Fresh air!

After a grey and murky start, the day turned out to be beautiful and sunny...and warm!

At work, Keith and I tidied up the garden as it was in a real state and I certainly didn't want any customers to go out there and see it like that. Keith cut the grass while I hoed the soil and took out a very dead plant that hadn't survived the winter. By the time we'd finished it looked so much better so if the weather is warm this weekend I won't mind customers going out there!

Sophie and I had a brief session at the gym and then we went home and sat in the garden with Monty. It was a lovely evening and it was great to be able to sit out and get some fresh air at the end of the day!

An evening out!

After a busy day at work, I had a busy evening ahead of me! Sophie was going out for a meal with a friend while Mikey was off to Army Cadets, so I managed to persuade Keith to take me out as well!

We dropped Mikey off and then sped over to the other side of Northampton to take Sophie to the Oriental Paradise in Billing. The car park looked very full so we waited until she'd made sure there was a table free before we left her to go to the Queen Adelaide pub in Kingsthorpe village.

I'd never been here before but it was mentioned in the latest CAMRA magazine as a place for good beer and good food so it was perfect! It was nicely quiet when we arrived and Keith chose a pint of Adnams Broadside while we looked at the menu.

It was very pleasant to sit and chat and be somewhere (at least one of us!) hadn't been before. Keith had suggested our local pub but it was great to try a new pub and see what they had to offer. We chose our meals - steak and kidney pie for Keith, chicken stuffed with Boursin cheese and wrapped in bacon for me - and both dishes were delicious and very well cooked.

At 9.15pm we left to pick up Mikey with the intention of collecting Sophie straight afterwards but tonight, of all nights, Mikey was ten minutes late coming out! He'd been talking about a forthcoming Army Camp and Keith had to go and find him in the end! Typical!

Bucket List for 2014

I've really missed not doing a Bucket List this year. Last year I enjoyed the challenge of trying to do as many as I could, and although I failed at doing several things on my list, it was great to have a goal!

I'm very late in starting but here are eight things I'd love to do this year:

1.  Visit Boughton House near Kettering

2.  Watch Mad Men from the very beginning

3.  Go somewhere I haven't been before, once a month, right up until December.

4.  Write a story!

5.  Grow a vegetable from seed.

6.  Go fishing

7.  Cook something different, once a month, right up until December.

8.  Try my hand at making my own wine.

Here's to the rest of 2014!

Back to normal...

It was back to cleaning at work today, and after my busy weekend I didn't really feel like it at all! However, I didn't actually start until about 2pm as Keith and I went off to two of our suppliers and the bank in the morning and then had lunch, so I think I got away with it quite well!

Sophie and I went to the gym after work even though I really wanted to go home and do nothing. At the moment I feel like I could do with a break from work (and housework) and the thought of going somewhere for a week and just lying in the sun is very tempting!

However, at the gym I did twenty minutes on both the treadmill and the bike and felt loads better. We also managed to fit in a quick swim before going into the spa so I was glad I'd made the effort!

Removing irritations!

This morning I finished off glossing the woodwork in the en-suite so I'm really pleased with the results. Everything looks so much cleaner now!

While I was upstairs I heard a load of hammering from the kitchen so I went down to discover Keith had taken a cupboard door off that had been sticking for years. It's a full sized door and every time we open or close it, it sticks on our floor tiles which has been an irritation for longer than I can remember! I helped him sand the bottom down and after about three attempts, we re-hung the door and it opened and closed beautifully. What a relief! I was delighted!

In the afternoon I went off to Homesense with Mum as she'd bought me a gift voucher. I picked out a new bath mat, some lovely smelly soap and a little notebook that I'll use for all household lists. I'm an avid list writer at work and it really motivates me to get stuff done, so I'll use the notebook to write down things that need doing and then hopefully, I'll get them completed!

We picked up our grumpy daughter from the station at almost 9pm. She was grumpy because she was tired and hungry and had missed dinner, even though she'd told us originally that she'd be catching the 6.30pm train home. We took two of her friends home as well and when we all got in she cooked herself a flatbread with cheese and we looked at her photos. She'd had a brilliant time but was shattered. That's what a city break does for you!

The dreaded decorating...

First thing this morning Keith and I took Sophie and her friend Danni to the station as my daughter will be in London this weekend. With her group of three friends, they're off to see McBusted at the O2 arena tonight, and they're staying at an apartment overlooking Canary Wharf.

Sophie was very excited (and a little nervous, I think!) about being at large in London with her friends. We dropped them off at the train station and then went to a nearby B&Q to buy some paint and a new loo seat for our en-suite bathroom. I chose Natural Hessian for the walls which I hope will go with everything else in there!

We went off home after B&Q, had a quick breakfast and then I started. Keith painted the ceiling and we managed to not get in each others way, quite difficult seeing as our en-suite is not that big! By the middle of the afternoon I'd finished the emulsion and I'd put a coat of gloss on the skirting boards. It was looking so much better and cleaner!

We had planned on walking to our local pub in the evening, but we were both a wee bit weary from our housework exertions so we poured ourselves a well-earned drink and relaxed before dinner!

Memories

Just lately I've been thinking a lot about a trip I made to Nepal in 1987. I flew out on the 12th April so at this time of year I always think about my visit to the mountainous country, and sadly, Nepal has been in the news recently as 16 Sherpas have died on Everest at the start of the climbing season.

I personally don't think that anyone should be climbing Everest any more. Human beings have no right to be there, in my opinion, but I can't ever see that happening as there is so much money to be made from climbing the mountain.

But anyway, I spent most of this evening taking out old photos from an album and scanning them onto my laptop. Here are a few of them:

Kathmandu airport

Our transport to the start of the trek in Pokhara

My trekking companions, Corrie (left) and Matthew

Testing the loads. We had a female porter on our trek who was lovely.

At the Tibetan Refugee village - an ideal opportunity for them to sell us stuff!

Little Nepali girl

Having a breather. Note the heavy load next to Corrie...

Me, after a very steep climb!

Preparing dinner!

The Annapurna range

The mountain I travelled to Nepal to see - Macchhapuchare (The Fish-Tail Mountain)

Our guides Ninja and Dawa

One of the terrifying rope bridges!

Nepalese village house

Several of our porters

Little Nepali boy

I trekked for ten days and then returned to the Kathmandu Guest House before embarking on a seven day river rafting trip down the Trisuli river. Here are some more photos:

Sleeping under the rafts was great until the night it rained!

Riding the rapids was exhilarating!

After the river rafting we visited Chitwan National Park and rode elephants while on the lookout for tigers!

Setting up camp

Stunning scenery

Visiting Nepal on my own when I was 19 was a turning point in my life. I felt like I grew up on that trip. It's certainly a time I look back on with enormous affection and one day (one day!) I'd love to go back!