All Under Control - maybe.........

 
Son and fiancé spent lots of Saturday here with us, their little dog was with them of course. Lunch, afternoon tea, constant conversation and present swapping as they are off to Cornwall for Christmas and New Year.

The last few things I've had on order have now arrived, so that saves me the postage stress. I'm still stuck on what to give Hubby though, but amazon have kindly given me a free prime trial account so if I suddenly have a brainwave I could get it next day. I've notes and reminders set up to make sure I cancel the prime account before I get charged for it. 

We've had our only social Christmas meal with friends this week. The hotel restaurant almost empty and just six of us spaced round a large table. Sadly two of our friends had to cancel as their son had tested positive. Think we made enough noise to make it feel like a room full. 

I've been itching for ages to try making crumpets and this first attempt was quite successful. Think next time I'll have the pan a little cooler so they cook slower and I need to experiment with different utensils as my metal tongs slipped on the stainless steel rings. 

I'm wrapping the presents this weekend. Daughter has brought over the vegan main bit to be in place of the turkey for three of them, all the veg is vegan anyway of course. Hubby has the shopping booked in for next week. So I can relax before all the cooking starts and then have family fun. 

I may not get a chance to post another update so I'll wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

Like Liverpool Street Station...........

 
I don't like football but don't mind Hubby watching while I'm on my tablet, in fact I rarely look up, however, Sunday's Arsenal v Chelsea women's game made me keep looking up as I was so impressed with the Wembley lawn pattern! 
The groundsmen deserve a trophy! 

I'm actually reading a book! 

Ron is a very dear friend of ours and this is his first published book and so far there are two others to follow. Fiction based on fact which I believe are from his own life. He's been retired for quite a few years and has finally found the time to fulfil a long held dream of being a published author. 

This has been a manic week for Daughter working both weekends at Kentwell as the only piper from the twelve days of Christmas, plus all week days with three others performing (mostly her production) The Tailor of Gloucester and Carol sing-along which follows dinner and tour of Layer Marney Tower, plus a morning midweek performing with the Colchester Waites. Therefore we have lots of grandchildren and dog comings and goings and lifts and feeding in various combinations. 

Monday was R,O and the dog here all day. They said that was the day they would do our decorations. Our grandchildren have done our decorations since the girls were three years old. Today Daughter got them both up early and dropped them here at 8:30am. They both had breakfast then worked well unpacking and building the tree and started decorating it until they both ran out of steam...... at 9:30am hahaha

So with the Elves on strike Hubby and I have done the rest. 

Friday included E who as well as working from home also had a job interview on zoom and here was more convenient for that. We had a bit of desk moving so she had a suitable background as we have so many windows in that room that would cause her to be just a silhouette, but facing the windows would give our gym equipment and craft shelves as a background. She managed to find a good spot. 

Meanwhile in the lounge was R, O, Hubby and myself with the dog hoping she wouldn't find too much to bark at out of the front window. E thinks the interview went well apart from her briefly losing her voice. 

Lovely seeing Daughter every day who has stayed for a cuppa and chat at both dropping off and picking up times. 

Outside of this busy venue there's been worrying news of how fast the omicron variant is spreading plus it's getting really cold although we haven't had any snow here so far, so I'm pleased to stay home. 

Three jabs, mask and sanitiser still seem the best protection, so please keep yourself safe, protect others and don't take chances in crowded places. 

And finally if you've any suggestions on what I can buy Hubby for Christmas I'd be so grateful.

. 

Lots of Buying.......

 
You may remember Hubby wanting to rearrange the lounge because he sits a little twisted to watch TV (has done for about 18 years) and is now getting a sore back. He has moved this very heavy furniture around a few times but no other configuration has worked totally, so he then talked about removing the chimney breast which would consequently mean rewiring power, aerial, Internet, sky box to dish and who knows what else to get tv and all the stuff that goes with it to the other side of the room, which would involve lifting carpets and moving furniture upstairs too. Phew he thankfully talked himself out of that option. 

I suggested he could change the three seater sofa to a two seater and add a single chair for himself that he could place angled directly facing the TV leaving the lounge with the social dynamics that already work and more importantly me and my stuff can stay as we are. Off to the shop we bought this suite from and ordered his chair, which is a rocking swivel recliner (he'll never want to leave it) Only downside is there's a 15 week delivery,  but he's waited this long so a little more won't matter! Apparently this now allowed going into the next store to buy the bigger TV!!! (Not so old one on the floor, very new one in the box while he puts the stand together). Hubby's happy. 

 

We've got through this pandemic, especially the lockdowns, with social media and knowing we have great neighbours. As I've mentioned many times we have enjoyed our "end of your own drive coffee mornings" every Monday since March 2020 only missing a few when weather stopped us. One of the neighbours wanted to acknowledge what good friends we are and arranged lunch at the local hotel. So Monday after sitting out in the cold with blankets and hot water bottles, nine of us went for lunch and it was lovely having conversations in the warm.

I'd organised the Christmas meal for the team I used to work with and partners for 20th December and we were all really looking forward to it as we couldn't do it last Christmas and only managed to get together for a lunch once this year. Sadly with the omicron variant being found in East Anglia and one of our group now on chemo and two others vulnerable we've decided to cancel. Have to stay positive though and hope we can soon socialise worry free. 

Late panic Friday evening due to Daughter's fridge freezer dying, so I managed to clear two whole shelves in my nearly full freezer by moving, over stacking and squashing (I may never find what I need again) and she promptly came round and filled them. Stayed long enough to have a cuppa and order another fridge freezer with delivery next Thursday. We all have a very busy week ahead so then had to work out who could be at her's to take delivery! 

Think I'm starting to get on top of the prezzie buying too, just hoping the stuff I have on order all arrives in time. 

Wrap up warm and stayed masked and enjoy your week.

.

Storm Arwen......

 
Really lovely visit from Son on Sunday, it seemed ages since we last saw him. 

I'd made the most of Saturday while Hubby was out fundraising, and stripped our bed and washed it all after I'd already done three machine loads which all has to go on clothes horses upstairs, then remade our bed, plus a few other jobs, which meant lots of up-and-down the stairs, so I enjoyed just sitting and chatting to Son on Sunday even more. 

SisterP reminded us this week of some photos as she had saved them digitally to save online, and sent myself and sisterS copies. 
It was 1985 and we managed to get the whole family to meet at a photographic studio in Ilford Essex. Not easy finding a date we could all do and a couple could only get there late while a couple had to leave early but we managed. 

The reason was to get the best present for our parents' combined birthdays and upcoming 45th wedding anniversary. 

At that time they had...

Five children

Four children's spouses

And seven grandchildren. 

Their family portrait was huge and framed and hung on their wall until mum moved into sheltered housing in 2008 and of course it was immediately hung there. 

While we were at the studio we arranged for each family to pose, just the children to pose, just the siblings and also one of just the men, which we all chose to have small prints of in a concertina wallet. 

This was us way back then (I loved that curly perm). 

Unfortunately the quality of the studio's developing was seriously lacking and all the ones we framed and displayed have faded and even though sisterP had kept her wallet in a draw these images are poor but still a wonderful reminder of a fun day with my wonderful family. 

Tuesday O and the dog were here while Daughter was working. O wanted me to measure him against the bathroom doorframe, our permanent record,

and wow he had grown 2 inches in 2 months! He's been taller than me for a long time 😂

I'm worried about friendL who we should have lunched with last week but her and her husband had tested positive. Scarily she was taken into hospital earlier this week as she has asthma and was suffering. She is on the Covid ward so very very limited visiting. We play "Words With Friends" (online scrabble) together anyway so I'm trying to take my turn and get the games back to her as soon as I can to help with her distraction. Keeping everything crossed for her 🤞

Storm Arwen is threatening all sorts of horrid weather this weekend. Hubby and the SERVSC gang should be doing a two day fundraiser event, however where they pitch is on concrete so they can't anchor the gazebo down and there's very high winds forecast..... so at 6:30am today it was cancelled and everyone was informed..... then at 7:45am when it still looked quite calm through the window event leader was having second thoughts and messages were going back and forth. So hard dealing with a storm but even harder trying to deal with the anticipation of a storm! Pleased I'm not involved. 

So batten down your hatches if you need to. I'm off to make another cuppa.

. 

Yummy Eating Week........

I ended the last post with our beautiful tulip tree in gold so I thought I'd start this post sharing our beech tree while it's a stunning burnt orange. I love autumn! 

Hubby still had to mow the lawn this week, mid-November and it's still growing thick and fast! Beautiful when the sun comes out but chillier now and needed coat and gloves for coffee morning. 

Tuesday had a lovely catchup lunch with friendM. We went to Belstead Brook Hotel (they have a midweek pensioners special deal) two courses and coffee. This was my treat as friendM had a birthday just before she went on holiday so a postponed celebration. In fact Thursday we had another postponed celebration for her birthday but as our usual group of six event. We went to a Vietnamese restaurant I'd not been to before. They don't have a website so can't add a link. It was all really lovely food and they were happy to present the birthday cake with candles that we'd brought in. Funny when they just plunged the whole restaurant into darkness and walked over with the cake singing happy birthday 🎂 

Well after all the years of being told to keep switching our energy suppliers to maintain the best deals our supplier was one of those that sank under the pressure of rising prices in their supplies. Hubby has just had bills in and has now calculated that with People's Energy we were paying £85.77 per month and we were left with some credit in our account, but now with British Gas we have to pay £227.28 per month!!! I'm lost for words! 

And Friday lunch was out to The Square and Compasses with friendsL&K. Sadly there should have been six of us but friendsL&M are at home in bed suffering with covid even though M is triple jabbed and L is double jabbed, in fact her booster should have been the day she tested positive! 

Please remember it's still out there and nobody is 100% protected so carry on doing all you can to stay safe.

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Making An Early Start........

 
You may remember that last week's post ended on a cliffhanger as Hubby and I had just had PCR tests....... both negative! 

Also pleased to report that M and O who were both positive are not suffering symptoms apart from O having some very minor smell issues. Daughter and R are still negative so fingers crossed it stays that way. 

I've made a start on writing the Christmas cards. Thankfully they can just stay out on the table as I can't sit for long so I write a few then go off and do something else and maybe pop back to write a few more. 

A lot of our Suffolk cards will be delivered by the Scouts. They provide a great service every year, saving me more than half the cost of a stamp, saving me having to hand deliver very local ones and raising substantial and much needed funds for the scout groups involved. Only downside is they have to go into their collection boxes quite early. 

I've started buying a few bits towards Christmas presents and making a few too, none of which I can tell you about here of course. 

So as nothing else has happened this week I'll share my beautiful tulip tree wearing autumn gold. You may just spot Hubby busy vacuuming up the leaves although it is a bit windy so more are falling all the time. I doubt it will be long before the tree is naked. 

Same time same place next Saturday then? 

Stay safe.

. 

Testing Times..........

 
Sunday night Halloween dinner here as Daughter back late from Kentwell and collecting R and the dog anyway, plus O enjoys being the one to hand out the sweets to the trick-or-treaters. No pumpkins carved this year but R and O did decorate outside and our table. No special spooky recipes this year either just these dumpling skulls (which look a bit more like mummy heads than skulls) as requested by O, they topped the swampy veg casserole to go with a table full of normal stuff. 

They left soon after dinner so no going out in the garden to see the witches fly over and hopefully collect the sweets they drop, even O is now too old for that. In fact O didn't even want a handful of sweets from the stash even though R took a good handful home with her. End of another era eh? 

The dog went home Sunday night and was back again Tuesday as O wanted to go to the HE roller skating session at Bury St Edmunds which left nobody at home! 

She was supposed to come back Thursday as Emma and O had planned a day in London, however on Wednesday M had to go for a PCR test as he'd had a couple of positive home tests. So everyone in their house is playing safe and are staying home. They were all here Sunday and two of them again Tuesday so Hubby and I did LFTs and they were both negative.

M had a positive PCR. Daughter, R and O had negative LFTs, then O had a positive LFT on Thursday, so the three of them went for PCRs and the girls were negative but sadly O was positive. Daughter had a track and trace chap on the phone for 40 mins asking every possible detail more than once and because we had contact with them recently our details were given. Daughter phoned to warn us. Then very soon afterwards Hubby and I both got texts and had to fill out online forms and book tests for Saturday morning. 

We've just got back, that was efficient but horrible of course. 

And really there's nothing else to report on. I've been slowly re-patching some very worn bits on my patchwork peg bag. Another huge amount of soft toys landed here that all need to go through the washing/ drying/ brushing up process. Plus the Christmas cards and list are ready for me to start writing, always a daunting prospect but fine once I get started. 

Enjoy the weekend, and hope any fireworks are a pleasure not a problem.

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A Week For Five........

 
Gosh it's Wednesday already and these are the first words I'm writing here. We've R and O and the dog staying here this week, so noisier and busier and more cooking and conversations and all good fun. Last night O chose this as our evening film as he's going through 80's films at the moment. 

Hubby has now tiled the splash back in the toilet and hung a new mirror so it's finished apart from cleaning up the sealant round the tiles, which is awful stuff and never goes just where you want it! 

I've also unpacked a mountain of donated soft toys, washed, dried and repacked them ready for the next SERVSC event.

This is a totally worn out dog! 

In fact we are all worn out and very relieved. She has total freedom in our dog proof garden.... or so we thought! She'd been outside quite a while and when I called her in there was no response, she wasn't in the garden and wasn't back in the house, so the search began. About an hour later she came home and the search was called off. There was a little blood on one paw but she's walking fine and she let R and me have a good look and poke between claws etc so can't be anything serious. We will never know how she got out or where she went but for now she's lost the freedom of our garden being the only place she could go without supervision. Hubby has since checked our CCTV and thinks he found where she escaped and has done yet another dog proofing fix, fingers crossed! 

Apparently my craft room has the most suitable sized floor space for the VR equipment O brought with him. 

And added to his 80s films watched list is now this

M came Friday and took O home, R and the dog stayed. Daughter comes home Sunday early evening so it's all here for a Halloween dinner. 

Have a spooky weekend and don't forget clocks go back.

. 

Not All Moans........

 
Technology is wonderful....... when it works! 

So frustrating when it doesn't! 

Saturday morning the Hermes delivery man rang the doorbell, he had a parcel for next door and we are the default if he's not in. Our Hermes chap is so lovely and knows us all by name and takes great pride in customer service, always pleasant chat but brief as he has so many deliveries to make in the shortest time possible. However this time his gadget wouldn't work. He has to have a photo of the parcel barcode with our doorstep or shoe and upload it to their system as proof of delivery. It took two full reboots and a lovely long conversation before he could shoot off.

Saturday evening I took my phone out of my pocket to see if it needed plugging in and that's when I noticed two WhatsApp messages and a text I'd missed from noon. They were from Daughter who was going to visit but getting no reply assumed we were out. My phone had failed to make the usual sounds grrrrrrrr

We have a printer and it's on our WiFi network, however, when it goes to sleep it's always a nightmare getting it to wake up (yes the printer is asleep and I'm the one having the nightmare).

On a much brighter note O and the dog spent a day here. He's fun company who loves to play games with me plus he spent ages creating shapes with this magnet construction set. It's a very small set that we've had since Son was a child. Now I think I'll add to it within this year's Christmas presents.

This came as shocking news this week. 

Thankfully Hubby and I had our booster this week but still not taking chances and masked most of the time we are out. 

Another job for Hubby when Daughter phoned to say that a whole run of coving had come down in their hallway. 

I was asked to do a little fix too, our NeighbourA brought in the church clock because when the sun shines on it the gold coloured hands can't be seen clearly, so he wanted them painted black. A little daunting as once you start it can't be cleaned off, however I was pleased with the result and so was NeighbourA. 

And now we have another busy but fun week of R and the dog living with us plus O comes for three days next week too. 

Have a good weekend.

. 

Chilly But Still Sunny............

 
Not the best start to this week as barely Saturday 4am during my usual bathroom trip, mostly with my eyes shut, all three middle toes on my right foot met, with conviction, my bedroom door frame!!! Well aware of Hubby still fast asleep I didn't scream out, made it to the bathroom and back, and even though I did manage to get back to sleep my foot throbbed. 

The day got better (even though my foot didn't) when we went to Son's to have a birthday lunch with him and Fiancé. 

Daughter and O came on Sunday for a long awaited visit. O had now almost got over his cough and cold so they no longer felt the need to keep their distance. Daughter brought with her a box for me from our lovely friendM 

It was a partly knitted project which I believe her mum had given up on. It's really lovely soft wool and isn't it a beautiful colour. I'm sure I can put it to good use. Thank you friendM 😍

You may remember, I certainly do, that during the second lockdown when the weather wasn't so good and Hubby spent too much time sitting in the lounge, he tried a new furniture layout and failed on finding a better layout to what we already have! At least the heavy stuff got a rare clean at the back. Well......... now the toilet makeover is almost finished (we are still waiting for the tiles we ordered) he's very keen to change the lounge again!!! This time he's thinking about knocking out the whole chimney breast, but thankfully I've got him measuring and transferring to paper to see what fits where rather than physically starting with the demolition

Both had our flu jabs this week. Not suffering too much, both had one restless night and both have achy arms. Hopefully will just be a distant memory when we have the Covid booster next week. 

M bought his first company car and true to all his beliefs on planet protection he bought all electric. 

And all too soon it's Saturday again! 

Hope you've had a good week.

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Jobs They Love.........

 
Well it seems to be a much of a muchness week so far as nothing different happened at the weekend and quite an empty calender apart from Hubby doing a SERVSC talk Tuesday evening and Son coming Wednesday for a visit but mainly to collect wood. A neighbour's daughter had had some big trees cut down and Son is getting a wood burner very soon. Thankfully he has somewhere he can keep the logs to dry and season before he'll need them.

Hubby was bricklayer for two different neighbours. He repaired the bottom of this wall that someone had knocked over while parking.  

And repaired the step for next door as lots of loose bricks had become dangerous. 

This week on social media I've seen both E at work, setting up a museum exhibition

And R at work, running a theatre workshop

All of a sudden our little girls are working adults!

Friday was another have the dog day. 7am till 9:45pm ish. R had the free time (rare these days) to see her dad for the weekend but he couldn't meet Daughter half way this time so they were driving all the way to Weymouth. O really wanted to do tourist things so they left early to spend some time there before Daughter and O drove back. 

The dog was fine as always until the window cleaner came and of course she barked when he arrived and wanted to bark at every window so Hubby took her for a walk.

Even when they got back she kept watching him. 

I've read a great phrase on fb and had to share it. The conversation was about buying good underwear and one woman said she has just bought a couple of brilliant sheepdog bras that round them up and point them in the right direction! 😂

On that thought I'll love you and leave you to whatever you have on this weekend. Today is Son's birthday, and I'm still trying to decide what to wear when we go over to see him as it changes from warm to chilly to wet and windy so quickly at the moment.

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Takes Energy.......

 
Started the week in a bit of confusion. We had made very convenient arrangements for R to be home Monday for her driving lesson at noon that fitted in with M coming to use our gym stuff and the dog being looked after while we were down the drive at coffee morning....... then her driving lesson changed to 9am! Plan B was M coming to collect R and the dog at 8:45am however at 8:15am M messaged to say he'd managed to lock himself and O out of the house and it's raining. Plan C became waking up R and Hubby taking her and the dog home as she has a house key! 

Sunday we had a lovely visit from my nieceV, her husbandD and their two children C age 5 and R age 3. We certainly don't see family enough as we all live quite far apart. V's family live in Surrey but had spent the weekend on the Norfolk coast so included a stop here on their way home. 

It stayed a social week as I met friendM for lunch Tuesday, E called round Tuesday evening, we were out with the usual Wednesday gang that evening

and lunch with friendsL&K on Thursday.

Hubby brought in all the green tomatoes that had grown behind the pump box, they'll never ripen behind there, so green tomato chutney it is. 

Gosh how the weather has changed. We didn't actually manage to get through till October as Thursday 29th September the heating went on, but only for a two hour "take the chill off" boost. 

We've also been hit by the energy companies collapsing, ours went and we got moved to British Gas which will be much more expensive. When it all calms down we'll see what other options are still available. 

That's about it for another week. Take care.

. 

Quiet But Not Boring..........

 
It has proved quite difficult to find containers that are as narrow as the toilet shelves and there are quite a few things we don't actually need on full display, so I made this one and it looks OK, so I need to make another then I'll run out of that white fabric. 

There's another fundraiser this Saturday so Hubby collected all the soft toys in black bags from the lockup and we've sorted and on soft toy washing again. 

I've been sorting out books and starting to bag the ones that need to go (orange bags) and of course those lovely clean teddies are getting bagged and stacked, all out of the way in the office. Now heard that R and the dog are moving in again Friday to Tuesday, so this and more........

all had to clear as that's their bed space! 

Actually there isn't anything else to report on this week as I'm quietly content at home while outside there's panic buying at the fuel pumps, lots of blaming Brexit and the pandemic causing employment disruption of lorry drivers therefore supplies of everything not getting to the right places and serious lack of CO2 which means all the food that makes it to the supermarket shelves is going to go off anyway! Meanwhile I've a few more toys that need repairing. 

Hope you can keep smiling through the crazy and have a good week.

. 

Volunteers Are Awsome..........

 
SERVSC = Service by Emergency Response Volunteers Suffolk and Cambridgeshire - often called Bloodrunners. 

Hubby has been an active member for nearly 10 years and seven of those he was on the trustees committee and events manager. I'm very proud of what he does and what the whole charity does to save the NHS thousands of pounds every year. Last year was their tenth anniversary and they delayed any celebrating until they could do it face to face. Saturday was a bbq, with partners invited and it stayed dry and sunny. 

NeighbourS happened to mention that her daughter had brought home a big bag of onions from her allotment and nobody was using them so she might as well throw them away NOOOOOOO! NeighbourC and I made her get them and we shared the bag between us. I've just filled six little jars with caramelised onion chutney.  Yummy. 

I took a little jar to neighbourS as a thank you for the onions. 

Granddaughter E lives most of the time with her boyfriend in a house shared with others. A few of them tested positive for covid so they are all isolating and being very careful. Unfortunately E has also now tested positive even though she was quite unwell with covid last Christmas and suffered a bit after both first and second jabs and you would hope she'd built up a good amount of immunity she still managed to catch it again! 

Another lunch catchup, this time with friendLE and friendSG. Last get together was before Christmas 2019 so plenty to talk about. We went to our usual local pub but the food was not good, two of us had chicken escalope which were both burnt round the edges and the other chicken salad was pathetic and definitely overpriced. When S ordered the creme brulee they had run out of main ones and she agreed to have two mini ones instead, they were so mini she could hardly get a teaspoon in the dish. We will find somewhere else! 

Starting to have a major book sort out, mainly because a whole bookcase was ejected from the downstairs toilet and I've nowhere to relocate it, and should be easier now to donate to a charity shop. But first I think I will sort and take some photos to see if any of my friends or neighbours want them. 

This could take quite some time! 

Here the forecast is sunny Saturday but wet Sunday, hope that fits with your weekend plans. Stay safe of course.

. 

Plus a Little Toilet Talk..........

 
Woops, made a carrot and nut cake to use up the carrots before they went soft and floppy, however we were busy doing other stuff at the same time so plonked it into sandwich tins that were a bit small and then I forgot about it so it was in the oven far too long, then ran out of icing sugar so only about half the amount of butter cream filling than I'd prefer. Very tall and a bit dry but we ate it all over a few days. 

I've a passion for jugs, I've probably mentioned it before. Today (Monday) I went to have my nails done. This lovely nail technician and I go back many years now and for most of them she came to my house, although post-pandemic I go to her's as she has a more covid safe setup. Today sitting on her side table was a gift she had specially bought for me. A beautiful jug and a beautiful thoughtful gift. 

Tuesday and we are back to the 7am alarm! MS is the guy doing all the tricky bits for the toilet makeover and he arrived at 8am! MS is quite well known locally as a professional footballer he played for Ipswich for about 18 years and then went onto being a football manager elsewhere. For the last 14 years or so he's run his own business as a kitchen and bathroom fitter. 

He arrived at 8:30am and the water went off, went back on around noon. He left about 2:30pm having redone all the pipework, putting a sealant on the floor and letting that dry, finally covering the floor with a liquid leveler which now needs to dry overnight. 

Pleased to have the house to ourselves for the rest of the afternoon as we needed to get ready for a (third time pandemic rearranged) wedding reception. 

Lovely wedding in lovely venue. Evening entertainment was ceilidh dancing and food was a good flow of fresh cooked pizzas coming out of the patio pizza oven. Some parts of the evening felt like too many people too close so I stepped right back, didn't bother Hubby though. Pleased they got their wedding.

By the end of MS's day two it looked like this

Wednesday night we managed eight of us in our usual pub because friendHM wanted to come and she hadn't been out with us for over two years. In fact she brought my Christmas present from last year as we kept missing each other. I've still got her's here. 

Thursday Daughter had asked us to dog sit as they were all going to be out and since all the lockdowns the dog wasn't used to being left anymore. Of course we are still having the loo done and MS needs the front door open as he's cutting all the wood on the drive and working out of his van. So dog and I were mostly shut in the lounge with access to the garden. Grass was quite wet in the morning and stopping her on the towels to dry her paws was hit and miss. 

Turned out the dog was the easiest bit of the day. About 11:30am there was a power cut and as loads of the neighbours came out we discovered it affected most of the street. Hubby reported it online and by noon the engineers had been dispatched. UKNP were really good at regular text updates and the "expected to be fixed by 2pm" gradually got updated until power was finally restored at midnight!!! It took four UKPN vans, a digger and yet another van to come and fix the digger and lots of noisy drilling on the drive of the house half way down, so their cars came up into our drive. 

Of course MS mostly uses power tools so he did as much as he could but couldn't finish the job as expected and left. 

We are all electric, so we had to steal hot water for a cuppa from next door as he had a gas hob. Next door wasn't actually home but we have a key and he came home and caught Hubby in the act, which was funny, so once the water was boiled he joined us for tea in our garden. 

Considering MS was in and out, the power men were up on our drive lots, the postman had been, neighbours had all been there chatting and we'd had a sainsbury food delivery the dog had been brilliant and stopped barking immediately when told to. 

Daughter arrived about 5:30ish to collect the dog and she set up her camping stove and we all had tea. Dinner was from the chip shop. 

Cordless phones were a bother with constant 'battery low' beeping and flashing. In the end Hubby hid the downstairs one in the office with the door shut. Then just as we were falling asleep about 11pm the bedroom one started with the beeping and flashing so Hubby ran down to join it with its sibling. 

As evening drew in the candles got lit. We also found that putting small torches into our lounge uplighters gave off a reasonable glow. And we still managed to do our Thursday online quiz on my tablet. 

Using my mifi gadget and a couple of small battery packs we managed to keep going till about 10:30pm and then when the update came through that there would not be power till 1am we turned off our connections to the outside world and went to bed. 

11:54pm the bedside radio alarm came on, so the power was back! 

About 4am Hubby noticed lots of downstairs lights were on so he came down to turn them off and back to bed. I'd been up at 1:45 for the bathroom and I think that's when all the vans left. Life is rarely boring here, day or night.

Friday morning and all seemed back to normal apart from the huge hole in the pavement down our close. Fridge and freezer stuff all survived, lounge table under the spilled candle wax puddle looked undamaged, MS was back to carry on where he left off. 

I went out to lunch with friendM. We went to The Butt and Oyster at Pin Mill

One of my favourite places that's quite local. We sat outside as the view is stunning. There was some heavy rain which made us move but only to the next vacant table that had an umbrella. 

Remember this

Well it now looks like this

Enjoy your weekend.

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