A lovely day in London!

Sophie had an appointment with Dr Bawa in London today but it wasn't until 3pm so we had plenty of time to get to London on the train and have a leisurely morning.

Keith dropped us off at the station, and we had a coffee and pastry in the little cafe on the ground floor. They have a Hogwarts theme there, which is a bit strange, but the coffee is good! We caught the 10am train and arrived in Euston at about 11am. Sophie booked an Uber which arrived immediately. 

The taxi dropped us off in Marylebone High Street, and before going to Le Pain Quotidien for coffee, we had a browse around a fantastic delicatessen. The smells were gorgeous! Sophie took some photos:

There was an enormous amount of food and drink to choose from, all of it looking delicious! The prices were very steep, though! After browsing we walked the short distance to Le Pain Quotidien and sat by the window. I didn't fancy another coffee so I chose a raspberry, apple and banana smoothie while Sophie opted for a Jasmine tea. All very healthy!

Outside, it clouded over and began to rain. One poor woman was sitting right outside and rather than come in she stuck it out! I'm sure she must have got a little bit wet!

Once the rain had stopped we wandered down the High Street, and we found the most comprehensive bookshop I've ever been into - Daunt Books - which was spread out on three floors and must have had every book ever written! We spent a very happy half hour wandering up and down the shelves and marvelling at everything!

As well as looking at the books, we popped into two charity shops and I bought a metallic poster of a glamorous woman holding a wine glass, with the words "Life's too short to drink cheap wine." It was only £4 but I thought it would look good in the kitchen as it was mainly pink.

We spent the next hour wandering the back streets and seeing lots of lovely restaurants with people having lunch. Sophie spotted L'Entrecote, a restaurant that just served steak and unlimited French fries! Next time we're in London we're going to try it!

We took a meandering route back to Marylebone High Street and saw some lovely little houses tucked away down the side streets. I bet they didn't have lovely little prices to match! We arrived at Côte Brasserie just before our booking at 1pm, and although I really wanted to sit outside, the maitre d' suggested we sit inside as it was due to rain.

We took our seats at the back of the restaurant in a booth and studied both the à la carte menu and the prix fixe choices, eventually opting for the mushrooms on toast, followed by the minute steak and French fries. We ordered a bottle of French Merlot to go with our meal and a bottle of sparkling water.

The meal was delicious and the mushrooms on toast heavenly, accompanied by a perfectly poached egg on top. The steak was tender and very garlicky and the chips lovely and crunchy!

Absolutely delicious!

We found room for pudding - a plum clafoutis for me, and chocolate mousse for Sophie. What a lovely meal it was, and the service was brilliant.

Puds

After the meal, we waddled off down to Harley Street to see Dr Bawa for our 3pm appointment. Sophie wasn't with him for long and he injected some botox into the area above her lips and her cheek. She had begun to see a change again, and these injections would last until next February.

We hailed a taxi outside the clinic and very soon we were back at Euston, taking the 4pm train back to Northampton. When we took our seats we both realised that we had left my poster behind in the restaurant! I'm glad it only cost me £4! The train was packed as it was going on to Birmingham, and Keith picked us up just before 5pm.

Back home it was time to relax, and we sat at the island and told Keith all about our day, nibbling on some crisps and sharing a bottle of red wine that I'd bought in Waitrose. Sophie wasn't hungry at all but Keith and I enjoyed some oatcakes and cheese. We'd had a super day but both of us were very tired. Back to work tomorrow!

A soporific afternoon.

I spent another day dealing with multiple email enquiries but I wasn't as busy as yesterday. It felt warm today and in the afternoon the time really dragged! All of us in the office remarked on how slow it was going!

This evening Keith was out watching football and Sophie and I had asked him to get us a Tesco Finest meal for our dinner. He'd chosen a chicken dish with a mushroom sauce, roasted potatoes with thyme and gooey puds. With the Chardonnay that came with the meal deal, we had a delicious, and very easy, dinner.

After we'd eaten we watched Fake or Fortune and this week the painter in question was Alfred Sisley. An American couple had bought the painting for about $2500 and if it was real, it would easily have been worth over two hundred thousand. It had already been looked at and pronounced a fake, and after lots of investigations and forensic examinations, they refused to say it was real the second time around. Consequently, it was worth about £1000 at the most and was perhaps the work of a faker. This is a great programme as we both find it fascinating and we veer from one decision to another! What struck us about tonight's episode is that Fiona Bruce wore the same denim jumpsuit in every scene!

Busy Monday!

We sold another item on eBay late last night and we needed a box to put the item in, a pair of old binoculars that we haven't used for years. I just didn't have the inclination or energy first thing this morning to do them up, and the man buying them had asked us to use lots of bubble wrap to keep them safe. I asked Sophie to try and find a box at work and added the wrapping to the shopping list for Keith to get!

I felt exhausted this morning... this holiday cannot come soon enough! It is now so dark in the mornings and I think the sun rises as Sophie goes to work!

I was off the phones today and looking after the customer service emails, as well as our contact centre emails, so I was very busy indeed. Things have certainly quietened down now with the phones and I think most children have either gone back to school or are returning this week.

After work, I popped to the post office with loads of parcels and it was great to offload them all! I think there is another strike this week so I'm hoping they'll get to their destinations in good time!

A quiet Sunday

After yesterday's activity, today has been quieter and I didn't leave the house at all. We enjoyed breakfast of pains au chocolate and coffee and then pottered about all morning keeping an eye on our eBay items that were due to be sold. We are back in London next week and it would be great to have enough to pay for lunch in Cote Brasserie! We also boxed up a pair of Mike's shoes that he'd left behind and I paid online for postage for them. Keith had suggested driving down to Southampton to take them to him personally, but the postage was a little bit cheaper!

Sophie and I had leftover stroganoff for lunch, and it was even better the second time around! She prepared dinner for this evening - a Gino D'Acampo chicken dish with pearl barley that sounded delicious. Sitting at the kitchen island with her was lovely while she chopped all the ingredients and prepared the meal.

I spent the afternoon doing some more transcribing of a Greek holiday diary and sorting through the photographs. It was quite poignant seeing how young we all were, and my parents looked particularly fit and healthy twenty years ago. How time changes everything...

As per usual we played Scrabble in the evening once Sophie had done some preparations for the dinner and popped it in the oven. It was a huge success and Keith loved the pearl barley! I think it reminded him of his childhood meals!

Getting ready...

Once Sophie had gone to the gym this morning, I started on my list of things we needed to do for the holiday. I was still a bit confused about the covid rules for France and Spain, and learnt that we needed a vaccine pass for Spain, but nothing at all for France!

I duly downloaded our covid passes (Keith has a paper one as he doesn't have a smartphone) and we also printed off the ferry booking confirmations and the hotel booking for Auxerre. I also looked up the rules for driving in France and Spain and learnt that we need two warning triangles for Spain! We also need to take a copy of our insurance policy and the logbook for the car! Phew! Who said it was a good idea to drive rather than fly?! One thing had been worrying me and it was the "Crit'Air" sticker that you need to drive in some of France's big cities. When we went to Berlin years ago we had to order one, but as we're not going near Paris, I'm going to hope that we won't need it! 

In between all this, I did mounds of washing and stripped the spare bed. When I had made it up again I took photos for Sheila to show her how the cushions looked against the headboard:

Sophie hoovered for me and mopped the kitchen floor so we had a very productive day. It was also lovely to look on Google Street View at Auxerre and discover where the hotel is and the restaurants nearby.

Keith went to see Sileby play and Sophie painted my toenails for me, which was lovely. We played Scrabble and I thrashed Sophie! That doesn't happen very often! As we were having beef stroganoff for dinner, we drank red wine. We opened a new wine from Aldi but Sophie wasn't keen so she opened the red we bought in Mallorca last December. We're hoping to bring back a fair amount of wine from Spain but we're not sure whether we'll be able to buy this particular wine - it was delicious!

The Mallorcan wine is on the left - we loved the label!

Keith cooked a delicious dinner and after we'd eaten we watched The Martian starring Matt Damon. It was a long film so a rather late night!

Friday again! Yippee!

Today has been busy, and it was just Kathy and me answering the phones. I tried to get some customer service emails answered in between calls so the time flew by! For the next two weeks, I am mostly off the phone, which is a huge bonus and will let me concentrate on customer service completely. 

Sophie also finished work at 4pm today and was home before me as I'd called to get diesel. We cracked open a bottle of wine at about 5.30pm and decided to watch a cheesy romcom on Netflix called Love In The Villa. It was enjoyable, though, and the setting in Italy's Verona was lovely!

Keith went to the pub and we shoved some Tesco curries in the oven for dinner. Friday night meals have to be easy so they don't get in the way of the wine drinking and film watching!

Out for tea!

I was busy at work today, helping Sara with the customer service emails, some of which were very moany. We are also, worryingly, getting more and more cancellations, with members citing the cost of living as a reason to stop going to the gym. As our rates are very reasonable, it is a good snapshot of what's affecting people at the moment.

At 2pm I headed home and looked forward to an afternoon with the family as Sophie was finishing work at the same time. We'd planned on going for a cup of tea at Farndon Fields and Keith came along as well, which was a bonus!

We were seated immediately in the garden which was lovely as the temperature was perfect. We all chose tea, Keith and I had scones while Sophie had a huge slab of lemon drizzle cake.

It was a gorgeous, early Autumn afternoon and it was pure bliss to be able to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine and warm temperatures.

We enjoyed our refreshments and then had a look around the shop. I bought some Italian pastries for Sheila and her husband to say thank you for helping me with the car and also for the cushions she'd made for me using the same fabric as the spare bed headboard. They were lovely!

In the evening Sophie went out for a meal with Laura to the pub in Yardley Hastings while Keith and I had a naughty tea of sausage, egg and chips! We don't have it very often, but we enjoy it when we do!

He stayed downstairs to watch the football while I went upstairs and watched several episodes of Help! We Bought a Village. Sophie arrived home at about 10.30pm so it was straight to bed. Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday again!