Thursday

Good morning!  Nearly another week over and nearly a third of the way through the month.  Not long until the longest day.  When I wrote that I thought 'how ridiculous - we're hardly over winter yet'.  It's just incredible how time flies, isn't it?

The weather was lovely yesterday apart from one gloomy spell over lunchtime when it looked a bit threatening but didn't come to anything.  That's probably because all the excitement was forty or so miles away, in Chelmsford, where, Beth tells me, it absolutely poured!  No need to water the allotment yesterday, or my garden, come to that!

We had a pleasant time at Standalone although I had forgotten how pongy these animal places are.  Certain 'country aromas' are really not my thing.  I'm not a genuine country lass - farmlike-animal smells are yuck!  We walked around, looked at some animals, watched the model railway, enjoyed the frolics of the many littlies there and had a light lunch.

Also, I was glad I am now on anti sneeze meds every day for a while because even with them I was getting itchy and snuffly and my eyes were gritty.  I'd rather not think about how unpleasant it would be without them.  I've just taken today's dose after waking up itchy-eyed and scratchy-skinned.  Ho hum!

Today we go shopping and I have a form to fill in.  One of the reasons for staying here was so I could have some in-depth consultations with my financial adviser (aka 'Dad') regarding how to invest lump sums, 25% tax free AVC dosh, etc, etc, etc.  We have done so - long live ISAs, peer to peer lending and so on and so forth!  And while I am here, it's good to know the old home is being cared for too.  :-)

I gave in yesterday.  Remember last week I talked about making popcorn in the microwave?  Plain popcorn is a great snack and I am very fond of it.  Yesterday I gave in and ordered a hot air popper machine thing.  I hadn't realised that you can now get lots of flavours of powder to shake over your popcorn, should you fancy it.  That might be useful for parties, etc, but for now I will be enjoying my plain popped corn with maybe a little pinch of salt.

Hoping that all my readers have a great day today, wherever you are.