Fun and a Little Frustration.......

 
Dog sitting started Saturday off, while Daughter and O took the train to Norwich so O could attend a college workshop for their open day, as he's thinking this might be his next move from home education. 

Saturday evening we drove into Essex and joined friendsN&T together with two friends of theirs to make our team for the WI fundraiser quiz night. At the half way break our team were in the lead (think there were 12 or 14 teams). FriendN had made all the ploughman's suppers which was good. We had a good second half to the quiz but ultimately was overtaken by just two points at the end so finished a very respectable second place. 

On Sunday I had been invited to a surprise baby shower. The baby is now actually three months old but it had been a difficult pregnancy, with a very premature and complicated birth. So the baby's mum's best friends left it till now. The surprise went really well, the weather was perfect, the two main organisers had decorated up and organised games. It was a lovely afternoon. 

We got up Tuesday morning and found two areas of the garden covered in feather carnage, guess the sparrowhawk had hunted a good breakfast. I know it's what they do but I was glad not to have been up early enough to have witnessed it this time.  

Hubby had done lots of gardening whenever it stopped raining and needed a run to the tip on Wednesday with a full car. He'd also helped Daughter on Thursday do a lot of garden clearing, including breaking down R and E's 20 year old garden playhouse which was now beyond repair, so did a second tip run with a full car. Think Daughter has enough for another tip run! 

Gotta have a little grumble too as my doctor's surgery is letting me down, which I have to say has been unusual. I phoned Monday of last week, in the afternoon as the lines wouldn't be so busy and my problem wasn't urgent. I was told they are now a day surgery and I must call back at 8am. Wednesday calling at 8am after being in a long queue for about 40mins I got through and told reception that I wasn't urgent but complex and explained why, and it had to be dealt with by a doctor. Late that day the surgery pharmacist called me. She discussed it all and made suggestions but needed to run it by a doctor before adjusting my meds and prescribing. She rang on Thursday, told me the doctor's suggestion and I agreed..... then she noticed that the new drug wouldn't suit with one of my other drugs, so she needed to go back to the doctor. By this Tuesday afternoon I'd not heard back so Daughter suggested I should fill in the econsult form on the NHS app (not used that before). Wednesday morning a call again from the pharmacist who said the doctor hadn't realised what else I was on.... HADN'T REALISED! I was horrified and told her so. She has now requested I'm given an appointment with a doctor, but it's now Friday and I've heard nothing! 

Sorry to offload but this is my diary so you get my moans as well, but as you know my life is mostly good which I'm always happy to report on. 

Enjoy your Bank Holiday weekend.

.

It Needed Watering..........

 
We are checking the new(ish) rose bed daily as more and more buds are opening up. The plants are all looking strong and healthy, great eh? 

Hubby needed to clear the excess plant from the pond. He always leaves heaps of wet stuff on the side so hidden frogs and insects can escape before it goes into the compost bin. Unfortunately the netting has a large hole in it now, so another job on his to-do list. 

Saturday afternoon-evening we were dog sitting. Fortunately the day before I asked Son what time he was coming and he'd forgotten all about it. They have tickets for Twelfth Night performed in Regent's Park open air theatre and a speedy rearrange meant their tickets weren't wasted. 

Monday another hot and sunny coffee morning outside. 

Our evening was meeting friendsL&K and friendsL&M for dinner in Chelmsford (sort of half way between us). The pub had their quiz night going which thankfully wasn't too loud to spoil our conversation but unfortunately just loud enough to hear bits of questions which were distracting hahaha.

Tuesday lunchtime the xBT team from work met in our favourite pub. Just three team members this time (we were only five but L died almost a year ago and R was unwell) B and I brought our spouses so a table of five and lots to chat about.  

Thursday and the second day of almost constant rain. I didn't bother getting dressed till nearly lunchtime and while up there managed a token bit of ironing, but really it's a good day for reading a book. This was passed on to me quite a while ago

Interesting but it's slow going as it's printed in a tiny font. I'm on page 206 of 307 so a few more rainy days will help. 

And then the sun came out and Hubby is already mowing and bagging what won't fit in the compost bins to take to the tip. 

I'd better show some action too, so I'll sign off for now.

.

Helping When We Can.........

 We never plan to do too much on a bank holiday weekend as often the traffic is really bad, the venue is crowded and the weather can be bad too. So we were around for Doggy Day Care, Friday into the evening, Saturday morning and Monday afternoon while Daughter and O are being Tudors, R had her theatre group performing for the first time (I read a great review) and M was teaching. 

Hubby watched the Ipswich Town v Huddersfield football game. The Ipswich win gave them promotion to the Premier League and after waiting 20+ years the crowd went wild, in fact Ipswich wildly celebrated all weekend. 

Sunday morning Son called in, we haven't seen him since our holiday. While we were chatting I asked how his fitness and sponsorship were going for the Scafell Pike charity hike he's about to do (less than three weeks time), he said the fund could do with another push so I posted it again on my Facebook page and two of my friends donated, which was so kind of them. Jake, the founder, is fiancé's nephew. 

Monday morning we had coffee morning in the garden for the first time this year. It was warm enough most of the time, chilly a little of the time and trying to rain a couple of times. It was nice though not to be so many in our dining room as it gets so noisy. It did rain for some of the afternoon so we definitely were lucky. 

NeighbourA brought over her husband's jumper that he had splashed with bleach to ask if there was a way I could repair it. I do have fabric paints but told her they didn't seem to do well over bleach. She said she'd try to sew over the stains with a dark grey thread. 

Tuesday morning I pulled out all my old kit to see what I still had. You might think it odd that I needed to check but I had been a Tri-Chem sales demonstrator/teacher in 1983! It was run as party plan so I worked evenings after Hubby got home from work. I did really well and during my four years with them I rose to their second level manager and recruited quite a few into my team. As a craft person I was doing a job I really enjoyed. 

I popped over to friendA's who had already tried stitching it all but as that wasn't successful I said I'd give it a go. 

It took me quite a while to unpick her tiny tiny stitches. As well as embroidery scissors and tweezers I needed to double up my specs and use the magnifying stand with the spot light on. I managed to get the tips out of old paint tubes (they should work like ball point pens but don't anymore)  and had to mix two to get a reasonable colour match. 

I'm quite pleased with the result. Now it will be a wait and see how it survives being washed. 

I hope you've had the really good weather we have had as the rest of our week had been a lot of garden, Hubby gardening (needing two tip runs) and me mostly wandering round, fish watching by the pond, and generally relaxing.

Strawberries and cream anyone?

.

Stupid Blip Amongst The Good.......

 
It was only last week we called out the British Gas engineer as the water wasn't heating up. He fixed it by replacing a worn out part (Hubby did tell me details but I can't remember what) he was at the boiler, up in the loft and in the airing cupboard and while he was here he did a service on the boiler as that will be due soon anyway. This Sunday morning I found my box of pills, which sit under the boiler and thankfully in a sealed plastic box, had a huge puddle in the lid. Hubby called British Gas and an engineer came the same morning. It turned out to be a small pipe that needed replacing and not caused by the previous engineer just coincidence. 

Lovely sunny Wednesday and Hubby took advantage by cutting back the hedge. Nice weather also brings out neighbours to chat. 

I had a lunch date with friendM and we never run out of conversation. 

Local election day Thursday. Not an easy decision this year. We always try to agree so Hubby and I vote the same, otherwise I feel we just cancel each other out so no point even going. 

Arrgghhhh I've lost count of the times I've said "if it looks too good to be true then it probably is" however I stupidly got caught without doing all my usual checks. It was an ad on Facebook that looked like it genuinely came from amazon and it was only £2 so if it turned out to be rubbish I haven't lost much. After doing all the order form and placing the order it told me a different name would appear on my statement. Amazon sell for all sorts of companies so I wasn't immediately suspicious but a bit later I was curious so went to Google....... it was definitely a scam, I'd get no product at all and they have my credit card details! Stupid! I've now cancelled my card and waiting for a new card to arrive (which was also a long story I won't bore you with).

Friday evening (while Hubby was home dog sitting) friendKK and I went to our local John Mills theatre. 

When we arrived there was an Irish band playing in the bar and we were told there will be a Ceili/Ceilidh after the play. 

The play was brilliant, two actors that worked so hard to bring so many characters to life for us. Humour and sadness together. 

And afterwards friendKK danced getting overheated with a roll neck jumper on and clomping a bit in her riding boots. I found watching very entertaining.