Thursday evening, 12-09-24

Good evening, one and all.  It's been quite a nice day today but mornings and evenings are getting chilly, aren't they.

I'm not turning the heating on yesterday but yesterday evening I re-connected the electric blanket and when I got into bed, it was so lovely and toasty warm.  Bliss.  And then, this morning, I woke early so I put on my oodie as a sort of bed jacket, turned on the blanket again and read in more blissful comfort.  
Definitely the way to go!

I took the car in this morning in hopes that the read window washer split pipe would, at last, be sorted.  I sat there for two and a half hours but, fair's fair, it is now sorted and I was charged a ridiculously small amount.  I was prepared to argue if they had added time onto that because it should have just been part of the annual service for which I had already paid, but it was a lot less than I had been quoted for the part - not that I argued, I just paid a ran (metaphorically). 

Then I popped round to Beth's.  With most unfortunate timing, her knackered boiler/pipework was scheduled to be done today and tomorrow and it wasn't possible to postpone so Alex was in charge and Beth asked me to pop over to help, if needed.  But it wasn't - Alex had it all under control and Beth was fast asleep in her room.

Tomorrow, the plumber will need access to her room but, hopefully, she will have slept well and will be OK in the living room with the cats who are all most disgruntled at the disruption to their cosy entitled lifestyle!

And then it was home and I got all the ironing done and the drying racks away.  That was a relief - I don't like the mess  made by damp washing everywhere.

So it has been a positive enough day.  Beth is feeling a bit better - still rough but not as rough.  Hopefully she will continue to improve.

And now it is time to chill and relax before bedtime.  Sweet dreams, everyone, and have a great day tomorrow.  xx

Wednesday evening - 11-09-24

Evening, all.  

It's been so cold here today.  A bit windy too with sudden, gusty showers so, after having to rush out and get in the washing, I set up my drying racks and the living room is full of drying clothes - well, it feels full anyway!

Poor old Beth has had another dental doing, ending up at A&E last night.  Chest pains, couldn't open her mouth, at one point couldn't swallow.  She said it was more than a bit scary but the conclusion (after testing - she has a strong ticker, they found) she came home with a huge swelling on one side, two lots of antibiotics and pain killers and a diagnosis of a nasty abscess.  Later on, I went shopping for her and went over with custard, various mash, ice-cream, soup, canned pears (mashable) - all stuff she can eat without opening her mouth - because she can't.

She has a dental appointment next week anyway.

I will go over again tomorrow and I hope she will have a good sleep overnight as things ease off.  She didn't sleep last night.

All rather worrying really so, please, send over good vibes, etc.  

I've done the ironing that was dry and will do the rest tomorrow.

Night, everyone.  Sweet dreams.

Tuesday evening, 10-09-24

Evening, one and all.  I'm sure I don't need to point out that we are now one third of the way through September.  How???  Mind you, checking my finances, I note that I am not a third of the way down so that's very pleasing!

Chris came round for coffee at nine this morning.  It is usually Thursday at ten but this Thursday the car is going in to have the work done that should have been done a fortnight ago and, thinking about it, that will deal with the 'I haven't spent so much this month vibe, won't it?  Oh, well.

And at nine because we both had things on later.

It was really nice.  It's nearly a fortnight since the last one so we had loads to catch up on.

A bit later, the lovely Sharon arrived and under an hour later I was all neat and tidy again.  We've set the dates until Christmas now which is great.

I did some housework, some cooking, bits and bobs and some knitting.  Actually, plenty of knitting.  The bright red jumper is coming on now and I might have finished it by the end of the week.

I know the light is bad but I thought how nice and colourful the middle bed is looking.  I've been consistently dead heading and it does make a difference as the plants throw up more flowers.

Even in the dull cloudiness, it brightens things up.

I'm looking forward to bedtime.  Yesterday I added a fleece to my duvet and I was lovely and cosy warm overnight.  Really snuggly and comfortable.  I might go up a bit earlier and read for a while - that would be nice.

Good night, everyone.  I hope your day has been lovely and you have a great night's sleep.  See you tomorrow.  xx

Monday evening, 09-09-24

 Good evening, everyone.

When I drew back my curtains this evening, my first thought was 'thank goodness I'm no longer teaching'.  
Those of you who have taught, especially the little ones will, I bet, remember those days when the rain hammered down and Welly Drill was necessary.
In they came and the first fifteen minutes or so were spent spreading newspaper on the floor, taking wellies off, finding their wellie peg (assuming they had one), checking their wellies were named (and naming them if they weren't), hanging up dripping wet clothes, finding PE shoes for those who had come in shoes which were now soaking wet . . . and then pretty much repeating the process in reverse at home-time - and playtimes if it wasn't raining too hard.
Chaos - organised, maybe, but still chaos.

It makes me shudder to think of it even now!

I found so many of your messages in my Spam folder.  Sorry; they are where they should be now and I have replied.  I checked spam on Sunday so goodness knows where they have been in the meanwhile.

The weather did cheer up after a while but it has been gloomy most of the day.  I had thought maybe I would drive over to Hyde Hall but I didn't - I did some shopping and cleaned downstairs instead.

I can't go tomorrow as there's a couple of things scheduled but maybe Wednesday.  We'll see.

Have you had a good day.  I do hope so.  Take care, everyone, and pleasant dreams.  xx

Sunday evening, 08-09-24 - The Wisdom of Beth

Taken from Beth's Facebook page and used with her permission.

How not to disgrace yourself at the dentist #391-400

1)Eeeeeeee! is not an appropriate response to having multiple injections into the gum. Adult humans usually say ow, ouch or ah. They do not squeak like a guinea pig.

2) Do not jerk away from the needle, because the anaesthetic will go down your throat.

3) Do not choke on anaesthetic

4) When one's mouth is numb, remember to account for this when rinsing. Otherwise you will spit water all down your top. And the floor.

5) Giggling about this is probably not the appropriate response.

6) In second appointment, handle the denture with care, lest a tooth comes off.

7) If a tooth DOES come off, do not say oops and drop it on the floor, so that dentist, dental nurse and apprentice all end up on their hands and knees, bums in air looking for said tooth.

8)  Giggling about this is probably not the appropriate response.

9) When you have LITERALLY JUST BROKEN SOMETHING do not grab the plaster cast of your mouth and go 'Ooooh is this my mouth? How cool' so the now haunted looking dentist has to gently remove it before you bloody break that too.

10) Giggling about this... well you know the rest.

Poor Beth - she really is dentist-phobic . . . far worse than her mum, bless her.

Saturday evening, 07-09-24

Good evening, everyone.  It's seven thirty and already I have the curtains drawn.  The nights really are closing in now and it's almost time for snuggle hood (oodie) curling up on my recliner, I think.

It was a good journey home.  There were all the expected hold-ups - the Wisley roundabout was busy and the traffic moved very slowly but the signposting is excellent and, as it is traffic light controlled, I got round without any hassle, just some stops and starts.
Then the Dartford Tunnel was also very slow - some poor individual had broken down at the exit to the left hand tunnel so that really did slow things down.

The A12 roundabout was busy and slow but, again, no real hassles.
And the rest was absolutely fine.

As I drove past the Clock Tower precinct on the way through Chelmsford, I stopped there and did my bit of fruit and veg shopping plus a few other bits and bobs like milk.  That's all done for the week now, I hope.

When I got home, I went into the garden and picked what had ripened while I was away.  Loads of tomatoes, a couple of portions of runners and some dwarf beans as well.  I'm going to have to make some pasta sauce, I think, for the freezer.

I'm all unpacked and settled in now.  Feeling a bit achey too as I do stay very tense on the M25 - it's not my favourite drive by a long way.  I'm sure it will ease and a good night's sleep will sort it all out.

I'll have some washing and some housework to do tomorrow but there will be plenty of time to chill so that's nice.

I'm trying to catch up with blogs that I follow.  Please forgive me if I miss a few out, the notifications don't always seem to come through.  I'll try to keep up now.

Have a good evening, everyone, a good night's sleep and a lovely day tomorrow.  xx

Friday evening, 06-09-24 - another visit to Wisley and more photos.

Evening, everyone.

We really didn't pick a good week for my stay with Suzanne but the rain did lift for a couple of hours while we were there.

We said - it's not a nice day, there shouldn't be many people there.  How wrong can you be?  It is Wisley flower show this week and the car parks were absolutely packed, despite the rain.  There were nice RHS people directing cars to spaces which was a great help so we didn't have to go round and round, thankfully.

We looked at some of the stalls but mainly we wandered around the bits I hadn't seen last week.   It was all lovely and I will pop on some photos without comments below because they're not needed really - comments, I mean!

We went to the World Food Café and shared a very tasty bean, avocado and tortilla chip sandwich with a black coffee (not shared!!) and braved the drive up to the Wisley roundabout, around and back home again.  I now know exactly how to negotiate it to get back on theM25 so no worries.

Here's the photos and tomorrow I will be home and back to normal again.  Goodnight, everyone.