I thrash Sophie!

I was doing an extra shift at work today to cover for a colleague on holiday, so Keith and Sophie dropped me off before going down to Riverside to pick up Olive.

I was dreading the shift, if I was honest, as I had a feeling it would be busy because we had heavy rain and thunderstorms forecast today. However, it was very pleasant indeed, and I worked with Shirley, who is lovely and quiet. The five hours passed quickly, and I managed to get a lot done in between the calls. The weather stayed dry outside, but as I drove home with Sophie at 2pm, it had clouded over.

We had a delicious lunch of ham salad and pootled about for the rest of the afternoon, and it was great to relax after our busy and, at times, stressful week. Sophie read her book in the conservatory and it started raining, followed by a clap of thunder that sent the cats into hiding. They are the original scaredy cats and Gomez wouldn't come out from behind the sofa for ages!

Later in the afternoon, Sophie and I played Scrabble, and after a slow start I thrashed her, getting almost 500 points, which I think is a first for me. She then retaliated by thrashing me at cards! We ordered a Chinese takeaway and after we'd eaten we watched a new crime series set in Germany's Black Forest called, appropriately, The Black Forest Murders. The show brought back memories of when Keith and I visited briefly in the 1980s and went for a drive after dinner at our hotel. It felt quite creepy at times!

Pup tales!

Sophie was working from home again today, and it was great as she heated up my porridge for me so I could just go downstairs and head to work! 

I sat in splendid isolation for an hour before Kathy arrived, not having a clue where Sheila was. Sara was on annual leave, so I was able to get on with my work in peace and quiet! I have to admit to being in a bit of a "moopat" (my word for a grump) at the moment as we are still having issues with our systems, and they're making my job a bit harder than it should be. I wrote down all the issues I'm having and will try and speak to Sara next week to see if we can get them resolved!

Sue brought her puppy, Willow, in again today, and she has certainly grown since the last time I saw her. She bounded about, tail wagging, to the delight of us all, but did a little wee on the carpet, much to Sue's horror and embarrassment! We just all found it funny!

It was bliss to head home and see Sophie, who had also finished at 4pm, and had hoovered and tidied up the house. How lovely! My daughter headed upstairs for a shower, and I watched half an hour of Millionaire Hoarders before it was time to crack open a bottle of wine and wave Keith off to the pub.

We watched a funny film this evening called Housesitter starring the beautiful Goldie Hawn and Steve Martin. Dinner was a delicious, spicy chilli con carne, and Keith disappeared upstairs after we'd eaten to watch cricket. Outside, I was amazed at how light it was and discovered that the full moon is five days away. Sunset at the moment is 9.22pm, and sunrise is 4.43am! Long days!

Annoying niggles

It was Olive's turn to be taken to the garage today, to have her air conditioning looked at, so Keith and Sophie dropped me at work before continuing to Riverside to drop off the keys. Sophie was working from home today, so that helped considerably!

I had a busy, uneventful shift and worked until 2.30pm; the last half hour was spent working to make up for my dental appointment on Monday. The weather has been grey and rainy today, and it doesn't look set to change anytime soon. Back home, I sat with Sophie in the conservatory and read the paper before pootling about, feeling a bit mopey. I honestly can't wait for our holiday in a couple of weeks, but don't want to wish the time away!

Sophie told me that the air conditioning wasn't included in Olive's warranty and she'd been quoted £250 to have it serviced. She was also told that two of the tyres were 75% worn, and the car needed a service. This was, thankfully, included in her plan,  but she was annoyed about the air conditioning. We told her to reject the VW offer, and we'll look somewhere else to have it re-gassed. This comes on top of an annoying situation with a pair of shoes Sophie ordered from ASOS, which were the wrong size. She'd been sent US size 6, not UK size 6, so they were two sizes too small, and ASOS were refusing to send out a replacement pair until she'd sent the wrong ones back. Customer service is severely lacking in some companies!

Essential jobs

The VW was booked in for its holiday service this morning, so we left at 7.45am and drove to Moulton. I swear the potholed road that leads to the garage is getting worse as we were shaken up and down, and side to side! Leaving the car in Glen's capable hands, we then drove through busy rush-hour traffic to Brackmills. We were early, so we had time to indulge in a coffee and pastry at Café 900. A good start to the day!

Saying goodbye to Sophie, Keith and I returned home in Olive and embarked on our chores. Glen called us at about 10.30am to say the VW was ready and it only cost £130, which we were very pleased with. We were expecting much more!

We collected the car and Keith followed me to Brackmills so we could drop off Olive at Sophie's office. Since our journey this morning, three sets of roadworks had popped up, the worst just before the Riverside roundabout, which held me up as I joined the open lane. I saw Keith sailing past me in the soon-to-be-closed lane, and he was forced to wait for me at the office. Grrr!

I spent the afternoon doing more chores: writing the shopping list, making up porridge and vacuuming the downstairs of the house. I had excelled myself this morning by putting the horrible, hairy shower drain in the sink to soak with some bleach. I'm telling you, my excitement knew no bounds!

When Sophie came home, she told us about a visit she'd made to an Escape Room this afternoon, to look at the venue for a possible team day later in the year. She had been shocked by how scruffy and tatty it was, and alarmed at the thought of being locked in a room... the whole point of it! She said that if she'd gone ahead and booked it, she'd have been sacked!

As well as the chores I tackled today, I made a pea and ham soup and a loaf of seeded bread for dinner. The meal was delicious, with both dishes easy to make. There was more than enough left for our lunch on Friday!

Feeling sore

I had to take paracetamol yesterday, and I took some more before I went to bed last night, as my teeth hurt so much! At least I could go to work normally today, though!

I drove myself and had a busy shift dealing with the emails and doing some admin. We had a fair few people in the office, as seems to be usual for a Tuesday, so the noise levels were high at times. When everyone except Nicola and me left at 4pm, it was blissfully quiet!

My teeth were still sensitive today, and biting into the strawberries that Sophie had put in my lunchbox was painful. When I arrived home slightly before my daughter, I noticed she had two boxes from Amazon. In one was her new electric toothbrush. She's determined she's not going to have another experience like yesterday the next time she goes! She had also ordered a water flosser, and when she arrived home, we went upstairs so she could try it. Water sprayed everywhere, so she soon learnt to keep her mouth shut when using it!

Both of us had had a somewhat trying day at work, so it was lovely to relax with a drink and talk about the stresses and strains! Sophie then made a delicious Thai curry for dinner with Basmati rice. The meal was gorgeous!

A nasty experience!

I was dreading this morning because Sophie and I had a dentist appointment - the first for me in eight years, which I can hardly believe! How had it been so long? It didn't help that my lovely dentist, Mr Robertson, had retired in 2016 (or maybe 2017?), and I hated his replacement, who gave me my first ever filling. I refused to go back to him, and then covid struck. We hadn't been able to register with an NHS dentist, so we've had to take out a dental plan and go private.

Not only was I dreading the dentist, but I was also worried that there was something seriously wrong with my teeth. Every morning in Mallorca, I would wake up and feel like someone had taken out all my teeth and rearranged them. It was horrible, and I must have been grinding my teeth while asleep. Luckily, that has stopped, but it didn't prevent me from absolutely dreading our appointment.

We left early and managed to park right outside the surgery, which was a bonus. Waiting to go in was horrible, and I wished that the whole experience was over and I could go to work and be normal! We were both able to go together, and the dentist seemed lovely and chatty, and his nurse was friendly and caring. I went first and lay in the chair, feeling tense and scared!

He had a good look first and poked about and then, without warning, stuck a plate on one side of my mouth to take an X-ray. I was not expecting that! Everyone had to leave the room, and when he came back in, he stuck it in the other side of my mouth. This made me gag, and I honestly didn't think I could go through with it again, but I had to!

Then he said that, miraculously, everything was fine with my teeth, but they needed a good clean. I knew they did! He said he could do it right away, but I was reluctant as I hadn't expected that and needed to psyche myself up! Even when I used to go regularly, I hated it! However, Sophie was keen to have her teeth cleaned, so I reluctantly agreed. It was one of the worst experiences I've ever had! Cleaning away eight years of plaque was a long job, and I gripped the side of the chair and kept whimpering as they both worked away in my mouth. I kept gagging at the excess water, and it was dripping down my chin and all over my top. When I was eventually released and could rinse my mouth, I spat out pure blood. Horrible!

Sophie was watching all this with amusement and asked how bad it was on a scale of 1-10. I answered 12, but she didn't believe me! She did, though, when she went through it all herself! I had to sit and watch her go through the same process, and her teeth were fine as well after the X-rays. That was a relief! She asked for a stress ball, but they didn't have one, and there wasn't even any relaxing music playing in the background!

Before we escaped, we made an appointment for December, and then I drove us to Northampton. I arrived at work at 10.30am, so I needed to make that time up after my usual hours. As the day wore on, my teeth started to hurt, and I had a horrible metallic taste in my mouth. I kept shuddering thinking about it!

Sophie picked me up at 5pm, and we went home to relax, listening to the soothing sounds of Henry Mancini until we had dinner. At least we'd gone through the same horrible experience together,  but Keith sympathised as well as he'd been to the hygienist recently and hadn't enjoyed it, either!

Dead fly city!

I was up early this morning and prepared all the ingredients for our dinner of spaghetti Bolognese. I then tackled the conservatory, which was dead fly city and was horrible! I do wonder whether we get more flies and insects in the house because we live in the country! I vacuumed the windowsills and wiped them over, and noticed that the glass roof was covered in sap from the nearby trees. Another job to tackle, but that can wait until after the holiday! It looked so much better when I finished, and I was glad I'd done it before it got too hot.

I hoovered downstairs and Sophie made us lunch of goujon sandwiches accompanied by potato salad. I called my Mum to ask her if she wanted to come along with us to Tesco, but she made an excuse about not having anything to wear, so we sped over on our own.

Sophie bought some lovely summer clothes for the holiday, and I bought items for Mum and Dad. We dropped them off at the care home, sat with them for a while for a chat and then returned home via the scenic route. When we came into the kitchen, we could smell the heavenly Bolognese sauce simmering beautifully on the hob.

I asked Sophie to make us an early Martini, and we played Scrabble again. Needless to say, Sophie beat me! After the cocktails, we opened a bottle of red Cotes du Rhone and ate dinner a bit earlier for a change. The meal was delicious, and there was enough left for our lunches on Tuesday.

We watched the end of The Horse Whisperer after dinner, and I cried at the sad ending. Sophie scoffed at it, though, saying it was stupid! When it was time to go up to bed, I played with Mooney through the bannisters and he gave me a few light bites before biting me hard! I'd used a cleaner with bleach in the kitchen sink earlier in the evening, and he could obviously smell it on my hands. For some reason, this drives him mad! I didn't expect him to bite me so hard, so it was a bit of a shock! He did come and curl up with me afterwards, though, so all was forgiven!