Thursday

 Morning, everyone.  The weather has broken, as expected.  It's dull, cool and wet this morning, definitely a day for staying inside and chilling.

I had a lovely time with Beth yesterday, thank you.  It was the film DVD we watched.  The singing isn't great at times but the visuals are fantastic and I never seem to get tired of it.

I broke a bit of a tradition after getting an email from Kelly's yesterday advising that they were producing the usual number of turkeys, their production methods not being affected by sundry 'shortages' but were getting an awful lot of inquiries about turkeys for Christmas.  The advice was to order early, if possible.
Normally,, I order during half term and, yes, I know we're not having turkey on Christmas Day this year but we will have it at some point over the festive season.
So I went online and now have one extra small turkey and two rolled breasts ordered.  The idea of the rolled breasts is that I can cut them into sensible amounts for two plus leftovers (me and Alex) for Sunday roasts and then freeze them.  It will be interesting to see quite how small the mini turkeys are.  I know the bigger they are, the better the value but, to be honest, buying a KellyBronze means that economy flies right out of the window anyway!

So that's ticked off my list.

I've had various quotes from Seth following his visit last week.  They seem pretty reasonable and I'm getting the guttering done asap plus having the kitchen extractor fan replaced as it hasn't worked for ages  (it's just a wall fan, not a hood) and a drain cover replaced.  It will be really good to get those jobs sorted.

Another tick - well, half tick anyway.

I picked some French beans from the garden and took a few photos of other stuff while I was there.  You can see how sunny it was.

It's almost October and it will be time to start picking - not that there's much but what's the betting that tomorrow I will be giving that huge apple a gentle twist to see if it's ready to come off

And here's the fig tree.  All that is new growth, supposedly next year's fruiting branches.  There's a few that are growing out the back that I will prune off because I want it to sit against the wall but it's all very encouraging.

I'm a bit late with this because I slept later than usual (nearly seven) so needed to get sorted and get off for my early morning shop.  I decided to do Sainsbury's today, partly because I wanted to and partly because they have a filling station.  However, it was closed so no luck there.

I'm now home and having a coffee before I get everything put away, sort out the fridge, etc. 

Then it is just homey stuff, including a whole pile of ironing, until personal training in the afternoon - so I can collect a new set of aches!  :-)

And then, finally, Alex is coming over for dinner.  It's been a fight week for being hospitable - Dave and Anna on Monday, Beth yesterday and Alex today.  Phew.

Well, sitting at the PC won't get anything done so I'd better get the work started.  Have a great day, despite the weather.  xx

Wednesday

 Good morning, everyone!  Nearly six o'clock and it's still completely dark outside so I can't see what it's like but Beeb thinks it will be another gorgeous autumnal day today but rain is heading over and the next three days won't be great.  We will see, won't we?

I felt quite rough yesterday - all self inflicted.  There was the muggy head from Monday evening but also I felt a bit sore and achey from the circuits!  Nothing terribly bad, just enough to make me glad it was pretty much a free day.  I was tired too, going up to bed before eight yesterday and sleeping until just after five - nine hours, most unusual for me.  This morning I feel loads better so I need to catch up on blogs I follow!

Despite this, the motivation held and I sorted out all my old tuition stuff, shredding worksheets, plans, etc, and discarding books.  The curriculum has changed so much that most of the books are now obsolete and in not condition to hand on anyway which is a shame.  I've kept some which are either 11+ related or more helpful, just in case,  Never say never!

So now it is all neat and tidy on one shelf and I have an empty shelf for some old magazines I want to keep while I work through them, removing anything I will use.

There's one more shelf packed with sticky printer labels, folders, plastic pockets and wallets, etc, all in disorder so this morning I will get that all organised and then that task is done.  Yay!  After that, I will get the magazines away and clear a random gopak table that's been sitting in the corner for far too long, getting that into the shed.  A bit of furniture shifting and things will look so much better then. I think.

The only thing in the diary today is that Beth's probably coming round for dinner and a DVD but she will confirm that today at some point.  I'm assuming that she will be and will prep accordingly.

Well - time for a second coffee, I think, and the dishwasher needs emptying so I will get that done.  Have a happy day, whatever your plans.  xx

Tuesday

 Good morning, everyone.  It's another dull old start to the day today although yesterday, after some torrential rain, brightened up considerably and we had lovely sunshine for the rest of the day.  Maybe today will be similar.  Fingers crossed.

Yesterday pretty much all went according to plan.  Circuit training was, as suspected, a killer.  I never like the lying down sort of core exercises very much and end up feeling giddy and slightly nauseous, so I did modified versions instead.  Lindsey is good like that - always assumes one is trying ones hardest and is happy to adapt.  Still, I suppose it must be doing some good.

Tuition was fine.  The student is on a residential trip next week so I have a holiday!

Then Dave and Anna turned up with table and bowl after picking them up from Liverpool at the weekend.  Yes, they had a few fuel issues but nothing unsurmountable, thankfully, although Dave thought at one point he was going to have to phone his boss to say he might need a couple of days off, having not taken his work laptop with him.
All was well however.

Here's some photos.  The table is a slab of Canadian redwood that Dad had shipped over after a business trip there in, I think, the late 70s/early 80s and had made into a coffee table over here.  Some years ago, he and Mum had it re-varnished and whoever did it made a right dog's dinner of the job and it looked horrible.  What Anna's brother, Paul, has done is stripped everything back to the wood, filled in some cracks, etc and then re coated/waxed/stained/whatever-he-did the whole thing.  The base (which you can't really see as it's in shadow) is a different wood and he found a stain to get it to more or less the same colour which it hadn't been before.

To Paul's horror, the bowl had been used for fruit and as a plant or vase stand and was quite damaged with gone off fruit and water drips.  Again, he has restored it beautifully and, I gather, a visitor was prepared to pay rather a lot for it, had it been for sale.

I have to get used to the table being here.  It doesn't look 'right', it should be at Letchworth, but I will work on it < grin >.
Dave and Anna have laid claim to the table after my demise (!) and Beth the bowl so I know that their future is assured.

I thoroughly enjoyed our dinner together, Dave, Anna and me.  A shame about the wine induced headache this morning.  

Today, in contrast, is a nothing sort of day.  Nothing in the diary, nothing outstanding.    I'm going to do some tidying up and clearing out, especially my tuition shelves.  There's a whole load of stuff there that I no longer need but I DO need the space.
Today, I feel motivated - a nice feeling.
Have a good day, everyone.  xx

Monday

 Good morning.  It's a dull, grey old day today with a few raindrops on the windows.  The forecast is for showers, sunny intervals (that would be nice) and a strong breeze so who knows?  We will see.

First of all, a few photos.

Beth and Kerry.  They've been really good friends since the first term at secondary when they were put in the same Tutor Group and hit it off.  Kerry's daughter has Elisabeth (spelt with an 's' like Beth) as her second name.

You can see the wedding dress a bit.  The bodice was beautifully beaded and the little shoulder straps cum mini sleeves were beaded and lacy too - I noticed the sleeves specially because they were our wedding present to Kerry, the dress being a bit above her budget (plus a bottle of bubbly so they had something to open).

The skirt was simple and very frothy with a built in train at the back, plus the veil.

You can maybe see it a bit better here and I managed to blank out the face of the child between Kerry and James.  I had to crop it quite heavily on the right, sorry.

It doesn't really show any details of the beading or the sleeves.

And this is a view of the venue.  Pontlands Park.  It's a big, old house, used as a hotel/wedding venue and I might treat myself to a night there at some point.  It looked very pleasant.

I did take lots of other photos, of course, including a lovely one of Beth and the bridesmaids but I know better than to post photos of children without their parents' permission and I'm certainly not going to bother Kerry about permission to post the other lovely one of just Beth and her daughter.

Yesterday was a R&R day and that's just what I did.  I mooched around, doing not-a-lot, picked a few goodies from the allotment, redid my nails, sorted out some gifts on Amazon, planned a few meals and watched a shedload of telly, Youtube and Netflix.
Strictly was lovely - There's just one who I think is pretty much a dud and ought to go next week, if justice is done (not that it always is on Strictly) but the others all showed promise and some were fantastic.  Where did AJ get those long, long legs?  At this early stage, I hope Rose takes the Glitterball because - you know - triumph over adversity, etc, but there are so many who potentially could win.
And Anton is a brilliant judge, a perfect contrast to Craig (who was pretty mellow this week, to be fair).

Today, I have those Three Things on the agenda.

First is Circuit training at Lindsey's.  She's said to bring our mats this week so I suspect my core muscles will be aching terribly afterwards.

Then it is tuition with my one remaining student.  I'm glad tuition is fading out of my life naturally, I'd have hated to abandon any student part way through.  D has this year in year 6 and then we would have stopped anyway.

And then, finally, Dave and Anna are round for dinner, bringing my table with them.  I'll probably be full of that tomorrow.  So before then, I have a dinner to make but I've decided to go simple with hunter's chicken, chips and a salad with fruit salad and yogurt for afters.  They always bring the wine!

Just glancing out of the window, it is now properly raining - boring!  I will have to dodge the raindrops to get the the freezer in the shed.
Have a great day, stay dry and be happy.  xx

Sunday

 Good morning, everyone.  It's past six o'clock and everything is still pitch black outside as sunrise time isn't until almost seven o'clock.  I love these dark morning, they make me feel warm and cosy in my own little domain with curtains shutting out the dark.

Yesterday was a really pleasant one.  Busy though, with a lot of comings and goings.
It started off with an early morning walk to Morrisons for some crayons and sharpeners Beth asked for (to keep the four little bridesmaids happy before the wedding) and a few bits and bobs for me.  Then I came home and got my make up on before setting out to Beth's to pick her and Alex up, take her to the wedding venue and Alex back to mine.  I had a bit of a panic in Writtle as there were slow moving queues by the petrol station but it's a wider road and those of us going past were able to form a third lane.  To be honest, if I hadn't been going somewhere, I might have been tempted to join it but, as it was, I got past with a hold up of around ten minutes which was OK.

Once back home, I cooked dinner for me and Al - very nice too - before getting changed and setting out.

The wedding was lovely.  It wasn't the least bit formal, the ceremony was outside but the party afterwards inside.  No formalities - no speeches or 'cutting the cake' just a really good party.  There was a live band and you can't stop children from dancing, can you?
The buffet was great - things like chicken dippers, beef or halloumi sliders, etc.
Al and I came home around nine, I dropped him back (queues at the petrol station close to Tescos) and then snuggled up at home for a little while.

I do have some photos but I haven't uploaded them yet.  I'll do that today and might post a few tomorrow - if they are any good.  You can never tell with snapshots.

Today I'm having an easy day with lots of R&R.  I'll harvest some stuff at the allotment and water but no digging.  There's Strictly to catch up on and ditto for some vlogs I follow and I'd like to watch that thing from the royal family about Prince Philip which I missed earlier and the also first Bake Off programme.  
So quite a lot of restful things to do.

Have a lovely day and be safe.  xx

Saturday

Good morning.  It is a grey start to the day today, all misty and autumnal and probably none too warm either, although it should warm up.  I hope they are wrong about the 'light cloud' for the wedding.  Sunshine would be a whole load better.

I was well chuffed with a pound and a half off at SW yesterday.  It is always fun doing the weighing (I'm on the social team) and sharing a few laughs with the others.
Then I came home and waited until Seth turned up to look at the work that needs doing.  He couldn't come earlier so his secretary/office manager person emailed me to apologise and change the time.  They say if you want a job doing, ask a busy person, don't they.
Anyway, he is going to get the guttering done plus one other small and unrelated jobs and will give me a provisional price for the other job which won't be until next year anyway so no rush.  

Then my lovely cleaner turned up followed a short while later by Beth, carrying the wedding dress very gingerly and nervously.  Yes, I did have a peek and it is stunning but, on reflection, I didn't think it was quite fair to take any photos without K knowing.  I will take some at the wedding so you can see.

Beth stayed on until after K and J picked up the dress at about seven-fifteen so I made dinner for us both.  She is off work for a week now so she was very relaxed.

Today is a bit busy.  I have a few bots and bobs to get from Morrisons first thing but I am not bothering to go looking for petrol.  Hopefully, it will be all sorted in a few days and I have about half a tankful which will see me through two journeys to the wedding venue and back again.  I did have plans to go to Dad's with Beth and do a bit more clearing but not if there are still supply issues.  At least petrol isn't something you can stock pile in your shed, unlike those loo rolls and bags of pasta last year!!

Then I pick up Beth and Alex, take Beth to Pontland's (which looks lovely) and leave her there, come back with Alex, make us both dinner, get ready, go back to Pontland's and enjoy the wedding and buffet.   I'm bringing Alex home after a decent time (being autustic, he finds things like this hard to cope with) and Beth will get a taxi later.
I should sleep well tonight!!

Friday

 Morning, everyone.

After a good early morning shop, I had a lovely chat with Chris.  It was good of her to come over as she and her other half are off on holiday today so she was pretty busy.

I did pop into M&M and they did have more Christmas stuff in but nothing that I wanted to get.  I got a few things - deodorant, a bath mat, odds and ends like that, all useful and needed.
Then I realised I wasn't so far from Boots and I did need to go to Boots for odds and ends so that was good.

Later on I went to the allotment and came back with . . .

OK, not the tomatoes and not two of the dwarf beans and not the chilies, they were garden grown, but the rest was allotment grown.  The raspberries were the best picking so far this season.
So nice that just as the runner beans shut down, the French beans start up.  I had them for dinner last night and they were very good.
I watered and I sprayed as the broad beans had some blackfly but I didn't get round to the potatoes.  Not to worry, they are safe and snug in the soil.

So I was on my feet for a long time and I could feel it come the evening.

I was anticipating an early start today as someone is coming round to look at the dodgy guttering and give me an estimate, I hope.  I also have something else for him to cost up but not something for this year, just planning ahead.  However, 'something has come up' and he will be coming after the SW meeting instead.
So the first thing this morning is that I am off to Slimming World and I am going to pop into Morrisons afterwards to ask about flu jabs.
Them, hopefully, I will get that digging done down the allotment - fingers crossed.

In the afternoon, Beth is over and is bringing the wedding dress with her as the bride won't be able to get to the shop in time so I will get a sneak peek at it.  Beth's afraid that if she takes it home, one of the cats might take a liking to it and that could be an absolute disaster!  K will pick it up from mine in the evening.

So that's my day.  A nice one, I hope.  How about you - what do you have planned?  xx