Definitely a Challenge........

I just wanted to give E a nice surprise. She now has her very first independent home, a flat rental that she got the keys for on Friday. Hopefully her boyfriend will join her by the end of the month. Saturday she was in the flat and Daughter and O drove down with a car full of all her stuff. So I ordered a card, a bottle of bubbly and a plant to be delivered on Saturday. 

By the end of Saturday and after lots of messages back and forth with me Daughter and E, I was cross. Sunday morning I sent this which explains why......

Dear Moonpig

     As you can see below I placed an order for three items to be delivered yesterday, Saturday 19th Feb.

     My Granddaughter moved in that day to her first independent home 230 miles away so I couldn't be there for her in person. 

     My order was split with part delivery by Yodel and part by Royal Mail. 

The plant was delivered by Yodel but as it wasn't with the rest she had no idea who sent it. Eventually when I checked the Royal Mail tracking it said "Recipient not at address. Returned to sender".  

     My Granddaughter had obviously popped out just at the wrong time, however there was no failed delivery note put through her door, no attempt to leave it with a neighbour or even to leave it at the post office directly opposite. I cannot contact the local sorting office as they are closed on a Sunday and she works full time so can't be home for another delivery for the whole week.

     Please let me know how we can resolve this. 

I got quite a quick reply, saying how sorry they were, they've resent the order to be delivered on Monday! Of course I replied immediately to remind them that I'd already said she's not there as she works full time. I then asked if they could send to a different address (her dad's) but apparently now dispatched so too late to change anything. Then I received the Royal Mail email with tracking link, so I forwarded that to E for her to change the delivery options, but that forward bounced, twice, saying it was spam! Finally got the information to E by just sending the tracking url and not the whole email. She will collect from the very nearby post office. Monday had the email to say parcel ready for collection, bring ID and the email..... finally got that email to E (servers really don't like forwarding the Royal Mail image).  5pm text from E she had collected and seemed pleased with what I'd sent. Phew! 

As people are still clearing up after Storm Dudley last Wednesday quickly followed by Storm Eunice last Friday Sunday/Monday we have Storm Franklin which will be followed by Storm Gladys but I don't know when they are just saying soon. So that could be four named storms in very quick succession, I've never heard of that before especially affecting the South East! It was sunny but so windy Monday morning we didn't manage coffee morning. 

Tuesday O and the dog were here for the day which was lovely, haven't had O to myself for ages. 
 
I've been booked onto a Diabetic Prevention scheme following a blood test last August which showed me as only just on the border line for pre-diabetes. I've just had the 40 minute phone call for initial assessment and now there follows regular onscreen hour long group sessions that goes on to November and possibly beyond. I've requested another blood test as it may have all changed since last August!  For now I'll see what it's all about as I've nothing much else to do. 

Thursday we were told by Boris we have to "live with covid" as all isolation, mask wearing, compulsory testing, track and trace, covid passport requests, etc have been lifted. Lots of advice though to stay cautious and take personal responsibility which of course Hubby and I definitely will. 

Also on Thursday Putin declared Russia is now at war with Ukrain, to invade and take it as their own! There are many wars around the world, far too many, but this one seems to have further reaching consequences and people here sound worried. 

And my next challenge is to find happier things to report on and provide some lovely photos but that will have to be for next week.

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Celebrations and Uninvited Eunice........

 
Hubby had a big birthday this week

We celebrated the day before with a meal out with friends on the Mariners floating restaurant on Ipswich Waterfront. Bitterly cold outside with a fierce wind but a warm welcome once we'd survived the walk from the car park and got on board. Six of us on a round table and friendM had bought Hubby a cake and candles and the waitress brought that out towards the end and of course all the customers sang along with us. 

He had lots of cards and gifts. 

My gift to him was this crash helmet, which he obviously had to choose for himself. He's taken the big sticker off now 🤣

R and the dog are here for a week so on the day Son and fiancé came over (after work) and we all shared Chinese takeaway mmmmmmmm 
The table was very full for just five of us, but we did our very best 🤣

Their dog kept a very close watch on our dog (would Son's dog and Daughter's dog be cousins?)

And every birthday needs more cake with candles. 

The house is quiet now, it's Wednesday, R went to work, FriendMC came for a two-cuppa visit, Daughter came with O back from their holiday, had lunch gathered up R's and the dog's stuff and went home, the house is quiet now.

 Thursday and the only topic of conversation and news is storm Eunice which is due to hit the UK in the early hours of Friday, coming in from the west so they will be worst hit. Of course with E now living in Dorset it's a worry. And then they gave East Anglia a red warning too! 

Early start Friday with all the neighbours employing their safest wheelie bin tactics, not putting them out too early, tucking them close to walls hedges and even lampposts, then bringing the empty ones in immediately. Looks like we all avoided too much runaway rubbish then neighbourT did a great job of chasing all the flyaway debris up and down the close.

Twice hubby had to brave going out to the garden to rescue the benches which had been roped to the fence but still managed to escape and nearly landed in the pond. 

Unfortunately Friday was the one day we had to go out, a hospital appointment, and I phoned to check that the staff were in and the clinic was running and as it was six months since they last checked on me I really didn't want to cancel. We drove through town which was busier than normal as the Orwell bridge had been closed all day but it was fine and we only had to drive round one fallen tree........ and my procedure result was still cancer clear so well worth the journey! 

This morning Hubby had to repair one fence panel and later needs to repair a shed roof so not bad at all. It's been a lot worse for so many. 

Stay safe.

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Lots Of Sorting.......

 
Quiet weekend and happy to TV watch while it howled outside.

Monday coffee morning was chilly but we sat out there in glorious windless sunshine. We've sort of adjusted into a large circle with one couple on the pavement to get the best of the sun and another couple actually in the road to make it easier to hear everyone. This was disrupted by the van that needed to come up our drive. The carpet fitters had arrived. 

Hubby came in to supervise and I stayed out chatting. It seemed a very short time later when we disbanded and I came in, perfect timing as the carpet men were getting into their van. 

So this......

Became this........

And now the daunting task of putting everything back! 

Daughter and R came on Wednesday morning bearing cake, yummy. 

While they were here Daughter and Hubby washed her car. 

While O was totally engrossed on making domino rally shapes which got far more creative and elaborate than this one. 

We need to gloss over the Thursday quiz as he'd introduced a "What year" round which we were dreadful at! 

Friday R and the dog moved back in about 11am-ish. We all had cups of tea and chat before Daughter and O headed off to Sherwood Forest for their holiday with friends. 

This is a busy weekend ahead with lots of stuff to do today for a social Sunday and celebratory (is that a real word?) Monday, which means hopefully plenty to report on next week. So I'm off to get started on it all.

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A Mostly Food Related Story......

 
Word of the week has been 'windy' cos it has been, making it even chillier, we still managed coffee morning outside though. 

R and the dog are with us Monday to Friday this week while Daughter and O are enjoying their postponed holiday with friends and here we all just slot back into a comfortable pattern of work lifts, meals and what to watch on TV. 

A month after Christmas and managing to run down our stock of food there were no more excuses, so forced ourselves to defrost the freezer! It always seems such a daunting task but actually takes about 60 mins to 90 mins at the most. The longest bit for me is unloading and blocking it all together to avoid thawing and of course the inevitable reloading afterwards. 

This bit in between is hot pans and scraping, which Hubby does as he knows how much I hate cold painful hands. My job is to reboil the water in the pans as they cool (so I spend more time watching him than working 😉).

Daughter had left the remains of her weekly veg box and some of it was not going to last much longer, so with the oven on I roasted the three beetroot which we will eat cold, roasted the one parsnip which I've frozen, on the plate is the leftovers of the savoury wedges we had with our burgers and the large dish is a vegan layered vegetable bake that includes brussel sprouts, carrots, onions and potatoes. The enormous red cabbage looks fresh enough to give her back. 

Late Friday afternoon the holiday makers returned looking very tired, had a cuppa and left with our lodgers. Today of course is not windy at all, it's dry and the sun is out, now there's no dog here that needs walking! 

And that's about all the excitement from this week. I'll try to be more entertaining next week 😉 .

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