Lotus stress.

The lotus started first time, after I'd put the roof down to remove the battery charger & put everything back together. It went very well all the way to the garage, where it failed it's MOT because the brake blocks & pads were rusty. Bother! Aj followed me to the garage & we went to Ventura Park, had coffee & almond croissant in M&S & a potter around the shops for a couple of hours until we could collect the car. We filled in a SORN online, so that the car police will not break into the garage, steal the car away & crush it, under cover of darkness. We had smoked haddock for lunch then aj went home as she has a squash match this evening. I was getting stuck in with some housework when Scholl phoned to say that I hadn't been for a pedicure for some time, & make me a good offer. Actually, I hadn't been for about eight years so Scholl must be desperate foe clients. Anyway, I took off my pinny & rubber gloves, literally speaking, & headed off for Sutton Coldfield for a footy treat. My feet were declared to be in good order & came out feeling ten years younger. I did catch up on the housework when I got home, so didn't eat until 9.00pm. (yes, more salmon, salad for a change) I feel a bit dismal , I must do some positive thinking - hedge, feet, weight, garden, the bit I've done, hairdo tomorrow, weekend, holiday. I haven't even finished the wine that we opened last night. Low calorie hot chocolate & bed.

How about a comment?

Today has been a Thomas day. We have had a great time - visited Knowle on the way to collect Thomas, walked home with T on his bike, only one spill! We went to Brueton Park to see the ducks, etc. T is learning all of their names. We walked across the park to Solihull, Macdonalds for lunch, a little light shopping then back in time to collect Jessie from school. Both T & J had a "Maths Wizard" award, so were in a good position to take part in the maths trail after school - quizzes around the school& playground with mathematical answers. Full marks, so another award each before home for tea & some play, before P came home. Aj & I have just had some wonderful salmon & a mountain of vegetables for dinner, with a nice bottle of sauvignon blanc, as a treat. G has returned from a two day rafting adventuer in Katmandu, in preparation for an eight day trek in the foothills of the Himalayas, with Peter Talbot & his grandson, Jack, starting on 1 April. Lotus in for an MOT tomorrow, so fingers crossed, first that it will start, after months of inertia.

All's well.

We had a great day yesterday, the Bishop 's service was memorable, about thirty people came to lunch - sherry followed by cottage pie with a variety of greens, spotted dick, blackberry sponge, trifle & banoffee pie, with cream & custard. Aj & I did a run around afterwards, swapping coats of Arthur & Peter Pears, keys in pockets, then clearing up. The icing on the gingerbread was the farmer arriving on a very big tractor to cut the field hedge, at tea-time. All was vacuumed & back to normal by 8.30pm, with a pleasing £350 profit. Today has been a sunny day, 13 degrees; we have been out & about - Coleshill, Kenilworth, then Solihull for coffee at M&S, combined with a little light shopping. We have had a Waitrose meal, for a change - piri piri chicken then fruit jelly. Great news about DK's gut & W's weight. I've lost 7.5 kg, half way there!

Busy, busy, busy.

Contrary to blog rumour, I'm a pretty busy person & mentally, quite stable & self-sufficient.
G being away gives me more to do to keep the home fires burning, as it were & socially, life is more demanding.
I have had no complaints from Thomas with regards to the level of conversation today & Aj & I have just watched Mastermind, & managed to answer a fair number of questions.

It has been a glorious day again, but will be 10 degrees colder tomorrow according to a Dad on the school playground.
Perhaps he was misguided.
I went to the gym this morning before collecting Thomas from nursery.
We had our Friday lunchtime boiled eggs with soldiers, a snooze & then went to the park, T on his scooter, me on foot, jogging to keep up. After an amazingly long session on a swing, we went to collect Jessie from school, then home for tea. Due to all this exercise, T put himself to bed & was fast asleep by the time I put the tea on the table.
Aj & I have had pan fried salmon & a mountain of vegetables for dinner; we are watching Frank Skinner on TV.
Good stuff.
Early morning to do the shopping for Sunday lunch.
Solihull or Ventura Park?

Happy Birthday B.

What a fantastic day for a birthday, warm & sunny all day.
I think that it was B's fifth birthday when the weather was like it has been today & we had a picnic lunch in the garden.
Can B really be 35 today.

He certainly doesn't look that old & I'm sure that I'm not old enough to have a son that age.

I should have taken him out to lunch instead of working all day.
Never mind.
I have achieved a great deal - ironing done by 7.00am, cup of tea & a chat to aj, then windows cleaned inside & out.
There should be a proverb that says that cleaning one side of a window merely shows how dirty the other side is!
I cleaned & vacuumed downstairs & laid the tables ready for lunch on Sunday, when 35 - 40 people are coming, raising funds for church.
Tomorrow is a Thomas day & Saturday will be a shopping & cooking day, so I needed to get organised.
I have gardened all afternoon, finishing the rockery, the bed by the conservatory & round the house as far as the front door.
I came in at 6.45pm, exhausted.
I've slept that off, for the last hour.
I shall never know what the DIY rescued house looked like!
Aj is coming tomorrow, the only family member to visit me since G went away thirteen weeks ago.
We shall enjoy the shopping & mass catering at the weekend, I hope.

Another fine day forecast for tomorrow.

home again.

I went to see JR on Sunday evening & have just got home.
We went to Frinton on Monday, it was a glorious sunny day & a first glimpse at the sea, apart from aerial views.
We had lunch at The Lock & Barrel, the only restaurant/bar on the main street, Connaught Avenue, in Frinton. Back in time for a nice cup of tea.
On Tuesday we took Mary out to lunch at The Crown in Linton. I merely ate a very large dish of salad & a black coffee. The white chocolate cheesecake with raspberries looked scrummy though.
Today we went to Saffron Walden, the scenic way, & had a potter around before going home for lunch.
I've reset the alarm, with instructions over the phone from the engineer, retuned the TV & put a new brass thingy on the standard lamp, removed from an even older lamp in the drawing room.
Who needs a man?
I'm about to have a bath before going out to dinner. I hope it's low calorie.

St Cuthbert's Day.

I had forgotten that fact - 20 March/ St Cuthbert, but it was mentioned by theArchdeacon, who took the service at shustoke this morning.
I got up early, did the ironing & eventually went to Lea Marston to take the 9.30 service.
By 9.28, when I was still the only person there, I decided that something was amiss, phoned to check & then went to communion at Shustoke & on to take the 11.00 service at NW.
The Archdeacon's sermon was inspiring, really.
I've since paid some bills, had a load of phone calls, an invitation to dinner on Wed & made a cake for JR, whom I am going to visit later.

Yesterday I had a self-indulgent day, early shopping in Solihull, late shopping at Ventura Park then a visit to Judith, to deliver some G stuff that Jack will take with him when they meet in Nepal, to walk in the foothills, with Peter.
What do Solihull & VP have in common? The VP sale was better!
It was an excellent drying day, the first this year.

Phew!

I have discovered the secret to having boundless energy & a smile all day - an early night & remembering to take my BP pills in the morning.
I rarely forget the pills, but this morning I realised that I had forgotten to get out a new packet a couple of days ago.
I now feel great.
I woke up at 6.00am, made a nice cup of tea & wrote my sermon for Sunday (John 3, 1 - 17), then went to the gym before picking Thomas up from nursery at 11.45am.
We had lunch & then worked in the garden/ played football in the sunshine before we had to collect Jessie
I am watching Comic Relief, which is excellent. I spent so many years getting the school wound up to raise money with the kids having great fun, treading a fine line with colleagues, most giving little or no support. At long last it is recognised that this is valid education.
I felt so good after the gym that I've decided that I like my hair, so shall just have a trim & blow-wave.
Must keep the diet up - 1lb to go to the first stone.
I'm not going for W's diet, I couldn't eat a boiled egg with no soldiers.

Happy St Patrick's day.

Another busy day.
Having finished "The girl who kicked the hornets' nest", I am reading a book about explorers, starting with those who discovered Europe, from 7000BC.
I've now reached Marco Polo.
I went to clean the Church with Maurice this morning, then gave the family gravestones a good scrub with disinfectant, ready for some Easter flowers.
I went to Coleshill for milk, had a quick lunch then went in the garden & worked until dark, clearing the rockery.
I must have cleared about six wheelbarrow loads of leaves, dead branches & weeds & still have some to finish.
I have the gardening days sorted, clear up, leave my gardening clothes in the laundry & have a bath whilst listening to the news - saves the aches & pains..
I've just had a smoked trout sandwich & a mango, I'm not sure why. Laziness probably.
I plan to go to bed before I fall asleep tonight; last night I woke up on the settee at 2.00am.

Decision for next week - shall I have my hair cut short or keep it about the same, only neater?

Another white day.

Apparently, yesterday was a white day.
Today is the same - white sky, a bit misty & cool with no wind.
White, in fact.
Yesterday I had a lie in, reading, had a nice bath & face pack, reading, then lunch.
By this time I had rallied the enthusiasm to drive to Nechells to collect a parcel.
After braving the M6 & wherever with satnav in charge, the delivery office said that the parcel had been delivered & I had signed for it on 7 March & it wasn't for me but for number 1.
Great.
I phoned to check that number 1 had received their parcel, as I certainly hadn't signed for anything on & March as I was in Denmark.
Mystery solved, Diane signed & got the parcel collected. The good news out of my wasted time was that I found that number 1 run AMB Landscaping & are really quite nice & all of their advertising is correctly addressed.
This is not the case for SLW construction at number 4, who have numerous advertisements with my address.
I have my business manager dealing with this. I did speak to the SLW guy yesterday.
I shall have more to say to him next time I see him!

I collected another two sacks of litter in Castle Lane on the way home & was met by the Council truck collecting the carpet that had been dumped. They gave me some good sacks & took the full bags away. Great.
I made a nice cup of tea & read in the conservatory for a couple of hours, had dinner & relaxed.

I've had another lazy morning, catching up on correspondence.
I intend to garden, but seem to have been waylaid by a tomato sandwich & cup of tea/brunch.
I will get there!

Chilly Monday.

A frosty night & -3 degrees this morning.
I was so surprised that I went outside in my dressing gown before 7.00am to look at the thermometer on the garage. Unfortunately, I didn't have the foresight to put the dustbin out at the same time & it remains half full with the litter I collected yesterday.
I went back to bed ,& read for a while then put on gym kit (which looks a lot better now I've diminished some of the rolls) drove to Coleshill to do a few jobs, on to Knowle, then went on to the gym. I went from there to the dentist - two establishments in one day from which you emerge happier than when you went in.
I shopped in Solihull on the way home - facepacks from Bodyshop as I had a £10 voucher from the Telegraph, if I spent £20.
I'm not a Bodyshop shopper so this was an adventure.
If I am rejuvenated, I shall go back.
I bought a fridge full of vegetables & "Count on us" meals from M&S, had a nice cup of tea & a tea cake (breakfast/lunch) & came home.
I have just eaten a Cajun chicken risotto & a large side dish of vegetables, whilst watching "University Challenge".
I answered a few.
The good life!

The Bishop is coming on 27 March so we will have a united service for Shustoke & the Whitacres. Yesterday afternoon I decided that it would be the ideal day to have a fund-raising lunch, so phoned & e-mailed likely contenders to invite them.

I have over twenty already, so it will be sherry, cottage pie with green vegetables, wine/beer/soft drink, followed by nursery puddings.

All that for £7 or what you think it's worth (hopefully, more)

Eat with a fork, table not necessary, Danes need not apply!

Anyone local who would like to join us, give me a ring.

It's cold so I think I'll have an early night & try to finish The girl who......

Sunny Sunday.

Eventually.
It was raining this morning so I abandoned the plan to walk to church, drove there & then on to Coleshill to treat myself to a "Sunday Times".
I settled down with a delicious salmon & salad sandwich with avocado & a little mayonnaise & black pepper, opened the paper & found I had no supplements. No Culture! No TV times!!.
Bother.
By this time the sun was shining, so I walked up to Coleshill (45 mins), collected my supplements & walked home.
At Blyth bridge I set off across the fields, a path that I've not walked along for for over 40 years, to escape the traffic noise.
It was delightful, round the edge of a couple of fields, across another & you are opposite the end of Hollylands. I even met three people going the other way, who commented that I was walking a long way for a magazine. (35 min).
Having seen a lot of litter en route I went out again for an hour to litter pick to half way down Castle Lane, by which point the bag was half full, leaving space for the other side of the road on the way home.

Nigel Slater's on TV, making me feel very hungry, so I may have to have an early dinner.
Unfortunately, I don't have any fresh Cornish mackerel!

A quiet night in.

Another quiet night in really with only David Attenborough for company.
It's been a busy week until today - school phoned on Thursday morning, the first day home, so I went out at 8.00am to school while aj went home, to work.
We didn't have any milk for tea anyway, so at least I had a couple of cups of coffee during the day.
It was a good day on the whole, only a couple of difficult lads last lesson; the set work was far from inspiring, with little scope for manoeuvre.
I went to Ventura Park M&S after school & bought some nice food for the rest of the week & spent too long looking at the sale.
The good news is that I didn't buy anything.

Friday was a lovely bright day, no coat needed. I went to the gym before picking Thomas up, we then collected Barbara & went to McDonalds for lunch.
Thomas was the only diner with both Grannies!

I was reading & chatting to G until nearly 2.00am (the first time I have managed to get through) so decided that I would have a lie in this morning & get on with " The Girl who kicked the hornets' nest".
I did get up by 10.30, put on old clothes & spent the day in the garden, tidying the borders & then washing & waxing the car when the wind got up, rather annoyingly blowing the leaves out of the wheelbarrow.
There are a host of daffodils in the garden, snowdrops in the wood & an enormous hole dug in the compost heap with footprints that look like a fox.
I had a soak in the bath, reading, to avoid aches & pains, did a load of ironing & had an early dinner.
I was asleep before 7.00pm!
I hope that the weather's good tomorrow then I can walk to church & perhaps do some more gardening.

Home again....

We got up in Ringsted, had lunch in Linton with JR & a cup of tea at home at 9.00pm.
Thanks to W & MK for a lovely week. DK was at home with more spots than I have ever seen on anyone, let alone such a little chap. His chickenpox has almost gone now & he can go back to nursery tomorrow. J was on good form.
W & DK took us to the airport, after a good flight we drove to see JR & went out to lunch, sat & chatted/slept by the fire this afternoon then drove home after the rush.
The clock says 10.00pm, the body says 11.00pm so it may be an early night.
G is phoning from Delhi tomorrow, school phoned this morning so there may be some teaching coming up.

Quack, quack.

So where do the Ringsted ducks go in march?
We went for a walk with DK this morning via the park, with a bag of carefully cubed white bread, for the ducks. The pond was frozen & therewas not a duck to be seen. There was bread on the ice so we didn't leave ours to attract vermin. We went cat spotting insread as there were quite a lot of cats in the vicinity & Dk does like cats.
We had a potter around the town, bought bread & danish pastries ^ came home for coffee & cake, followed shortly afterwards by lunch. Actually, the space inbetween was so short that we didn't have to leave the table.
To be precise, I left the table to fetch the food for lunch; a minor detail.

Does anyone remember "The Worzells" from the 1960s?
They had a hit with a song about a combine harvester.
DK sings the chorus very accurately -Ooh ah, repeated.

We have had an excellent dinner of Danish pork & we are relaxing before bed-time or a James Bond film. Last night we watched "Quantum of Solace". I was sure that I had seen it with G when it first came out but it wasn't at all familiar.
Either I haven't seen it , or I fell aseep on the night.
Perhaps G will remember.

Week 9

G has now been absent for 9 weeks.
I have spent one week on the Nile & one in Denmark, quite a few nights with JR, a few in York with aj & a number in Bicester.
I fancy a break at the sea-side at some point, but am open to suggestions if you live in a luxurious house with a fridge full of fish & vegetables & need a house-minder.
G has sent the odd e-mail, the oddest being the one where he commented that it would be nice to be home & see me for a few days.
I wonder which days he is planning to fit this in.
He has had fish nibbling his feet, I only hope that his callouses will not enter the human food chain.
He apparently did some pretty exclusive clubbing in Hong Kong, so God knows what he had nibbled there (suggestions not required!).

We have had a lovely day with DK, playing, out for a good walk & a little shopping, aj walking in front to obscure the sight line to the spotty countenance.
We walked to Netto this afternoon, managing to buy most of the items on the shopping list, whilst W did his Danish homework (grammar, I believe, not entertaining Mk, who was at work)
T has visited with friends & cake at tea time. J assures me that "Mormor always brings cake".
This is fortunate as J has a vast appetite for cake.
Today is "Fastelavn"; J went to Nursery as "The caped Crusader" (aka Superman), everyone was in fancy dress & they had a party, to celebrate the beginning of Lent, I believe.

All is peaceful, even the keyboard is now in English so I only need to use one, rather than two, spellcheck is still in Danish!

Sunday next before Lent....

I suspect that it will be Shrove Tuesday next week, I'll find out when I get home - displays of lemons & frying pans in all of the shops. Not all, actually, before B makes some reference to "Specsavers".
The Danes have a great alternative, that consists of eating very large cream cakes for the entire week. E should book this week in the diary for a visit next year.
We vacated the building this morning to allow the estate agent to visit with a previous viewer & builder. This involved some cleaning & putting away; fortunately, the builder took his wellies off so the house was still immaculate when we got back & hunted for the teapot.
We walked across town to see the new house, which is very stylish, then on to the outlet cetre for a scrummy lunch & a little light shopping, before walking home.
We are now well rested & W into the chocolate cookies.
It has been a lovely bright day though bitterly cold, especially in shopping outlets.
DK is much better despite still being remarkably spotty - a great asset if you want a bit of space around you in a restaurant!

Can anyone explain why aj & I both had aching/painful left hand jaws on Friday evening. We put it down to sinus problems, but find it strange that we were both striken by the same symptons at the same time.
W tells me that I need not write much as he has heard all of this & so he wll not need to read it!!!
I assure him that I do have other readers, even if they are too busy to comment.
A little support would be appreciated here.

Chilly in Ringstead.

Home was beginning to feel quite springlike, so, not wanting to spoil ourselves, aj & I are spending a week in Denmark, where it is still decidedly chilly. No snow, just cold.
We watched W, amongst others, sliding across the road on the way to take J to nursery this morning.
DK is the the spottiest little boy I have ever seen, but bearing up bravely, during the day, anyway. He does seem a little more settled this evening, so W & Mk may get a little more sleep.

We had a good journey over, after a couple of days with JR, including a birthday lunch & tea party on Monday, to celebrate his 87th birthday.
W met us at CPN & we are having a relaxing week, playing with the children & chatting.
Yesterday we had day in Copenhagen with T, including a champagne lunch & visits to the Royal palace & an exhibition of the works of Louise Bourgeois. The waterways there are frozen solid.
It was great fun, even the 45 min journey home in a "silent carriage".
Tomorrow both J & MK are taking part in a gym display - I'm sure that W will blog some photos later.
Spellchecking seems to be in Danish, so notes that most words are misspelt!