family get together.

W, MK & family arrived late last night, the family being asleep at the time, & so to bed.
The rest of us enjoyed a bottle of wine before retiring.
This morning we all drove to Bicester, W & MK breaking their journey at Bicester Village, whilst G & I went to Marsh Gibbon to visit the family.
We all went to witness T's music group "busking" in the town centre - great to have the family all together, if only briefly.
The band were brilliant, playing Christmas music for nearly 3 hours - well done to Costa Coffee, who provided hot chocolate for them. (They also provided hot coffee & chocolate for us, to keep us warm, at a marginally higher cost)
G & I had hot pork rolls from the local butcher & have so far disproved W's theory that the white bread roll would cause our mutual demise before tea-time!
The family are having an evening together, us oldies came home earlier, before dark!
A big family lunch here tomorrow, following Advent service at NW.

Brill

What a great day - I took the car to Tollbar for it's beauty treatment, swapped it for a spanking new C30 & went shopping for the day.
What more could you want?
I went to Alcester - a really pretty little town full of alleyways, with an array of antique & charity shops..
I had a potter around, then bought some bits in the antique shop, which I am delighted with, then drove back to Warwick, had a nice lunch, pottered round the shops, then went to reclaim the car.
I finished the day out in Knowle where I bought chicken from the butchers, for dinner.

We have had a fund raising meeting tonight, to sort out the details for the Mid advent festival, then a glass of wine, to get over it.

G had an altercation with a driver who parked on the grass outside, ploughing it up.
When she turned round he realised that it was a friend who went to the Holy land with us.
Oh Dear.
I shall e mail her to invite her to park in the drive whilst she walks her dog.

I still have a sermon to write. 

Time for bed.....

To make up for going to bed ridiculously late last night - I kept nodding off as I was so tired after doing the sale, then it becomes hard work to go to bed.
I had a really lazy morning - let the girls out then went back to bed with a cup of tea & read the paper then had a long bath & didn't start the day until lunchtime.
Lazy or what?
I walked to the village to deliver some letters & get some exercise, did a few jobs en route then realised that I had a lot to do.
I've emptied the car,ready for it's beauty treatment tomorrow, sorted & put away the remnants from the sale, done washing & ironing, cleaned the bedrooms & made the beds up ready for W & MK, etc, arriving on Friday.
I drove to Sh & NW churches to take stuff that was in the porch - NW was fun as I had a drawer of bric a brac, which was cumbersome & I had to negotiate the two doors in the dark.
I had a prawn salad for dinner - daren't risk another banana sandwich!.
Off to bed - sermon still to do!  

Flog it.

Aj gave me a couple of boxes of objets d'art to sell on my "Hollylands Heirlooms" stall at the open evening in the village hall this evening.
I spent much of the day putting together a couple of boxes of really good things, washing & packing everything.
This afternoon, G set off to visit M in Guildford.
I visited Blyth Mill to check on the Christmas trees then loaded the car, set the burglar alarm off - had to re-open the back door because I'd left the key in the lock - put the chickens to bed, then off to the village hall to set up my table.
I sold over £100 worth of things -  far more than any of the other stall holders, I think - drank a glass of wine, packed it all up again & came home before 10.00pm.
I've since had a banana sandwich & two pints of decaf coffee, reported back to aj - £10 of her things sold, done some ironing & made up the bed.
Tomorrow, I'll empty the car 

Wet, wet, wetter.

I can't remember what we did on Saturday - I remember reading the paper, but that couldn't have taken all day. It did rain all night, loudly & we were flooded out by Sunday morning.
I had services to take at Shustoke & OW - only three at Shustoke as as even Whitacre was flooded in, & I couldn't get to OW, despite trying to go through Furnace End, Shawbury & Whitacre.
We put on our wellies & cycled round the villages, walking through the floods.
Wow.
 I vacuumed & mopped downstairs whilst G watched the grand Prix - i was ttrying to shut out the noise - unsuccessfully - then cooked stew & dumplings & lemon sponge.
Jan & Chris came to dinner, then we looked through holiday photos.

This morning I caught up on e mails - creating a group to invite to our "Final Fund raising Lunch of 2012" & arranging a mtg for the MAF - then we took a heap of G's clothes to the charity shop before going to solihull to shop & on to Shirley to pick up J & Th from school, tea & a play.
we visited JS on the way home as they have great deals on wines, including a favourite of mine - Glenridge Point sauvignon blanc for half price with 25% off for 6 or more bottles.
Dinner, TV & a nap.
Raining again!

Wet, wet, wet.

Aj & I had a fun day in York on Wednesday - we visited J & aj's new grandchild, Lily, both  gorgeous, & then to town to shop - mainly at M& S to be honest, they had everything we needed, well, almost - clothes, food & a coffee shop.
I drove home at 7.00pm, all well until near home, when the floods caused me a slight problem, as did G, who had left the key in the door, so I couldn't get in!

We went to see J & G on Thursday,via Airkix at Milton Keynes for G to do his indor skydiving (see pic) having lunch en route, I went on to collect T & KP from school, to shop in Tesco - self scan - KP holds, T scans - then on to swimming lessons, collecting Ben on the way.
We collected G on the way home & had a lovely evening with B & E.

We stayed over, both wearing B's pyjamas!

The journey home involved over two hours stuck on the M40 due to an overturned car transporter. 4ours from bicester to Tamworth!!
I had my hair done, then we scrubbed up & went to DMP to the conservative dinner, which was scrummy - soup, roast pork & fruit salad.
The speakers were Christine & Colin Still - BBC commentator & Olympic coach.

We cleaned the church this morning to prepare for preparing for the Mid Advent Festival in ten days time.
It has since rained - yard flooded, I've written tomorrow's sermon, ironed, cleaned the cooker & changed the bed - leave a bloke at home on his own for a couple of days........

Dinner by the fire 7 an early night, I think.  

Up North.

I am having a short break in the frozen North, visiting aj.
Yesterday I visited the new Morrisons supermarket in Coleshill - it's opening day.
It is brilliant!
Wonderful fresh food, lots of variety & helpful staff - everything the Co-op lacks!
I had decreed that I would always support the old shops, but after 2 minutes in Morrisons, I changed my mind - the Co-op does not deserve my custom.
I may feel guilty about this.

I then played a couple of sets of tennis, went home for lunch, then drove North, arriving in time to have a nice cup of tea, watching "Flog It" - by the way, did anyone see G & I on the Flog It auction from Bigwoods, last week?

I woke up by 4.30, then walked into Acomb, pottered, shopped in Morrisons, then came back a couple of hours later to get a meal on before aj came in from work.
She was critical of my pan fried haddock with sugar snaps & stewed vegetables - the "Strangest combination she had the misfortune to eat".
Well!
You try & give folk healthy food & they throw it in your face.
She only managed to get it down with 3/4 bottle of Sauvignon Blanc!

Today we went to Wetherby for a potter this morning, then we did Acomb this afternoon - much warmer today - 12 degrees, only 5 degrees yesterday - colder than CPH!

Waiting to see Last Tango in Halifax".
Looks good.
Home tomorrow evening, after seeing aj's new granddaughter, hopefully.