Monday

Apologies for yesterday's non-appearance.  I was at Mum and Dad's and there were a few connection issues.  Home now and back online.  The weather is just as dire though - still dark, damp and gloomy and I am really noticing that the days are getting shorter and the nights longer again.

It was a good time away.  On Saturday we popped over to M&S at Biggleswade again and had lunch there (absolutely delicious sandwiches and a HUGE cup of coffee!) while the sun was still shining and in the afternoon we stayed in as the rain fell and the garden lifted her head and rejoiced.  As did any blight around and I got a blight warning in my mailbox.  Ho hum!

Yesterday morning I cooked the dinner for us all (a really tasty savoury crumble, though I say it myself) and headed home p.m.  I was lucky enough to dodge the showers that were dotted around the countryside and it was a pleasant journey.  I came back loaded with goodies from my generous parents, bless them.  More super-posh muesli, a bag of runner beans from their garden and a thing to help me hear the telly better which is now all charged up and ready to go!

I came back to a small stack of mail - a bill, a tax thingy for someone else and two tax thingies for myself - one a notification of a change in tax code (it keeps changing!) and one telling me that the tax bods owe me some money.  A nicely comfortable amount too which, when paid, will go straight into my savings, maybe into investments.  That was a cheerful thing to come home to and it'll be interesting to see if my 'disposable' income now goes up.  It's all so complicated (to me it is anyway) that I'm a bit gung ho about it which is probably totally the wrong attitude, but at least I'm not likely to fall for a money making scam in any way.  No way do I want to add complication to my life!

Today I have quite a lot to do in anticipation of the arrival of an old friend tomorrow morning.  I need to make some bread (haven't made bread for a while now as I got some yellow sticker bread), get her bedroom ready, finish the ironing, prep the runner beans, plan a menu and shop for any extra things I need, dust and hoover and, to start with, I have two morning tuition sessions.  It's now the school holidays, officially, not just the weekend, but I've been asked by some to do holiday sessions and am happy to oblige, seeing as life is one long holiday now!

I had a bit of a disappointment though - the coach trip to Buckingham Palace is off.  When it came to paying, there wasn't enough interest so the company cancelled it.  A shame, but there you go, the things one can suffer and still survive, eh?  We might have a 'do it yourself' trip with a 'Royal Day Out ticket' which means we can wait until September when schools will be back and it won't be quite so crowded.
https://www.royalcollection.org.uk/visit/buckinghampalace/plan-your-visit/what-to-see-and-do/royal-day-out#plan
I do hope they don't cancel our trip to the seaside.  I'm really looking forward to that one!

Well, the planning is done and ready for 9:00 but there's loads more to do so I need to get going.  Have a good day and may the sun shine for you.