and enjoyed them sitting in the car. Outside, the weather was still beautiful and sunny, and a lot of people were strolling about and enjoying the gorgeous conditions. It was such a shame that hardly anything was open!

I suggested to Sophie that we call into the shopping yard at Castle Ashby on the way home, and I'd treat her to a birthday ice cream, but when we arrived the deli was closed! Sophie ran to the loos but emerged seconds later to say there was no toilet paper! We were now starting to get thoroughly fed up and it wasn't really the sort of day we'd had planned for her birthday!

We did, however, buy an ice cream at Beckworth, and amazingly we arrived there literally ten minutes before they closed for the day. At least we got that right!

Sunday sunshine!

Day 90

Today has been beautiful, and so sunny and warm we sat in the garden for most of the afternoon! I didn't think it was going to be like this, so it was an unexpected bonus!

Sophie did all the preparations for dinner this morning, and soon the house was smelling of roasted coconut, in readiness for our Malaysian curry this evening. While she did that I hoovered downstairs and did a light clean, but the weather was pulling me outside! 

I went out and raked up the remainder of the branches from the Virginia creeper, and also raked up lots of leaves. I then pottered about, making a little "pond" for the birds with a large plastic tub and filling it with some pebbles. Sophie came out to join me and did a yoga session on a towel on the lawn. Monty, of course, thought this was for him and promptly sat on it, impeding Sophie's movements!

The robin was out with us a lot of the time, singing his little heart out in the trees, and watching us carefully in case we unearthed any worms! It was wonderful to sit with the sun on our faces and feel the warmth. The forecast is still set to be very cold tomorrow, so this is obviously just a brief interlude!

Towards the late afternoon, we started Sophie's birthday celebrations. She opened the bottle of Taittinger I'd bought her for Christmas, and we had a glass while playing Scrabble.

We also nibbled on some cheesy crackers, mozzarella, olives, stuffed peppers and feta cheese.

Just after we started our second game of Scrabble (Sophie beat Keith and me the first time) we decided to begin cooking dinner. We assembled all the ingredients and then the curry needed to be simmered for about forty minutes. Unfortunately, even after leaving the casserole dish on the hob for about ten minutes, the bottom caught and burnt a bit. We transferred it to a small gas ring and turned it right down, but Sophie was upset that the bottom was a bit black. It still tasted lovely, but in future, we'll stay with it and not get distracted by Scrabble!

After eating we watched Spectre and enjoyed the chocolate bread and butter pudding I'd made yesterday. It was gooey and delicious!

A little joke...

Day 89

Keith and I both urged Sophie to wear something warm today as it's been cold and grey for most of the time. She had high hopes that it would warm up, though, and wore a pretty dress with her suede jacket, tights and boots. We dropped her down at the station at about 8.30am, due to there only being two trains this morning, and the later one wouldn't get to Euston until lunchtime.

We returned home, and after breakfast, I made a chocolate bread and butter pudding for tomorrow evening's dessert. The grey gloom did lift in the afternoon and the sun came out, and at 3.30pm I was back at the care home and facing another test so I could sit with my parents for half an hour. At least this time I knew what to expect and how to complete the test!

Unfortunately, it wasn't the best meeting I've had with them both, as my Mum was obviously still not happy about living in the care home, and although I tried to lighten the conversation a bit, it was hard work. I can't imagine how she must feel, but I don't have any answers at the moment. Hopefully, when things return to normal I can take her out regularly and we can take some of her furniture into their rooms.

As a kind of belated April Fool's joke, I showed them a photo of Sophie on my phone, saying she'd had some cosmetic work done to her face:

The look of horror on their faces was priceless, and I let them believe she'd actually had work done to her lips and fillers in her cheeks! However, she had used an app on her phone to make her look like she'd had the work done, and I think they were mightily relieved when I revealed it was just a joke! I do find it incredible that some people go to these extremes, though!

Back home I mooched about feeling a bit down after the meeting with my parents, and Sophie texted me to say she was getting the 5.30pm train home, which meant she'd be back into Northampton at 7pm. We went to get her, and I was relieved when she was home. She'd had a good day but had felt cold, and was disappointed that at Borough Market there was nowhere to sit and eat outside as all the benches had been removed. She had received lots of gifts from Zain, though, and they'd had some delicious things to eat so it wasn't all bad.

We sat and relaxed with a drink, and then had a light evening meal of cold meats, salad and new potatoes. It was too late to watch a film after we'd eaten so we had a gradual wind-down until bedtime!

A Good Friday!

Day 88

I had a lie-in this morning, and woke up at about 8am, so a lot better than normal when I've woken just after 6am! As per the forecast, the weather has been mostly grey and chilly all day, with just the occasional glimpse of sunshine. 

We haven't ventured anywhere today and it's been lovely and relaxing, just as I hoped! It was bliss to mooch about and not have to go out but we kept thinking today was Saturday!

For lunch, Sophie and I had the leftover red pepper and tomato soup which we used as a sauce to go with some pappardelle pasta. Sophie had taken two mugs to work, but there was still plenty leftover and it was great to finish it up with the pasta.

After we'd eaten we had a facemask, a brightening one this week, all ready for Sophie to go to London tomorrow to see Zain. They aren't able to go inside anywhere, so will be relying on eating their way around both Camden and Borough markets! I just hope the weather warms up a bit, but we have a 50% chance of sleet and snow showers here on Easter Monday! Brrr!

I had a lovely hot bath in the evening, and at 6pm it was time for Prosecco and an excellent documentary about Doris Day. Keith cooked fish and chips for dinner - what else on Good Friday? - and then we enjoyed Masterchef. Both of us think the series has been shortened this year, probably due to the pandemic!

Revised plans.

Day 87

Today has been another, very busy day. I am looking forward to a bit of a break over Easter! I was forced to go shopping with Keith this morning as I needed to get Easter gifts from my parents for the children (and me!), and gifts for Sophie whose birthday is on Monday. This year her special day has coincided with Easter, as it tends to do most years!

We went shopping a bit later than Keith normally goes, and both supermarkets were busy. We met my old work colleague Lisa (after-school club) in Aldi, with her daughter Syd, so it was great to stop and have a quick chat with them. Syd starts secondary school in September, which I found unbelievable! How the years have flown by!

Keith and I separated in Tesco, and I bought Easter Eggs, presents for Sophie and greetings cards. The choice of Easter Eggs was staggering, and the aisle made my head spin! As well as buying different things for different people, I helped Keith find the ingredients for a meal we're cooking on Sunday evening. We eventually found desiccated coconut, but we had to search high and low! I now know how he feels when we give him weird and wonderful ingredients to find!

After shopping, we put some diesel in the car and sped home, only to realise that we had less than an hour to put everything away, and have some breakfast because we had an appointment at Benchmarx Kitchens at 12pm! We literally threw all the shopping in the cupboards and into the fridge, made tea and coffee and wolfed down some toasted hot cross buns!

We left a little earlier than we needed to, and we were glad we did as there were long queues at Brixworth tip. There must have been twenty cars waiting to go in so I should think they'd be waiting an hour or more to dump their unwanted stuff! It made overtaking the whole line of traffic quite dangerous, but luckily an oncoming car let us through! I made a mental note not to go that way home!

We arrived at Benchmarx Kitchens with fifteen minutes to spare and there were no parking spaces at all. I drove on and then turned around, and when we came back we were lucky to squeeze into a space. Perhaps the Greggs outlet opposite had something to do with the popularity of the place!

We had a little delay before we were allowed in, and while we waited I looked at the cabinet doors. The colour we had originally chosen looked horrible - it was a dirty grey, so we discussed the possibility of the midnight blue instead.

With Danny the kitchen designer, and Andrew from Highfields, we revised the design of the kitchen to our satisfaction. We have added glass-fronted cupboards on either side of the plinth on the wall by the existing window and changed the island so we have a stool at one end and another "kitty-corner", with more storage underneath. Danny changed the colour as well, so we have the midnight blue cabinets with a white marble-ish worktop and nickel handles. Keith and I were very pleased, and they said they'd have the updated design and costings with us by next Wednesday.

In the meantime, we will look at fridge-freezers, and prices for the washing machine and dishwasher. Highfields will supply Bosch appliances, but I want to make sure we get good value with these so I'll be doing some research!

We dashed home, did some tidying up, and then it was time to go and get Mike. The golf club car park was packed with cars but we managed to bag a space opposite the putting green. so at least we had a view!

Both Mike and Sophie are off for four days over the weekend so at least we have a break! After playing cards for an hour, Sophie and Keith cooked paella, which was delicious. I'm looking forward to having a lie-in tomorrow, but I have a feeling I'll be awake early as usual!