The end of the month took me by surprise and Phil’s monthly
didn’t give me a chance to blog about my week.
Not that there is much of great importance to report but I figure,
better late than never. Once again last week
I forgot to take out my camera so apologies for the lack of visuals and my explanation
for having to improvise.
On Monday morning I went to Sue’s for tea, toast and a catch
up in general. There is so much
happening in her world that it’s difficult to keep up. After Sue’s, I went to Curry’s in CMK to get
me a new mobile phone. My old Nokia
finally gave up on me not helped by accidentally soaking the battery in
vinegar. Don’t ask! My phone has playing up for months and I
really don’t know why I have taken so long to get it sorted. In the end, getting a replacement was easy
and cheap. I got another Nokia for only
£7.13. I got it home, charged the battery up and popped in my old sim card
which then gave all my contacts.
I had to wait in on Monday afternoon for eTyres to come out
and fit 2 new tyres. The Chevrolet
garage in Northampton gave my car a free safety check which revealed that my 2
front tyres were knackered. I couldn’t
believe it because it’s less than 12 months since I had them replaced. Normally I get tyres fitted at Kwik Fit at
Kingston mainly because they supply free coffee and biscuits while you wait and
also they have a good selection of daily newspapers. Plus its warm and the toilets
are nice. However, I decided to do a bit
of tyre price comparison and found that eTyres were the cheapest. It shows that you need to shop around. I paid £124 last year for 2 tyres and this
year I only paid £87. I do like a
bargain.
Tuesday was an easy day; Phil went to Overstone to pick up
the post and I went to the gym. My
friend Jane picked me up at quarter to one and we went to Robinsons in Newport
for lunch. The restaurant was busy and I
was glad I had booked a table. I haven’t
been to Robinsons (the restaurant) for yonks.
Jane and I went for the 2 course special and actually choose the same 2
dishes, fish cakes to start followed by corn fed chicken on a bed of spinach
and mash. I made the stupid mistake of
eating all of my 3 fish cakes which were divine and also a brown roll which made
me too full to eat my main course. I do the same every time and could kick
myself afterwards. I barely touched my
chicken but never mind it gave me a chance to get up to date with Jane and all
of her news. I only see Jane about 2 or
3 times a year so when we do link up there is just so much to say and last
Tuesday was no exception.
On Wednesday I went to the gym and Phil drove down to the
probate office. I did offer to go with
him them I remembered I had an appointment at Specsavers to collect my new
glasses. My glasses were fine, my
prescription hadn’t changed that much but I could tell the difference with the
new lenses. Phil said my new glasses look just the same as my last glasses and
that is probably true because I always choose the cheapest frames. I figure as I only need spectacles for
reading why waste money on fancy frames??
Jan invited me to her house for supper on Wednesday evening
and very kindly picked me up from the flat when she dropped Steve off. Sue was invited for supper as well but she
had to cancel as she had a family crisis.
This was a shame as Jan and done a huge lasagne but we still had a nice
girlie catch up evening with food and wine.
Unfortunately I conked out on Jan’s sofa and didn’t get back in the taxi
until 1am waking up Phil in the process.
Good job Steve was working from home on Thursday and that Jan was going
into work late.
I can’t for the life of me remember what I did on Thursday
but I don’t recall doing very much.
Friday was a more productive day, gym, food shopping, domestics and
paperwork. On Friday evening we met up
with Harriet and Billy and Jim, Shirley & Dan. It’s true the Giffard has gone downhill
slightly but we have a soft spot for this pub and will continue to
frequent. We all had something to eat on
Friday evening, the food was okay and we had a good night. The company is what counts. It’s nice to see
Phil enjoying himself as he has been a bit depressed recently which is not like
the normal Phil. Harriet and Billy walked with us to the flat and called a taxi
back to Caldecotte. I think it was 1am
by the time we got to bed.
Needless to say that I didn’t get to the gym on
Saturday. No, instead we had an easy
morning and packed for an overnight stay at the caravan. Phil needed to pick up the post and we
thought we may as well give the caravan a bit of an airing and just check that
everything was okay. The lady at The
Manor told Phil that Cogenhoe and Billing had both been evacuated due to the
floods but Overstone Lakes was okay. Our
park doesn’t have any history of flooding which is just as well because this
wasn’t something we had even considered when we brought our first caravan.
The caravan was absolutely freezing when we unlocked the
door and turned the alarm off. I
unpacked our overnight case and Phil put on all of the heaters. Both the caravans were okay, cold but no
outside damage from the high winds a couple of weeks ago. We went to The Manor for a 2 for £10 meal
deal which was okay. After lunch we did
briefly consider a walk in our wellies around the lakes but jaded from the night
before, instead we whacked the gas fire on full and settled on the sofas to watch
a film. I think Phil wanted to go down to
the clubhouse in the evening but there was no way I could hack 2 nights out on
the trot plus it was a freezing cold night. I think it was down to minus
5. We must have been crazy to pick the
coldest night of the year to stay in the van but crazy is what we are. Actually, once you warm up the fabric of the
caravan, its fine. We had the good sense
to get the heated blanket from the caravan next door and switched it for 2 or 3
hours before we went to bed. It made all
the difference. Both Phil & I slept
like logs not waking up until 8am.
We were driving down to Melton Mowbray to see Phil’s mum and
dad on Sunday morning and I really wanted to be on the road by 9am but by the
time Phil had had a shower, we’d packed up the car and shut everything down it
was gone quarter to ten. The Land Rover
was thick with ice and it took ages to defrost. Everything was white outside
and it looked so pretty, I wished I’d have been awake enough to capture it on
camera. It was almost 11am by the time
we got to Melton; Phil’s mum already had the roast dinner in the oven and it
smelled delicious.
Aside from seeing mum and dad we had gone down to do some
jobs around the house. Phil had made up
some boxing to cover the pipe work in their bathroom which is very ugly. He’d worked out the size but unfortunately it
was too big so he had saw some off to make it fit. Phil had brought some casing to cover the
pipes but the bit he brought, although it was the right size, the fittings were
too big for the pipes. Its back to the drawing board on this one but hopefully
Phil will be able to find the right size fittings so we can get all their pipes
covered.
We had roast lamb for lunch which was lovely; obviously Phil’s
mum had gone to a lot of trouble. As she
always does for us but I do worry that it’s all too much for her these
days. Indeed she was in a lot of pain on
Sunday and it showed. Every step she
took was a struggle. After lunch we sat
and did the crossword whilst watching the snooker. As with every time we visit, Phil had to show
his mum how to record tv programmes and how to re watch. Some things never changed and it’s not a
biggie. We left Melton just after 3 and got back home at half four. We unloaded the car and whacked up the
central heating.
Now that we are at the beginning of December I can no longer
ignore that the fact that Christmas is just around the corner. I hate the festive
season with a passion and long for the days when we can fly off and ignore the
whole thing. But it won’t be happening
this year. I feel obliged to spend Xmas
day with mum and dad, conscious that they are not going to be around forever
but at the same time I have an obligation to Harriet who will be on her own if
we go to Melton. Of course she could
come with us but she doesn’t fancy this option. As a compromise, I have said
that we will do Christmas Day just the 3 of us at the flat and will do Boxing
Day with mum and dad. My sisters along
with brother-in-law, nephew and girlfriend are coming to Milton Keynes in-between
Christmas and New Year so we will meet up with them for a meal in the
evening. Other than a night out with
Susie Sue on the 21 of December that is about all we have planned. Yesterday we brought back my twig effect
Christmas tree from the caravan and I found a snug place for it to stand in the
flat and dressed it with a few baubles.
But other than that, this is as festive as its gonna get in our little flat.
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