A close call!

Sophie and I popped over to Tesco at  Kettering this morning as she had an appointment for an eye test at Vision Express within the supermarket. I left her to it and did some shopping, buying a lovely loaf of bread for lunch, garlic, a wedge of Comté cheese, and a bottle of Blanquette de Limoux, which was recommended on this morning's Saturday Kitchen Best Bites. I also hunted in vain for fresh ginger but had to buy a jar instead. Before we'd left, we'd prepared a paste for tonight's Thai Green Curry, and the ginger we had in the cupboard was well past its best!

I took the shopping back to the car and sat in Costa with a flat white to wait for Sophie. When she finished, she said she needed new glasses, so we went to choose a pair. She had fun trying on different styles, including a pair that matched the colour of her hair!

Back home, we finished the preparation of the curry paste and had fish finger sandwiches for lunch. Today's weather has been disappointing, with a chilly wind and grey skies, and so different to yesterday when it was beautiful!

We busied ourselves by sorting out loads of laundry and cleaning the house. Vikesh came over at 3pm, and he and Sophie walked to the pub for a drink. I carried on pootling about and watched North by Northwest for a while upstairs until they returned. While Vikesh and Keith watched the England game, Sophie and I sat and played cards, nibbled on cheese, and sipped the French sparkling wine I'd bought this morning. It was delicious!

Pretty in Pink!

We were stunned when Slovakia took the lead in the football, but very pleased when England equalised! This meant it went to extra time, so we had to delay the dinner! There was a huge cheer in our house when England took the lead in extra time and won the match! We're through to the quarter-finals!

Vikesh didn't stay for dinner, so we ate at about 7.45pm, and the meal was delicious, fragrant with coconut milk and all the spices we'd used. I boiled basmati rice and there was enough left over to make a rice pudding tomorrow. Yum!

After dinner, we watched Glastonbury, intending to see SZA at 9.30pm, but she was late appearing, so we went to bed in disgust!

A Saturday treat!

After our impromptu visit to Woburn last week, Keith had spotted two Greene King pubs, and as he loves their Abbot ale, he suggested we all go today and have a pub crawl around the pretty town. The weather was a little cloudy in the morning, but when we set off at 11am, the sun was peeping through the white fluffy clouds.

We called in to see George at Charity Recycling Milton Keynes first as we had a huge bagful of Pringles tubes (collected over many months, I have to say) and some unwanted cat food (one of his charities is a local cat rescue centre). Rather than take the M1 we went across country and then down the A5. After missing the exit we needed, I had to rely on Trish to get me back to his address and we were all surprised by the amount of traffic on the roads! 

After dropping our recycling off, we headed towards Woburn, via Wavendon and Woburn Sands. We parked easily in the car park and walked to the first pub, The Black Horse. We had a drink here, sitting in the pretty garden in the sunshine. Keith wasn't that inpressed by his beer, which was 5.2% but he was hoping for better things later in the day!

Sitting in the sun!

We were going to be eating at lunchtime today, so we looked at the menu to see what they had available and kept the pub in mind for later.

Our next pub was The Long Inn a bit further down the road and it was empty! Keith was not impressed with the beer selection but had to make do with the ales on offer! 

We sat in the garden and chatted about holidays next year… we wanted to go back to L’Escala again and drive down, staying for a couple of nights in Rocamadour. What bliss!

After one drink we left and walked to The Bell, which was a Greene King pub and where Keith was hoping for a good pint of Abbot. However, they didn’t have it available so we turned around and left!

We decided to try The Nook, which looked lovely but was empty! Why? We chose our drinks and sat inside on comfortable seats… in a little nook! Keith said his beer was the best of the ones he’d tried so far. It was a lovely little place and deserves to do well. The toilets were pristine!

We decided to return to The Black Horse for lunch and found a seat inside. I fancied something different, so I chose the noodle salad, bursting with vegetables and added crispy pork. We ordered courgettes in tempura batter, halloumi and buttermilk chicken to start to share between us. I also tried the Guinness 0% which was lovely and a little sweeter than the alcoholic version.

The meal was delicious and none of us had room for puds today. We paid the bill, a shade under £100, and waddled back to the car in the beautiful sunshine. Sophie wanted to see the deer before we left so we drove into the Woburn Abbey parkland and saw a herd of deer immediately! Two deer had enormous antlers covered in what looked like velvet. They were beautiful!

We drove home and relaxed by lying on the bed for a nap after our indulgences! Keith watched the football and Sophie and I tuned into Glastonbury before sitting in the garden with a drink for half an hour. The weather had turned a little cloudy and cool, so we didn't linger! Mooney came out with us and attacked the grass and a bamboo stick!

A wee bit frazzled!

I had to take calls at work today, so I was a tad frazzled by the end of my shift, as I answered some complicated calls, and dealt with all the customer service emails. I also tried to put on some of the swim camps for the second week of the school holidays. They are approaching fast!

By 4pm, I was more than ready to head home and look forward to a relaxing evening. Keith went to the pub, and Sophie and I opened a bottle of red wine and watched Death Becomes Her, starring the fantastic Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn and Bruce Willis. It was funny and entertaining!

After dinner, we watched the coverage of Glastonbury on the BBC, which was great! I have never, ever, had a yearning to go to a music festival and camp but good luck to those who do! I prefer to watch the music from the comfort of my sofa and then retire to my lovely bed!

The heat is off!

The heat was supposed to wane a bit today, and it was cooler in the afternoon. I drove home and spent the afternoon doing admin chores, such as paying the council for my parents' care. The council is now, thankfully, sending me regular invoices, which is a relief! My parents have no idea what goes on with their finances, and there's no point explaining to them, which is sad. As they both ran successful businesses, I never thought I would see them so out of touch.

After I saw an urgent appeal on our Facebook page for crisp bags, I decided to sort out some carrier bags that Sophie had brought home from work. They can now go to the soft plastic recycling at most of the supermarkets, but our local charity, ROAR!, collects them and sends them to Terracycle and gets paid by weight. The money then goes to two local charities. I had no idea how many crisps bags we had but after half-filling a large box, I began to wish I'd never embarked on the exercise! Keith came out to help me and he soon began to get fed up as we unfolded several million crisp bags to pack them into the box! The fact that they were filled with the detritus of crisps and even a tissue - yuk! - didn't help! I was mightily glad when we finished and I could sweep up the crisps that had escaped!

It was definitely cooler in the evening, and the temperature went from 81f in the kitchen to a more acceptable 73c! Keith barbecued this evening, but instead of a lovely summer evening sky, we had some clouds high above us, so that was typical!

Sleepy cat!

We took Sophie's car to the garage at Moulton this morning, and before we dropped her off at work, we called into Café 900 for a coffee. It was a gorgeously sunny morning, and the heat was already building. Other office workers were queuing for hot drinks before they started work, and I chose a sausage bap for breakfast.

At 9am, we waved goodbye to Sophie, put some petrol in the VW, and Keith popped into Aldi for some lager. We drove home, and I did all my chores early because I was taking Mum to have her nails done in the afternoon. I was dreading the garage calling at the same time, as it would have been so inconvenient!

Luckily, Glen called at midday, and we picked up the car and dropped it at Sophie's office. He said he'd serviced it, but there was a problem with something (I didn't really understand) and that it would be fine for a while. As we are definitely thinking of getting Sophie a new car, this was reassuring.

We came home, I had lunch, and we reworked our shopping list to help Keith navigate the supermarkets more easily. The Gomes made an appearance and wanted to sleep on our bed, which was fine with me. He must have been shattered by his recent antics!

I collected Mum at 2.30pm (she was waiting for me!) and we drove over to Northampton. The temperature was hovering around 29c but the car was lovely and cool with the air-conditioning on. Mum had her nails painted a pretty pink today and we were all finished by 4pm. I dropped her back off and went home to relax, so pleased I'd done all of the hated chores this morning!

Gomez was still inside and ate a full pouch of food before disappearing back upstairs again! I do wonder whether he'd been locked inside somewhere -  maybe a shed or garage? Whatever, we were so glad he was back!

Keith and I played cards in the kitchen and it felt so warm! The temperature was showing 80f and I felt sticky and uncomfortable. Keith thrashed me while Sophie prepared a delicious paella for dinner. It was almost too hot to eat!

After dinner, Sophie and I walked up to the top green with Mooney again who had a mad time with a pigeon feather and kept chasing butterflies. We left Gomez snoozing... he really must be exhausted!

When we got back, we kept both of them inside for the night! I don't think I could handle any more drama!

Walking the cat!

It's been a hot one today with temperatures in the high 20s! Our office was quite cool because of the number of fans we had blowing so it was comfortable working. At 4pm I got into the car and the temperature registered 35c! Not an accurate reading I know, but bloomin' hot!

Sophie also finished at 4pm today and we decided to walk around the estate and call out for Gomez. Keith said he hadn't seen him at all today, so we were worried, especially as it was so warm. Mooney came with us because we were shouting "Gomey-grubs" and I think he really enjoyed it, miaowing loudly but not coming any further than the middle green.

It's amazing how much greenery and shrubbery we have on the estate, perfect places for cats to hide and keep out of the sun. We saw black feathers on the middle green so it looked like a bird had been killed there. We have another notorious cat wanderer nearby called Kinks who regularly goes missing, much to the despair of his owners!

Mooney re-joined us and accompanied us up to the top green where Sophie took several pics of him in amongst the clover and daisies. He was having the time of his life, rolling around and flattening the grass!

One happy cat!

Back home Mooney disappeared back into the cool of the garden, and Sophie put another application of colour onto her hair. It now really is a rich red!

We had a meal of cold meats and salad and settled down to watch the England game at 8pm. They were playing Slovenia but were guaranteed a place in the next leg of the tournament. This was good because the match was a dire 0-0 draw and there was more shouting and swearing from Keith!

Sophie and I, along with Moon Bums, went for another circuit of the estate and this time Mooney came with us for the whole way. He really loved it so it's something we may do regularly, as in days of old! There was no sign of the Gomes even though we shouted and shouted for him. He really is a little devil!

It was hot upstairs this evening and uncomfortable, but I was snoozing when Sophie woke me up to say Gomez was home at last! He ate two full pouches of food and some biscuits and had a cuddle with Sophie. We were all so relieved! I doubt, however, that it will be the last time!

Gomes AWOL...

Two hours of my shift were taken up with a meeting at work this morning. We gathered in the beautifully cool function area upstairs, and did some team exercises, including a fiendishly difficult riddle set by Einstein, apparently! It was good to put faces to names as people from other centres were there as well.

Poor Sara had been covering while we were away, and answering the phones on her own. Because of the meeting, the afternoon passed in a blur and it was great to escape out into the heat at 4pm. I was glad I'd taken the VW as I could put the aircon on full blast!

We haven't seen Gomez since yesterday morning and he didn't come home last night, as far as we were aware. We leave the conservatory door open for the cats to come and go during the day and lock our double doors at night so he would still be able to get in while we're asleep. We're not panicking just yet, but it would be great to see him come home!