Time Travel and Travelling on Time.......

It's time for Daughter to be her Tudor self again, starting today (Friday 16th August) for the next 11 days. Today she left home with E and E's friend and O. O will be there till Tuesday evening and E till Friday morning.

Before they left Daughter brought R and their dog Tilly who will our guests for the duration. Tilly came with more luggage than R did.
We don't want Tilly sleeping upstairs on beds and we don't want to stress her by making her sleep alone as she doesn't do that at home, so R said she'll sleep in the office with the dog as it's downstairs and has easy access to the garden.

Her bed was installed and she promptly did a wee on the blankets  (that's Tilly not R) which immediately went into the washing machine. Guess she needed to mark her territory!
When it's not bedtime, as usual the lounge windowsill is her favourite place.

Hubby took R to her theatre duties for 4pm and another friend is very kindly bringing her home. I'm out to dinner with friends so Hubby has the evening to himself and dog duty. 

Most days when R has theatre duties we start at home packing a picnic for her to take, this was a double as on matinee and evening performance days she's there from 10:30am to 10pm.

Although Tilly enjoys free movement in our garden, which is big enough for her to have a little run around, most days Hubby has taken her out for change of scenery. Because she doesn't go out for walks off lead at all Hubby has been running with her, so hopefully getting him fitter too. 

R's friend F is also doing some of the volunteer theatre crew shifts, so her mum and I have arranged swapsies where I've offered F sleepover nights to save them being in two places at once and in return they are giving R some lifts home to save Hubby turning out past his bedtime 😉 although on "end of show party" night he did do the pickup for both girls at midnight. 

We've also had O here for an overnight Thursday and all day Friday. E also came home early Friday as she is going to the Ed Sheeran concert being held very locally to us, she also slept over so she could be up and showered at 7am Saturday as she'd arranged a lift back to Kentwell. 

Ipswich has been full on with Ed's homecoming concert. TV, radio, local paper coverage and of course everyone having an opinion on social media (always some moaners but mostly good).

E went Friday night and said it was amazing. I heard that M had taken O Sunday night and they both loved it. Daughter&M's house is only about 10mins walk from the venue so M and O have listened to it all from their garden each night. 

Today is now Bank Holiday Monday and Theatre in the Forest finished last night. R and her friend F having a free day decided to invite a few friends, from here they have walked to Daughter&M's house so they can experience the last night of the concert, in audio. 

So just Tilly to collect when Daughter gets home. Meanwhile we are both happy relaxing with the doors open and the fan on. 

My Way (#15 )........

Over the years I seem to have developed some very definite ways of doing things and usually it's for a very good reason, HOWEVER this is a new one for me, so I thought I'd share. 

When I'm in the shower with big plastic bottles and soapy hands I found my grip was rubbish and bottles kept slipping out of my hand.

So first I looked through all the saved dispensers and pumps that I've washed and kept, but I had nothing that fitted.

Next onto online shopping and found pumps, but soon discovered there is no standard neck size to the bottles I have.

Seems the alternative is to buy new bottles with pumps and decant what we use then label each bottle and maybe colour code the labels so you can squint with soapy eyes and still dispense the right product........guess what, the cost and effort to buy more plastic to replace plastic is not helping the planet or my moral standards, so I'm not going there! 

So, I wrapped an elastic band around each bottle, making a good grip and I'm no longer dropping them, job done

What's your way?
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Birthday, Boat, Broads, Buffet........

I really wanted to do something a little different for this year's birthday as we normally get together for a family meal but as we all have varying dietary needs and some fidgit if we sit still for too long it can be challenging.

I mentioned this to a friend just in passing and she suggested hiring a day boat on the Norfolk Broads! I told Hubby, Daughter and Son adding that I'd like a picnic on board and everybody loved the idea.

Early gathering at our house, which daughter called Parental HQ, then because unfortunately a few family members couldn't come, we all fitted into Daughter's car. Just under two hours to get there. The boat handover at was really straightforward and efficient. We were kitted out with life jackets and Hubby and Son got on board for a guide to what's where and how it all works. Then we all installed ourselves and our stuff and we were off.

As you can see in the photos we had a really nice boat, very well equipped with two ring burner, kettle, plenty of crockery, cutlery and tea towels and dishcloths etc, we had a loo too!

Hubby and Son were in charge for all the busy areas or tricky moorings but O took the wheel as Captain for a lot of the time and quickly got to understand the delay in reaction time when steering and the drifting just with the water movement pushing on the boat. So a happy 10 year old makes us all happy.

We really didn't know how the dog would react as on land she will often bark like mad at other dogs or people. So having never done anything water based or boaty before would she bark at every goose, swan or passing boat? No! She seemed interested in everything, constantly going from one side to the other to look out, loved getting off each time for walks and happy each time to get back on board. So well behaved, although she was kept on a very short lead the whole time.

Daughter and Son had brought so much food and a birthday cake plus candles. When we got home M joined us too and we still didn't finish off the food hahaha.

Such a lovely day with my favourite people and good weather for a fun activity. Memories to keep forever.

The rest of the photos are HERE
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Theatre: Romeo and Juliet........

“My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep;
the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite”

The Montague Mods are riding their mopeds, the Capulets are rocking their leather biker jackets – bitter rivals from different worlds and that’s the way its always been. But there’s one thing they hadn’t counted on…Romeo and Juliet have never been the kind to obey the rules!
Can these rebels in love ever break free from their families and create a truce between Rockers and Mods once and for all? 

This year’s marks 20 years of Theatre in the Forest and what better way to celebrate 
than with the love story that changed the world in the beautiful woods of 
Jimmy’s Farm as we take you back in time to the 1960s.

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This evening performance was actually rounding off a lovely catchup day with friendKK. Friends for nearly 40 years, spending so much time together when our children were young. However now we have trouble finding suitable matching free time so when we do it's a whole day. We started at 9:30am - driving - tea and cakeing - walking and mooching - shops, antiques, galleries etc - driving - late lunching at the Artisan Smokehouse yum yum - driving - admiring beautiful landscapes - popped into her house - ending our day with the Bard - really good weather all day AND WE NEVER STOPPED TALKING hahaha

Again Red Rose Chain Theatre have a great success. All the actors were brilliant. They always stick to Shakespeare’s scrip and add. This time it was 60's music, a few song and dance routines, deck chairs and sand and audience participation panto style for the Punch and Judy puppets. The enthusiasm and enjoyment of the cast is contagious and we were well looked after before, in the interval and when leaving by the merry band of crew who are youth theatre volunteers.
We loved it and would highly recommend it.
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