Keeping us in suspense!

Sophie and I watched Destination X before work this morning, and for the first time, I was unsure of the destination, guessing it might have been Trieste in Italy. We couldn't see the end as we ran out of time and had to get ready for work!

I had a pleasant shift, and since Sara and Sheila were both on annual leave today, I managed to get all the messy box office return paperwork sorted out, scanned and put into online folders. It was a job I'd been meaning to do for ages, so that was a real bonus!

At 2pm, Keith picked me up and we went home to pootle about doing chores. I hoovered and cleaned the conservatory, which was a terrible mess with dead flies and cobwebs everywhere. I tidied up the throws on the sofa, and when Sophie arrived home, we both sat out there for a while to chat. It looked so much better!

We watched the last fifteen minutes of Destination X and discovered the programme ended without revealing the city where they were! We had to wait until 9pm to see it!

After dinner, we watched Masterchef, and we've added a few more terms to the list:

• Showing off about travels
• A bonbon
• An ingredient cooked "three ways"
• Scissor-cut noodles
• Contestants crying - this featured heavily last year!

We liked the look of one recipe called chicken Khao Soi which we might attempt next weekend!

At 9pm, we tuned into Destination X and learned I was wrong. It was Venice, not Trieste. Ah well!

Not the day I was hoping for!

I'd been looking forward to a day off today and had a couple of things planned with Keith as a little treat. Sophie didn't go to the gym today because of her office move, and we said we'd call in and see her. We sat downstairs with a coffee, and neither cat made an appearance this morning after being out on the tiles all night!

Keith and I showered, dressed and left earlier than we'd planned, at just after 9am. We were forced to go to the post office in Brixworth to send the old BT equipment back, and then I planned on driving down the new relief road that had finally opened. Except, it hadn't. It was still closed by Church Brampton, which annoyed me!

We continued on to Northampton, and I realised neither of us had eaten breakfast, so I suggested we stop for something while we were out. Nearing Sixfields, we went to the pub we visited last time, The Walter Tull, but it was boarded up. What is happening with our town at the moment? Reluctantly, we went to The Sixfelds Tavern, which was open and ordered a cooked breakfast each. Two breakfasts, extra toast and a mug of tea and coffee came to just under £17! If nothing else, it was good value! I managed to drip egg yolk down one of my favourite tops, which was another annoying niggle!

On the way out of Sixfields, we also noticed that the restaurant chain, TGI Fridays, was also closed, with the site looking almost derelict! I was beginning to feel a little depressed! We headed for Morrisons, purely because they were selling bottles of white Sablet we'd seen advertised in the weekend You magazine. We didn't know Sablet made white wine! The plan was to buy some things we needed and then head next door to The Malt Shovel for a lunchtime drink.

We made straight for the wine section and picked up two bottles of the white, priced at £10 each. Keith took three bottles of beer off the shelf, but then realised that, like Tesco, the lower price was for loyalty club holders only. We also wanted a bottle of vodka, but these were actually locked away in cabinets and were cheaper if you had a loyalty card, which we didn't have. 

I threw a hissy fit, and we decided to leave with just the two bottles of wine, a box of Fevertree lemonade that Tesco don't stock, and the newspaper. Outside, it was humid and hot, and I had the devil of a job returning the trolley and getting my little token back, which made me even more irritable!

Keith and I walked over to the pub, only to find we were forty minutes early and it didn't open until 12pm. We had a feeling that was the case, and I said we'd left home too early this morning! We texted Sophie and drove to Brackmills to see her and how the office move was going. She was in with three other members of staff, and the moving men were busy dismantling the desks and carting them upstairs in the lift.

The new offices were lovely, cool and air-conditioned! I wish I could have stayed all afternoon!

As they are now on the first floor, there were lovely views over the treetops from the huge windows that wrapped around the office. We stayed for a little while, chatted to Sophie's coworkers and then headed for another dreaded destination, the wonderful Weston Favell Centre...

Whilst shopping, we met two old acquaintances and stood chatting with them for a while, which was lovely. I was convinced I would see someone from work as the third person! It was a relief to get in the car, switch the aircon right up and enjoy a little coolness on the way home!

The afternoon was spent catching up with some chores, and I managed a nap for half an hour. I had been awake before 6am this morning, so that was my excuse! By the time Sophie came home, we'd almost completed the shopping list and had installed the fan in the kitchen to cool us down before dinner. Our breakfast had kept us going all day, and we had a light supper of paté and toast. It was uncomfortably hot in the evening, and I was just glad we had a fan alleviating the muggy air!

We sat and enjoyed Masterchef (one of the contestants had been edited out!) and took a box of mochi out of the freezer to keep us cool!

Feeling the heat

Last night was hot and muggy, and we had some rain, which did refresh things a little. This morning, Sophie was up early and had put several boxes out for a collection I'd arranged with our local council, who take the stuff away and recycle it. They take books, CDs, DVDS, bedding, towels, small electrical appliances and clothes, so we had quite a bit to be collected after having a clearout both at home and at Sophie's office, which was preparing for a move to new premises on another floor this week.

We sat and enjoyed a coffee with a rare Gomez appearance, and he loved cuddling with us and having his tummy stroked. What a lovely start to the day!

The office, typical for a Tuesday, was hot and noisy, but I managed to get everything done and made a start on the Moan Report! It was bliss to escape at 4pm and whack the aircon up in the car! I think it's time to seriously think of getting it for some of the rooms in the house.

Keith and I played cards tonight while Sophie indulged in a fantasy about going to Blackpool for the weekend and seeing the Illuminations! I definitely wouldn't have considered that to be the sort of place she wanted to go! 

New systems

We had a visit scheduled from Openreach today about changing our phone system to the new "Digital Voice" service (I really don't know what it's about, to be honest), so Keith had to stay at home. One of the things we had to do yesterday was hoover behind the sofa where the phone socket is, in case it was decorated with cobwebs, but it was surprisingly clean with no dead animals lurking there! That's always a bonus!

I took myself off to work and worked steadily until 4pm, clearing all the emails, putting more films onto the system and updating the spreadsheet. Tomorrow, I'm planning to do the final week of the swim camps! Hooray!

At 4pm, I went home and spent an hour setting up all of our devices on the new system, because we had a new password for the router. It's surprising how much stuff is connected: our computer, my laptop, the television (upstairs and downstairs), our phones, Alexa and the printer. Phew! I'm just glad we don't have these new internet-connected kitchen devices as well!

My Dad called this evening and we had a chat, and I wished him a happy birthday. He's 83! 

We had the chicken stroganoff for dinner this evening, and it was delicious served with rice and garlic bread. Afterwards, we watched our usual Monday night programmes, Only Connect and University Challenge. We let the cats stay out tonight as it was too hot in the house to keep them in. Sophie certainly missed her furry cuddles before bed!

So low!

Sophie and I started watching Saturday Morning Kitchen with a coffee first thing, but there was too much weighing on my mind to sit and relax, so we sat at the island and tackled our "To Do" list. One of the things we needed to do was book next month's shuttle to Calais and decide on a suitable departure time. After a lot of debate, we decided on an 8.30am crossing, but it still means we'll have to leave home at about 4.30am!

Sophie helped me change my bed, and then we popped to Tesco to get some things for my Dad, and some shopping. I bought a new lightweight jumper and trousers for my Dad from Mum, dinner ingredients for tomorrow night and a salad for lunch. 

When we arrived at the care home, there was a physiotherapist in the room, and she said she was concerned about my Mum's blood pressure, which was dangerously low. She tried to take the reading with Mum standing up, but decided to call for an ambulance as she was so worried.

This threw us into a quandary, but we decided to let Dad open his gifts from us, leaving his cards until tomorrow, his actual birthday. The physio said the ambulance would be about four hours, so after sitting with them for a while and having a chat, Sophie and I left to go home. This news plunged me back into a bad mood; I really didn't want to think about Mum going into hospital as she was so miserable before, and I was convinced another stint would finish her off.

At home, Sophie and I had lunch of a leftover jacket potato, cheese, salad and nibbly bits from our little buffet last night. I received a call from the care home to say that Mum had been taken back to the hospital by ambulance, which was the worst news.

The afternoon was spent cleaning the house, preparing tonight's dinner of chicken stroganoff and feeling grumpy. It was hot, and I refused to go into the conservatory, which was like dead fly city. I can't wait for the cooler weather to arrive. It's supposed to get hotter again next week... And don't get me started on the garden, which is looking like a parched desert. It's horrible.

At about 4pm, I called the hospital and was told my Mum had been discharged back to the care home, which was brilliant news! I immediately felt happier! Sophie and I played Scrabble, and she beat me by about 150 points! We decided to skip dinner tonight because of our large lunch and have the chicken stroganoff tomorrow instead.

We spent a very pleasant hour reminiscing about the holidays and enjoying a drink. Keith cooked himself some chicken thighs, and Sophie and I had a fishfinger sandwich. Perfect!

The death stare...

Sophie had suggested going to Leamington Spa today for a change, so we left at about 10am, and took the A14, M6 and then the A46. The journey took us about an hour, and we were able to park easily at a multi-storey car park near the main shopping area.

We went first to a bakery/coffee shop called Gail's, and I salivated over the various pastries, morning rolls, and sandwiches on offer. I chose a sesame and cardamon morning bun, while Sophie selected an almond and chocolate croissant. With a flat white each, the bill was £17 but the food and coffee were worth it, and my morning bun was delicious and something I'd never tried before. We sat on a long bench table and my only criticism was the level of noise in the café and the slightly frenetic pace. But it was a great start to our visit to Leamington Spa!

After eating, we wandered along one of the main shopping streets and stumbled on a gorgeous shop selling spirits and wines from all over the world. It was lovely to browse and I picked out a selection box of whiskies for my Dad's birthday on Monday.

I then joined Sophie looking at the wines and spotted a wine from South Africa that my friend Liam had always raved about, a Meerlust (£32), and a great choice of Portuguese wines. Sophie then called me over as she had found a white Chateauneuf-du-Pape, very rare in the UK, and priced at £30. I suggested we go halves and I took it off the shelf to buy. As I was making my way to the till, one of the male staff said to me, "You do realise that's a white Chateauneuf-du-Pape?"

I gave him my death stare, turned the bottle over and pointed out that, yes, I knew it was a white. I then said we'd visited the village last October and knew a little about its wines... Sophie nearly exploded when she saw my face and heard me speak, but I was bemused (and annoyed) that he had just assumed I knew very little about wine. He may have been trying to be helpful, but it would have been better if he'd said something like, "Oh, you're a fan of white C-du-P, then?" Huh! This is the second time this has happened to us (remember the rosé Gigondas?) and he stood and looked a little abashed. Let's hope he doesn't make any incorrect assumptions in the future!

We pootled about the streets, calling into two charity shops where Sophie bought more glasses and two blouses, and then Waterstones where she treated herself to three books. I made a note of another three for future downloads on Kindle.

It had warmed up considerably by now, so we decided to go in search of lunch at a Japanese restaurant not far away called Natsuya. We were given a table in the window (perfect for people watching) and had a good look at the menu. We chose edamame beans, chicken and vegetable gyozas and salmon sashimi to start, followed by chicken katsu curry and pork tonkatsu curry for our main courses.

We both agreed that the food was superb and, dare I say it, better than our own Akasaka in Northampton. The edamame beans were particularly good and we devoured them, searching through  the empty bean husks to make sure we hadn't missed any! The gyozas were deliciously crispy and we dunked them in a soy vinegar sauce. Yum! With the salmon slices, we ate them with the most gorgeous pickled ginger which I could have eaten all day!

Our main course curries were huge portions, served with rice, carrots and kale. There was a small helping of fuku-jinzuke, a kind of Japanese pickle.

Edamame beans

My pork tonkatsu curry

We paid the very reasonable bill of £65 (we'd drunk half pints of Japanese lager) and waddled back off to the car. I suggested the scenic route home via Southam and Daventry, and the journey was beautiful. It was a gorgeous English summer's day, and the countryside, although a little weary from the dry spell, still looked stunning under the blue sky.

As a treat, we called into Hotel Chocolat near junction 16 of the M1 and enjoyed an ice-cream each. I had to make it up to Sophie as I'd nicked a chocolate bar she'd been keeping in the fridge, and on Thursday night, we'd had a short, sharp argument about it. In my defence, I'd eaten it on my return from seeing my parents and needed something to cheer me up! After we'd gobbled our ice-creams, we went on the hunt for chocolate with popping candy, the same as the bar I'd eaten, but they didn't have any. We left without buying anything; there's willpower for you!

Back home, Sophie walked up to the top green with both cats (Gomez was a bit bemused but still enjoyed himself) while I relaxed and listened to a lovely radio programme on BBC Sounds that Georgie at work had told me about. What a lovely few minutes of chilling!

The cats chilled too!

Keith came home from watching a local derby between Sileby and Moulton, and Sophie and I picked out a 90s romcom to watch called French Kiss. It was the most perfect film for our evening and a lovely end to a wonderful day!

So glad it's Friday!

Sophie didn't go to the gym again today, and we sat and watched Masterchef from last night. There was another irritating contestant taking part, which always livens things up! We didn't quite make it to the end, and left it for tonight, which was something to look forward to after work!

I had another busy day and finished the moan report, much to my relief. Now, I have to start on July's! The weather was warming up today, and it felt hot when I left at 4pm. I sped home and relaxed; I love Friday evenings because there's no porridge to prepare!

Keith didn't go to the pub this evening and sat in the kitchen while Sophie and I finished Masterchef, and then watched tonight's episode early on BBC iPlayer. William Sitwell had given the contestants a brief to cook a savoury dish with something salty, or vice versa, and some of the combinations were truly strange! I'm glad I wasn't eating them!

After enjoying the simplest dinner of jacket potatoes, beans, cheese, and salad, Sophie and I watched last night's episode of Destination X, and amazingly, we guessed the location for the fourth time (the last time it was Munich). It helped that we knew where they were, and I could check the kilometres on Google Maps, but this time there were loads of clues. I knew it was Austria when we saw a book by Sigmund Freud, but watching the contestants trying to work out where The Sound of Music was filmed was hilarious!