Pick n Mix.......

 
Early Saturday morning I get a WhatsApp hello from my children who are out on one of their walks. The view behind them is The Orwell Bridge (I think). 

The next pic I received was the empty mugs and plates inside an eatery of some sort. 

My beautiful orchid has been naked since Christmas and now it is full of buds all taking their time to gradually try on their new dress and show it off. 

Schlumbergera often called the Christmas cactus  or Easter cactus depending when yours flowers. This one has never made up its mind when it wants to flower and most years doesn't bother. So that was why I got excited when I saw a bud, a single bud but a promise of a flower. 

Long before Christmas we bought the stuff to clean our ovens with. It never happened. Every time I used either oven it was a poke to my conscience but it still never got done. 

Finally I got round to it when I knew the ovens would be redundant for two evenings running. I have to confess that I started it all off but when I stopped (too early in the proceedings) Hubby took over and did a great job as he always does. 

Monday evening we were out to eat at a really lovely Italian restaurant, 

iI Palazzo, Chelmsford. 41 miles away from home but worth it as it's about the same distance from the friends we were meeting. We met friendsL&K and friendsL&M. Always too long a gap between meeting up and catching up with each other. 

Wednesday night out again as our usual group of six, in our most frequented pub..... The Grosvenor which has recently been refurbished. Last week was my first visit there. It's mostly OK but we were reserved one of those horrid booth tables which isn't really big enough for six and both friendT and I had difficulty sliding along, also the backs are very high which made seeing round the room and the entertainment tricky and a couple of dinners even had to be served over the seat back. I was at the wall end and just above me was an opening/window that was covered with a wire grid, I felt like I was inside the rabbit hutch!

This week when we arrived it was quite empty and we noticed they had replaced the small round table in the far corner with a large round table, the way it used to be years ago. Made us remember all the fun social things we've done as a group and friendM and I found our old coach trip holiday photos to laugh at. 

Sadly another horrid thing to report about our NHS. On Friday our neighbour,  the one that had suffered hours and hours before getting a hospital bed two weeks ago, then caught noro virus while in there which got passed to his wife and daughter. He was brought home by hospital transport and was home for less than two hours when his wife had to call an ambulance again as he was sick and then passed out and did it again when the ambulance was there. Apparently the paramedics said it was definitely a failed discharge as their tests showed he had low magnesium and low potassium and was dehydrated. We all need to worry about this! 

Back to happy things, today is a celebration day and a Doggy Day Care day so I'm off to get ready.

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