Dead flies on the windowsill...

After Sophie went to work this morning, Keith and I drove to the Co-op at Moulton as I needed to get a 50th birthday card for my friend Andrea whose party we were going to this evening. They didn't have anything suitable so I said we'd go to Beckworth instead. On the way, we came across a little accident where an elderly lady had somehow managed to wedge her Mini up onto a very high kerb and was well and truly stuck. Keith got out to see if he could help and a man in front also get out to help but it meant none of us could go any further.

Eventually, they managed to push the car a bit so we could all drive past and a woman stayed with her until more help arrived. We drove to Beckworth and I found a lovely card, so that was a relief! I really should have got one earlier in the week!

Back home we had a quick breakfast and then I made a start on the conservatory. I am totally fed up with all the dead flies, cobwebs and general muck so I laboured away, up and down the step ladders until things looked a lot better. Keith came to help and after a lot of toing and froing we changed all the furniture around so we can now open the double doors that lead out onto the gravel garden. The sofa was originally in front of them so we never opened them, which was a shame. In the middle of it all, Mike suddenly appeared with his friend Brad and they changed and showered before disappearing again!

Our Southwold stone man and the shells from Sanibel

It felt great to finally finish as it was really hot work! I was so pleased with how it all looked and after cleaning the soffit above our garage door and the door itself, I went and put a colour on my hair and relaxed a bit!

Sophie arrived home from work and approved of the changes we'd made and while she ate her dinner Keith and I got ready to go out. The party was being held in the cellar bar of a pub in the village of Ecton and it was in full swing when we arrived. Andrea looked stunning in her dress and there were lots of very tanned people all having a great time. Parties aren't really my thing but we stayed for almost two hours and it was lovely chatting to Fiona and her husband, and Lynda who looked very glamorous.

We were home before 10pm and Keith made me a delicious Gin and Tonic to relax with before bed!

Phew! It's Friday!

Although we didn't get a huge amount of calls this morning, the ones we did have were fairly complicated, including several playscheme bookings which took forever to sort out! It was a relief to go home at 2pm and enjoy a slice of Sophie's banana and almond cake with a dollop of cold custard! Delicious!

We only had a handful of children in the afternoon and Lisa's daughter helped me mop the floor so that passed a few minutes. Lisa and I are both looking forward to the last day of term now and we have just three weeks to go!

We were finished at 5.30pm which was a lovely bonus and I rushed home to enjoy a glass of sparkling wine with Sophie. I'd bought a bottle of Tokaji in Lidl and was looking forward to tasting it. I liked it but Sophie did not so she opened a bottle of our old faithful Pinot Gris from Aldi instead! We settled down to watch The Snowman starring Michael Fassbender but after about twenty minutes gave up! We hadn't got a clue what was happening!

Memories!

I was on my own for an hour at work this morning but at least it was nice and quiet. It became noisier as the morning wore on!

Today had started off grey and cloudy but the sky soon cleared and we had sunshine and blue skies again. My morning was fairly busy and I sped home at 2pm to have a chat with Sophie and change.

We only had ten children at the After-School Club and we spent the whole session out in the playground again. In the distance I could see a bank of white cloud but it was very slow moving and I did wonder if it meant we'd get a thunderstorm later on.

I was at home before 6pm and we settled down to watch Dale Winton's Florida Fly Drive. It's such a shame he has now passed away but it looked like he was having the time of his life in the Sunshine State! He visited Sanibel, Captiva and Naples so it was wonderful seeing places we'd visited on the television. That's a recording to keep so we can watch it again!

I feel asleep on the sofa in the evening when England were playing Belgium. It was a good job we didn't win!

Decisions, decisions!

As Sophie has an interview with BA next week for Cabin Crew, we went to see a friend of mine who works on their long haul flights, and has been an employee with them for over twenty years. She lives on our estate so we walked over at 10am and had a cup of tea and a chat.

She was very honest about the company and what Sophie should expect when she goes for her interview and she gave us a lot of very good advice. We were there for about an hour and when we got home Keith was ready to go out as we needed petrol for Sophie's car.

We went over to Kettering and visited Next, where Sophie picked up a blouse and some jewellery, and B&M where I bought yet more bird food. It's been another warm and sunny day and as we were leaving my Mum phoned and asked if we could go over and help them with their garden furniture as they wanted to put it on their decking so they could sit and enjoy the beautiful weather.

After we'd helped them put out their sofa and chairs we went home for lunch and Sophie decided to wash her dusty little car. Although the weather's great it has made everything so dry and I'd love to see a good downpour of rain to clean our conservatory roof!

We had sixteen children at the After-School Club this afternoon so it was a much better session. All the children played outside really well. On the way home I came across Keith and Sophie who had walked down to meet me and we returned to relax and have our "picnic" dinner which was lovely!

After dinner we had a chat about the BA interview and Sophie decided that if she did get the job she would find it hard to commute down to Heathrow and the six weeks of training was a bit daunting, seeing as she'd just spent three years studying. She decided to withdraw her application, which was a relief to me, to be honest! The thought of her driving back and forth to Heathrow was a bit worrying!

Keith wanted to watch the football and cricket after dinner so Sophie and I retired upstairs with Monty to see 90 Day Fiance. It was lovely and cool in our bedroom and made a good end to a busy day!

The perfect find!

As we now no longer have to take Mike to college on a Tuesday morning, we are free to go wherever we like to do the shopping for tonight's and tomorrow's dinners! We therefore went off to Rushden and visited the Lidl there for a change.

The next few days are expected to be hot so we chose burgers and salad for tonight followed by a "picnic" on Wednesday evening, i.e. sandwiches, salad, pork pie, etc. It's too hot to cook a heavy meal in this weather!

After the shopping we called into Rushden Lakes and went to House of Fraser where Sophie spotted a beautiful dusky pink crushed velvet dress from Biba for her graduation. It looked gorgeous on her and although she tried on other dresses, we all thought the Biba one was the best. It was also reduced from £110 down to £32 which I thought was marvellous! What a result! She was so pleased.

We drove home and had lunch and tried to keep cool. The temperature was about 26-27c and the school Dance Afternoon was on today so I felt sorry for all the hot parents and children roasting in the playground! Because of this, Keith gave me a lift to school as it was utter bedlam, with cars everywhere and parents trying to leave. In the hall, there had been stalls set out so Lisa and I helped to clear away and sweep up.

Although some of the mums had been to the Dance Afternoon they left their children with us, so we had six little ones again. They seemed quite happy to play out in the playground despite the heat and Lisa and I tried to keep cool by sticking to the shadier parts!

Although I'm enjoying the warm weather and the sunshine and blue skies, I think the time has now come for some rain! The grass has turned to straw and our conservatory is dry, dusty and covered in dollops of bird poo again. I think the last time we had any significant rain was the 27 May, with a few light showers on the 31 May so everything is really suffering. The only good thing is that with the felling of our Eucalyptus tree, we don't have leaves covering the lawn. That really used to annoy me!

Keith and Sophie picked me up at 6pm and we went home to play cards in the conservatory and drink a bottle of Le Chouffe. Sadly, it tasted nothing like it did when we were sipping it in Wimereux!

Good news!

I'd managed to shelve my worries about the job over the weekend but this morning I needed to speak to somebody about retracting my resignation. Luckily, as I walked in, Sheila was standing at Reception and told me that the girl I work with on a Monday wasn't coming in so would I be OK to work on my own?

This then gave me an opportunity to say I'd made a dreadful mistake accepting the court job and would they take me back? Sheila almost danced with joy so that was enough of an answer! She then texted Sara and now everything is back to normal so that's a huge relief!

I covered the phones and at times the calls were relentless so I was very busy. I then realised that the girl who takes my place at 2pm wasn't coming in until 4pm so I offered to stay on until then and let Lisa know I would be late. As the headmaster of the school hasn't even spoken to me since I handed my resignation in, I had no qualms about supporting this job as they had been so happy to have me back and told me how much I was valued there, something that has never happened at the school (I never received an employment contract from them). I now can't wait until the school breaks up for the summer on the 20 July! I told Lisa I will work the extra week to help out so everyone was pleased. Phew!

At 4pm I sped to work and parked right outside the school. I found Lisa and the children sheltering from the heat in the small lean to and I was glad to see there were only five children booked in. Amazingly, everyone went early so I was able to go home at 5.30pm. What a bonus! I sat with Keith and Sophie in the cool of our living room and we just talked about our day, especially as Mike had been late for work this morning as he'd been out at a friend's house and Keith had been looking for him in the village at 6am. That's the last time he's staying out on a night before work!

We had a simple supper of soup, crusty bread and croutons and enjoyed a chocolate dessert and cream for pud! The weather is set to get even hotter in the middle of the week so we've planned very light meals! I think we need to invest in a barbecue!

A spot of shopping.

Sophie and I went to Milton Keynes today as she is on the hunt for a Graduation dress. It's been another warm and sunny day and I was struck by the lack of air conditioning in the shops. Are things that bad for retailers? It would have made today's trip a lot more comfortable!

Sophie wanted to drive so I directed her and she did really well as it was her first time going to Milton Keynes and driving on, to her, unfamiliar roads. After parking in the large multi-storey car park we went for brunch at Giraffe, and were served by a very friendly waiter who explained why it was so quiet - England were playing Panama today at 1pm! We had a delicious meal - I went for the Big Brunch while Sophie opted for the Morning Po Boy. It certainly made a good start to our day!

We went to M&S first as Sophie wanted some good foundation underwear. She chose a body shaper but it was dirty on the hem so we asked the assistant for another, but they didn't have any more in stock. At the cash desk I asked if they could do anything with the price and we were awarded £7 off! Result!

We then had a good look in House of Fraser, Monsoon, John Lewis, Next and Coast, where she tried on four beautiful dresses. There were sales on everywhere so some of the shops resembled jumble sales with Zara being the worst - the clothes were heaped up in piles all over the place and we took one look and turned back around!

Before going into Debenhams we treated ourselves to an ice-cream sundae from Baskin Robbins which was truly delicious! By now we were hot and tired and had almost had enough. In Debenhams she tried on two gorgeous velvet dresses, one in a beautiful blue and another in red, but one size was too small and the size up too large! I think they would have been too hot anyway.

We decided to call it a day and. feeling a bit disappointed, headed for home the way we'd arrived, via the A5 and the A508. Unfortunately, as we neared the roundabout to take the A5 we saw that the road was closed and we were diverted away from Northampton, following a long route that seemed to take us a fair distance from the way we wanted to go. Sophie was quite nervous and I made it even worse by panicking slightly, as we hadn't got a road map in the car with us and Google maps on my phone was telling us to take small random roads that looked like they led nowhere!

We arrived in Buckingham and stopped to buy a useless road map from a garage. It was all they had and the print was so small I had to use my glasses! We've been to Buckingham before and I wanted to get onto the A43 which would have taken us straight home but we couldn't see any signs for the road, just the M40 which I definitely didn't want to take!

We headed out of Buckingham and unfortunately, headed back onto the same road so we met the diversion signs again! I was hoping to get back into Milton Keynes and then take the M1 home and we ended up in the middle of the countryside with a lot of other, very confused drivers!

We agreed that I would take over driving while Sophie used her phone to navigate and we turned around as there was a huge queue up ahead. We returned to the roundabout and took the sign for the village of Deanshanger. From there we took a very narrow single track road and we were soon joined b y loads of other cars who were all trying to find their way around the diversion! Up ahead was another massive queue of cars so I got out and questioned the man in front of us who was trying to get to Bedford! I'm sure he was on the wrong road!

Eventually, the knot of cars in front of us sorted themselves out and we drove in a tight convoy through the countryside and back out onto the A508. Phew! It was such a relief to get home! Keith then told me that Mike was in Chapel Brampton seeing a new girlfriend and we had to pick him up in a short while! I just wanted to sit and relax in the sun with a drink!

After we collected him it was time for a G&T and a sit in the garden before Sophie and I cooked a chicken noodle dish from the Hairy Biker's Chicken and Egg cookbook. It turned out very well and was delicious!