Month: April 2022

We have spent the last couple of days round at Michael and Danielle’s ….. because we could!! The household is all clear of COVID, so we took the opportunity to shoot round there and spend some time with new baby Oliver.

Here’s us – all very excited to make Oliver’s acquaintance for the first time properly!

Andrew stayed for a little while and then went off to Nottingham where he was having a very posh meal at a Michelin-starred restaurant, while John and I stayed on.

I walked with Michael to collect William and Thomas from school and we were amused when William emerged – he was so busy telling Daddy all about his day that he didn’t notice me at first. When he did, his little face lit up and he said what he always says when I am there unexpectedly: “Grandma! What are you doing here?!” Makes me grin every time.

We had a lovely walk home, with William scooting almost all the way as proficient as you like, and Thomas toddling half the way home. Delightful. Especially the bit when William was holding my hand and telling me all about it…..

William had a birthday party to go to in Sutton Coldfield this afternoon and the plan was to take both William and Thomas. We chose to go and spend the afternoon with Danielle to look after her while Michael was out. When we got there, Thomas was fast asleep, so we said not to worry, we’d entertain him, so Michael and William went on their way.

We had a wonderful afternoon. Thomas and I spent the afternoon running round and round the garden, clearing up various bits of debris and gathering up all the stray balls from the ball pit. They were everywhere!

We also had fun in the double buggy-cum-pram. Oliver was fast asleep in the pram on one side and Thomas spent a good hour strapping himself in and out of the buggy. We went ’round and round the garden, like a teddy bear’ and did lots of ‘tickling under there’. Each time we spied another ball, out Thomas got, picked it up and popped it into his ‘choo-choo train’ trailer. Excuse the pun, but I had a ball.

We came indoors as the afternoon waned, and Grandpa took up the reins in looking after Thomas while I did a bit of tidying round the kitchen and cooking the tea. At one point, Grandpa had his hands full of Olivier and Thomas while Danielle nipped to loo – and a sterling job he did, too.

Marvellous. I love a bit of family time, don’t you?

Take care everyone. God bless.

We really wouldn’t want it any other way, would we? Full days? They keep us on our toes and, for some reason, keep us looking well. Apparently anyway, ‘cos that’s what the college crew said to me tonight – that I looked well. I’ll take that, thank you very much. I think it’s all that scraping of wallpaper and polystyrene that’s kept me fit!

Anyway, today was another full day one way and another.

Before the plasterer came round, I did the housewifely thing of vacuuming up all the stray bits of paper and polystyrene, just to look a little bit presentable. When he arrived, he ran an experienced eye over the room, talked through what we might do with skirting boards, architraves and picture rails; offered us advice on where to go for good cornices; and suggested we use an electrician he knows to move the plugs. I was impressed and, more importantly, so was John. Marvellous. And the price was right, so we’ve booked him. Goody! Not until June though…..

Next job? Pull up the carpets and order the flooring. Woo-hoo! Can’t wait for it all to come together. Fingers crossed it does, just at the right time.

And now to use the wonderful gift John bought me yesterday. He certainly knows how to treat a woman right, doesn’t he?

Buzzing in the background to any activity I may be undertaking was John, tinkering with his car, surfing the internet for parts, watching YouTube videos on ‘how to….’ and nipping out to Tool Station or Screwfix for a piece of equipment. He’s worked hard today.

This afternoon I did the ironing (I know, I know) and then thought that I might offer another casserole to the Kenilworth Newbies. They are both exhausted. Michael said ‘yes, please, if you don’t mind’ and, of course, I don’t mind at all. So I did a bit of cooking this afternoon for them and took their tea over to them at five o’clock.

One good piece of news is that Oliver, who has been developing a nice shade of yellow from jaundice, is improving. Michael and Danielle took him to the clinic at the hospital today for a check-up and the bilirubin levels are coming down. That’s a relief. Cheers to Oliver……

Meanwhile, Andrew is home – sort of. He arrived on Tuesday and we had a lovely evening meal over at Paul and Harriet’s together. He then slept for most of the day yesterday, cooked us a wonderful roast dinner, packed his overnight bag and went to stay over at one of his friends.

Home again this morning, but he clearly hadn’t had a lot of sleep so he napped all afternoon, before disappearing to the pub just before tea-time….. he has watched a film with John this evening, while I chatted to the college crew, and then he’s up to Nottingham tomorrow before he heads off home. It’s been lovely having him around, but we haven’t had much of him really….. maybe next time…….

Take care everyone. God bless.

When I saw Pete and Dawn yesterday we arranged for them to come to our house to help eat up the ‘fatted calf’ I’d originally got out of the freezer ready for Andrew’s homecoming on Monday. In the end, we had a change of plan and they didn’t come. The prodigal son had arrived home and so they suggested we enjoy the joint of beef with him en famille, rather than in a crowd.

I had planned to cook a wonderful roast beef meal, but Andrew, being a chef, got stuck into the cooking and banished me from the kitchen when it came to it. I didn’t argue. I mean, who would, when you can have your meal prepared for you, eh? It was lush.

I am not surprised he’d turned his nose up at my suggestion of steamed vegetables. His version of a roast dinner was with creamed leeks, cauliflower cheese and glazed carrots as accompaniments. Delicious.

Such a glorious meal was very welcome. We’d had a busy day one way and another.

First thing this morning John and I had a run out to Heartlands Hospital for his regular immunoglobulin treatment. I dropped him at the hospital door and drove home, before returning a couple of hours later to collect him.

“Everything go OK?” I enquired as I picked him up. “Yes,” he replied, “but it was a bit odd as the nurse kept coming to adjust the speed at which the infusion was going through, which they don’t do normally. It only transpired, as I was getting to the end of the treatment, that I wasn’t supposed to be there this morning, but this afternoon, instead! She said they didn’t have the heart to turn me away, knowing that we’d come a long way and I’d been dropped off and you’d already left. Mind you, there was a lady who had to wait for treatment while I had mine. No wonder they were keen to whizz the infusion through.” Oops….. we hadn’t double-checked the time of the appointment because it’s always at 9 in the morning…..just not today.

As Pete and Dawn weren’t coming round after all, once I was home and before I went back to collect John, I set to and got on with the wall stripping. I am delighted to report that I have managed to get all of the polystyrene off the walls in the dining room to reveal the full horror of the crumbling plaster underneath. I have also revealed a little bit of house history….. did this used to be a book case, do you think? I was quite charmed by this unexpected revelation.

This afternoon, before John was engrossed in tinkering with his car again, we went over to Paul and Harriet’s to retrieve our cars, where we’d left them last night. We spent a few minutes chatting to Harriet, which was very nice, before we all set off home in our individual cars. How profligate……

Andrew left us to our own devices this evening and went to see his friend, Tubsy. We had our quiz to look forward to – and, once again, it was good fun. Lovely to see everyone and enjoy their company. The scores on the doors were about the same as they are every week, but there were plenty of questions that challenged us. I wasn’t on top form tonight, feeling rather tired from my scraping exertions, but it didn’t matter – everyone else was!!

Take care everyone. God bless.

Had a great morning. Pete and Dawn picked me up in their new car and we all trundled off to Solihull to see if we could sort out some accessories for Dawn’s Mother-of the-Bride outfit.

We went to the best place in Solihull for such things and, within minutes, had found a ‘titfer’ that looked like it might fit the bill. Naturally, we didn’t plump on that one straight away; and also naturally, we had to go through every other hat of the right colour and shape, just to check. The shop assistant finally came over to assist and, of course, the first one that we’d picked out was the one.

And a handbag? I’d found several that might do the trick, but when we got them close up, they were either too small, or the wrong colour, or the wrong material. The assistant brought out a few more bags and…. boom! There was one that was just right. Ooooooh, we were very happy bunnies.

“Shall we have a coffee to celebrate?” Dawn suggested. Don’t mind if I do. So we popped to a café nearby where there were very few customers, and thoroughly enjoyed our beverages and good conversation.

John, meanwhile, had been at home tinkering on the car again. Lots of lovely parcels keep arriving with bits for the car so, obviously, they need to be attached. It’s coming on…..

In the afternoon John continued with more car collation and I busied myself in emulating the ‘Bear Ladies’ from the Repair Shop. William’s little cuddly toy had sprung a leak in his arm and some of the stuffing had fallen out, so could I repair him please? I am not the best needlewoman in the world, but I had a go and voila! There he was, all mended and ready to go home.

I then had a half hour scraping away some of the polystyrene in the dining room. Oo-er! Honestly, it seems that we’ve been holding the building together with polystyrene and wallpaper……

Had a great evening, too. We were invited to Paul and Harriet’s for tea, so I gave up on stripping and we got in the car and drove over to Kenilworth. We had a lovely time. Andrew joined us, having driven across from Cambridge, and we sat over the dinner table all evening chatting away. Sometimes loudly debating a point…… a great time had by all. So much so, that it was an Uber home…….

Take care everyone. God bless.

Despite the fact that I woke up early this morning, I couldn’t winkle myself out of bed. I snoozed on for another hour or so, then read my book for a bit before hitting the word games on my phone. John, however, was a bit better at getting up and brought me a nice cup of tea at about 9.30.

I finally dragged myself from under the bedclothes at about ten o’clock to get ready for our guests, Dave and Chris, who were popping in with a little gift for the baby. “We won’t stay long,” said Chris. Haha! Once we get nattering there’s no way that’s going to happen!!!

Chris and I nipped up to the shops to buy some ingredients for a casserole that I planned to cook in the afternoon for Michael and Danielle. While we were in the Co-op we saw some lovely pizzas in the ‘reduced’ refrigerator. “Do you want to stop for lunch?” I suggested. “No, no, really, we won’t stay long,” Chris replied.

Once we were home, we nattered some more…. and had pizza for lunch. How lovely to spend time with friends and to get on so well with each other that you just natter and natter!

Chris helped me with the casseroles that I was cooking for the Kenilworth Newbies and offered her experience and expertise as a professional cook as to what would taste particularly nice. Apparently, her advice was spot-on. Michael said the chicken casserole went down a treat and the boys loved it.

Puzzle time….. what, do you reckon, this is?

No…. it’s not a mangled spatula. It is, in fact, a dead, plastic whisk. I only went and put it back in the pan that I’d left on the heat, didn’t I? No use to man nor beast now!!! Ah, well, I was due a new one, anyway.

After Dave and Chris left, I had a bit of a clear-up and then lit a fire. I know it’s Spring and all that, but we’d had the windows open while we had guests and John had gone chilly. The clouds had accumulated and hidden the sunshine, so it felt just right to be cosy in front of an open fire. John was delighted to have the warmth of the fire and promptly fell fast asleep, snuggled up in a blanket.

I gathered up all the goodies that I was to take to the besieged in Kenilworth – the little gifts Chris had brought, plus her delicious coffee and walnut cake; the just-come-out-of-the-oven chicken casserole; a chilli con carne; some ready-to-cook jacket potatoes and rice; and some tasty, fresh pineapple – before I set off to deliver the ‘Red Cross food parcel’.

All goodies were gratefully received, but ‘before you get here Mum, will you call in at Sainsbury’s and buy more nappies, please?’ Size Ones. For the newborn. Hmmmm….. the Sainsbury’s in Kenilworth doesn’t have its own-brand nappies in that size, but I bought others. “I tell you what,” I said to Danielle as I delivered the nappies, “I’ll pop over to Canley and see if they have any of their own brand in size ones.” They did. Success. Fingers crossed that Oliver doesn’t grow out of that size before he goes through the seemingly thousands of nappies I’ve bought……

All in all, a good day. But no time for dealing with the dining room. I did think that I might have a go at getting some more of the polystyrene off this evening but, by the time we’d eaten, I was tired and it was blog time. Maybe tomorrow?

Take care everyone. 341 people died with Covid today. 45,077 people tested positive. It’s definitely not over. Even if it’s no longer deemed newsworthy…….. God bless.

Being a Sunday, I thought I’d go to church and, as I awoke early, I decided to nip to the 8 o’clock service to say my prayers and thank the Lord for keeping an eye on us over the last couple of weeks.

I should’ve checked the weekly newsletter though, shouldn’t I? No eight o’clock service today – Peter is on ‘is ‘olidays – which I had forgotten, d’oh……. never mind, I watched the 9.30 service online instead.

But what was particularly delightful this morning was that John got up early. He was downstairs by 8.30 and we were breakfasting on bacon butties together by ten to nine. Oh, bliss – to have John’s company early in the morning. I thought I was in heaven.

My plan for the day had been to do some scraping of polystyrene in the dining room, but honestly, I felt weary today and couldn’t quite bring myself to do it. I did a bit more sorting out of the kitchen, where I’d deposited items from the dining room, then sat and had a cuppa and a sandwich before it was time to go over to Mum’s.

John, meanwhile, was still tinkering in the garage. That is, until his glasses fell apart….. we think he must have sat on them because they were a bit bent and the glass had parted company with the frame. We spent a good half an hour fiddling about with them to try and mend them, carefully putting the teeny, tiny screw to one side so we didn’t lose it…….. hahahahaha…… John picked it up and it immediately escaped onto the floor. Nope. We couldn’t find it. Fortunately, we had a spare pair of glasses which we cannibalised to repair them. They are not great but, luckily, we found another pair that would do just as well, so all’s well that end’s well.

I visited Mum this afternoon and she was quite well. She couldn’t hear me at all, though. Then we found her hearing aids on her bedside table. No wonder she couldn’t hear me!! I gave them a bit of a clean-up and she popped them in and, all of a sudden, we were having a conversation. Mind you, it was fairly one-sided in that she couldn’t remember anything much, which isn’t such a bad thing when you’ve been poorly and can’t remember having been so. But she was happy.

I told her that Graham and Gail were on one of their trips to celebrate Gail’s 70th birthday – which is today. Mum was delighted they were enjoying themselves but shocked that Gail was 70. She kept shaking her head as if she couldn’t quite believe it.

G&G have gone to Christmas Island which I think is very exciting and I think they are having a good time despite the rain!!! Of course, it’s the wet season now, so monsoons are in order. Despite it being very close to Java in Indonesia, it’s an Australian territory, so they import much of their food from Australia. Gail says meals out are hideously expensive as a result….. and the crabs that run around everywhere are inedible, so no local speciality, after all.

Take care everyone. Look after yourselves. God bless.

I felt a bit grumpy when I got up this morning. Not sure why – missing the dog(s) maybe? Whatever it was, I managed to shake it off by lunchtime after I had spent the morning digging the kitchen out and re-locating its work surfaces.

John had another bit of a lie-in before he settled down in the lounge and had a look at what was happening in the Grand Prix Qualifying. It seemed quite interesting one way and another but, in the end, no surprises as to who drove into pole position. Looking forward to the race tomorrow though!

Michael and Danielle sent out a plea in the general direction of anyone who was around – could someone please go and get cream for the cure of nappy rash? We promised to run the errand. After all, being retired, we have a lot less to do than Paul and Harriet who have millions of children to look after. Chuckle, chuckle….. well, it seems that way, anyway!!

So I toddled round to the Kenilworth Newbies and was treated to a whole family appearance on the doorstep. How lovely.

The family is beginning to look better and recovering from Covid, but the Lateral Flow Tests aren’t yet all clear for Michael and maybe Thomas. Fingers crossed they come clear over the weekend.

When I got back from Kenilworth, John was pottering in the garage. He’s really getting on with the work, but he says it’s very slow going. Never mind, even if he feels like the tortoise, he’ll get there in the end.

With John getting on with his project, I thought I’d start mine……. this is the wallpaper nicely removed and piled high ready for the bin – didn’t need to do any scraping at all – it just pulled off.

And then I got onto the underneath bits….. We had lined the walls with polystyrene to provide a touch of insulation to our solid-walled house, so that was next and this is it, so far:

Hahahaha!!! The polystyrene is coming off very nicely with a bit of scraping…. but so is the wall underneath it!! Now we remember why we said we needed to re-plaster. Fingers crossed that the plasterer comes on Thursday, as promised.

By 5.30 this afternoon, both John and I had had enough. I cooked the tea and then we just sat, zombie-like in front of the box. We’d run out of energy and decided we needed a rest. Oh, Lordy, I think we are feeling our age…….

Take care everyone – and, just in case you thought I’d forgotten, Covid cases are currently 1 in 14….. God bless.

It felt like a busy day for both of us today. John, however, wasn’t feeling the best this morning and took the opportunity to have a little bit of a lie-in to recoup his strength. Since he caught a nasty cold a couple of weeks ago, he hasn’t quite go back to where he was in March and there are days when everything is a real struggle.

Nevertheless, John was up in time to greet the ‘furniture man’ who came at 11 o’clock. In my head, I thought the man would be here about an hour and gone on his way with a decision made – but no, there was a lot of measuring up to do and then multiple decisions to be made. And we all know how long a decision takes to make these days…..with the devil in the detail.

We were very happy, though, with what was suggested and we were satisfied with the price, so we said ‘yes’ to submitting an order. The furniture man, Mark, looked a bit sheepish when we asked about lead times for delivery. “It’s 13 weeks to delivery,” he said. We were relieved. Delighted, in fact. We have wallpaper to whisk off the walls, plaster to chip off and new plaster to put on, electric plugs to cable in, flooring to repair and decorating to do. 13 weeks? Not sure that’ll be long enough….. Mark was rather relieved when we said we didn’t want delivery asap.

While Mark was doing all his calculations, John went off to the loo. Calculations almost done, I went through to call John in – and this is what I saw: Chester, who was waiting patiently outside the loo to keep John company, had squeezed himself into one of the cat beds………. made me giggle.

After Mark had left, it was gone lunchtime, so we grabbed some crusty bread and various cheeses that I’d bought for the family last week, and enjoyed a half-hour sit-down.

The Kenilworth Newbies were expecting Chester back today, so I took him out for a walk mid-afternoon, having neglected the duty first thing this morning. Once we were back we invited him into the car for a ride home. I think he knew what was coming, because he was quite excited and keen to leap into the back of the car, woofing his head off.

With the pooch safely delivered and a reassurance from the Kenilworth Newbies that they were OK, we came home and basically flopped onto the sofa for the evening. “We’re not doing anything else this evening,” we said to one another, “we’re dog-tired….” (see what I did there?)

It seemed a busy day – even if it wasn’t….

Take care everyone. God bless.

I have decided, with all this wonderful family expansion, that I am going to start my new project. The Dining Room.

I know I’ve mentioned it before but I am in earnest now. I’ve started clearing out all the cupboards and putting everything into boxes, and we have a man (or maybe a woman) coming round tomorrow to see if there’s anything we like in his/her range of dressers and bespoke solutions for a dining room. Then next week, another man is coming round to take a look at the room with a view to re-plastering it. This means that, not only do cupboards need clearing out, but wallpaper needs stripping.

It will be interesting to see if I can get round to doing all of that before next Thursday. I mean, we are hoping that the Kenilworth Newbies won’t be infectious with Covid by Monday and we’ll be able to go round and give them a hand with whatever might need doing. I may not, therefore, get the room ready for plastering inspection – but I hope I will.

John, meanwhile, is still keeping on with his labour of love and spending as much time as he can in the garage to get the car sorted. He’s onto the trim now – and is almost spending as much time researching the appropriate piece for the car on the computer as he is actually fitting it…..One interesting factor in getting the right stuff is that it seems as if all those in the classic Lotus supply chain are retiring and selling up their businesses. Makes the restoration process awkward…… hey ho.

Excitingly, we did see baby Oliver in the flesh though, today – albeit at a distance. With Danielle’s blood pressure having been low, we suggested she should perhaps check it each day over the next week or so. They don’t have a blood pressure monitor, so we dropped ours in. Michael was nursing the baby as he answered the door – whereupon we got a glimpse of the little darling. Michael came outside and sat on a stool so that we had a better view, and thus we were able to admire from afar.

We still have Chester for the time being and I am enjoying the walking again. Especially as the weather is very nice, with the sun shining and the air relatively warm. Today’s walk across the fields was lovely – especially the dandelions. Hehehe.

All for now. Take care everyone. God bless.

I slept like a log last night – relieved that Oliver had arrived safely and that Danielle had got through her ordeal OK. Once again, thanking the Lord that all is well and grateful for all the prayers offered.

John and I pottered through the day waiting for news from the Kenilworth Newbies – firstly, we took a trip into Solihull for a visit to the audiologist. John’s hearing aids were on the blink and one of them has to be sent off for a repair. Just the next couple of weeks of: “Eh? What did you say?” and me repeating or shouting……. it’s not much to ask, is it?

Pete and Dawn had hoped to call in for coffee this morning, but that idea was shelved with our little trip out. However, we finished at the audiologist very quickly, so we texted them to say, ‘How about coffee at yours instead?’ to which they were game. We spent a good while there chatting and imbibing refreshments – including chocolate cake, which was lush – before we came home again. The dog was pleased to see us…..

Oh, yes, we’ve swapped Mac for Chester for a day or two and Chester was waiting for his walk, which he enjoyed once we finally got going this afternoon. Here he is, waiting for a treat…..

We followed the same route that I had taken with Mac. Amusingly, the dogs approached the path quite differently. For the first half an hour, Chester and I made slow progress. Every single blade of grass seemed to have the most interesting smells and he gave them their due attention. So, it was trot on for a bit, then stop….. sniff, sniff, sniff… trot on for a couple more steps, then snifferty-sniff-sniff….. then trot on one step before halting for more sniff, sniff, sniffs…. and so on. Fascinating.

Nevertheless, we managed the whole route and it was clear that Chester had enjoyed it. He was even game to go round again, I think!

Meanwhile, as we arrived home I was ready for a sit-down with a Magnum ice-cream and John was ready to come in from the garage, where he’d been tinkering with the car, and grab a cuppa.

We ate our tea and wondered how the Kenilworth Newbies were getting on. No sooner had we started wondering, when a video came in from the original Kenilworth Sleaths. Michael was at their house explaining to William and Thomas that there was a new baby brother awaiting them, with Mummy, at home – and did they want to go and meet him?

A little while later, and there they all were……

Boom!