Month: June 2023

An exciting weekend ahead! Freddie is staying with us, as Paul and Harriet are off ‘Glamping’ at the Isle of Wight Festival. We thought we might be able to see them on telly, so watched a bit of the concert tonight, but boy, what a lot of people there are there!!! And, no, we didn’t see them! Maybe tomorrow?

In preparation for the young man’s arrival after school today, I thought I’d better go and buy food that would suit a 7-year old, given that our cupboards are pretty bare. I toddled off to Tesco just before 10 o’clock and took forever to do the shopping. Although I’d got a list, I am sure I bought more than what was on it…..

However, home again, I pottered about, putting the shopping away, cleaning out the fridge on the way and was generally humming happily to myself as I prepped lunch for John and me, when who should walk through the door, but Andrew! Surprise!!

I hadn’t been expecting him home just then but, as always, I was thrilled to see him. He had been spending a few days in Wales in a 2 Michelin-starred restaurant there, doing a ‘stage’, (pronounced “staahj”) i.e. unpaid work. The restaurant in question is called Ynyshir, near Aberystwyth and Machinellyth, and has just been acclaimed as the best restaurant in the UK.

He had enjoyed the work and, as the week went on, it became clear that the Patron Chef liked him and his work, so offered him a job! Wow! Watch this space!!

Andrew’s arrival put paid to my attempts at putting the shopping away because soon afterwards it was time to go and pick Freddie up from school. We left John at home for a snooze and met up with Michael at the school gates to swap some items between us – most notably, a cot mattress and a couple of cool boxes for their weekend away camping.

We waved goodbye to the Kenilworth Newbies and took ourselves to the Warwickshire Golf and Health Club where Freddie had an hour’s worth of Lego Club. He thoroughly enjoyed himself and then came home and did more Lego! Just look at that cheeky grin as he waited for Lego Club to start!

We tootled home, and, on arrival, Freddie burst through the open patio doors a-whooping to say hello to Grandpa, only to find that Grandpa was entertaining guests. Another surprise!! George and Val had arrived on their way home from visiting Val’s sister in Heartlands. It was such a delight to sit and chat to them for a while before they had to head off.

Family and friends. You can’t beat it, can you?

Take care everyone. Prayers for all those who are ill or struggling in anyway right now. God bless.

Arriving back from our holiday we thought we’d be refreshed. We were, in one sense: our souls were full of family and friends, having caught up with Michelle and Tim in Bristol on our way back. The journey home was a bit of a monster though, with hold-ups pretty well all the way up the M5. We played ‘tag’ with Michael and Danielle as far as Bristol, waving as we passed each other:

And we felt tired out by the time we got back to Balsall, and that persisted for a few days. Heaven knows why! I’m still putting my fatigue down to the ‘do a bit, rest a bit’ required after Covid but, in reality, I am heaps better than I was and can keep going for ages now.

John is putting his fatigue down to his condition. We went to see the prostate cancer consultant last Tuesday and she said that, disappointingly, John’s PSA level had risen again. It was 4, then 9 and now 12.5. Although he is on this all-singing, all-dancing drug that helps many patients with prostate cancer, there is a certain percentage for whom it’s not quite as effective. Ha! Guess what? It looks like John might be in that category. Quelle surprise!!

Although the PSA level isn’t very high at the moment, it’s the direction of travel that they are concerned about, so the consultant ordered more scans to see what the state of play is. We went over to Solihull Hospital this evening for the first of those: a CT scan, where dye is injected before the scan itself. At the end of the month, John will have a nuclear bone scan and then back to the consultant for another review. Watch this space……

Meantime, despite his fatigue and in between naps, the ol’ man is pushing on. Disgusted at the rate at which the weeds are growing in the patio, the flowerbeds and the front drive, he decided to do something about it.

On Saturday, he ventured outside to view the situation. “Have you got one of those weed removing tools for the patio, Anne?” Erm….. yes…. maybe…. I know there’s one in the shed somewhere. But for the life of me, I’ll never find it ‘cos the shed is jam-packed full and it’s chaos in there. The ‘shed tidy-up’ is on my list of things to do, but……. maybe tomorrow? (Doubt it…. hehehe!)

Anyway, I offered John a hoe so that he could chop the weeds off at slab height. John looked askance at the hoe, but thought he’d have a go. I went indoors to carry on with other chores.

Every so often, I would look out of the window to see how the Chief Gardener was getting on. Well, the sight made me laugh! He’d do a bit, sit down on a strategically-placed chair, and then do a bit more. There were chairs strewn everywhere. I chuckled as I watched.

But I chuckled even more when, on the last time I looked, he was no longer putting his back into it. He’d gone and got the flame-thrower and was busy scorching the weeds to death instead!! Regrettably, no photo to accompany the picture I’ve tried to paint. But it wasn’t half funny.

He did a bit more weeding on the front drive today. No flame-thrower this time but I narrowly avoided killing him as I drove back from yoga. There he was, Mr Determined, sitting in his electric wheelchair in the middle of the drive, hoe in hand, and giving the blighters what for! That’ll show ’em!

All for now, folks. Take care and God bless.

When we were on holiday we were delighted to know that the downstairs bedroom had been allocated to us. ‘Whoo-hoo!’ we thought, ‘Not far to go for anything.’

The bedroom was the most amazing room we had ever seen. All black. Well, apart from the white bedding. The walls, ceiling, furnishings and furniture were all noir. Very ‘Goth’ – even a diamante-studded skull and a top hat sporting a feather as decoration. Wow.

We settled in. Fumbled our way to bed in the dark. Lost things and couldn’t find them – black on black being very difficult to see when your eyesight is as bad as ours. But we loved it.

What I hadn’t realised at the time though, was that the distance from the bedroom at the back of the house to the dining area was miles. I didn’t think about it at all and tootled about as I do. It took John hours to get to his meals (slight exaggeration) and it was only when he got home that he realised just how far he’d walked while we were away.

You see, we were in the room on the bottom left. The dining room was in the Conservatory on the bottom right. Hehehe. Great excercise.

Once we were at home, John said, “I think we’re going to have to get a bungalow.” Eh? Where did that come from, I wondered. And then he explained how wonderful it was to be in a living space that didn’t require all that walking. For example, an open-plan kitchen/diner/lounge. Apparently, even our house is a challenge now. And not only that, but we can’t keep up with all the maintenance chez nous.

So, what are we doing? We’re getting the house valued, of course! And looking at bungalows…… Watch this space! It’s going to get interesting.

Meanwhile, this week sees another of my college buddies reach the 70th birthday milestone. So, off we toddled to Ashby-de-la-Zouch today for an Afternoon Tea with Anita. And what a smashing time we had as we stuffed ourselves silly with all the lovely food!! Loved it.

Gosh, what a very great blessing it is to have such dear friends. Anita is such a pleasure to be with and such great company. Lucky us.

Take care everyone. God bless.

We had a marvellous week away with the family over half-term. The weather was glorious; the accommodation lush; and the company great. We felt truly blessed that everyone made it – apart from Mike, Christiana’s husband, who was working.

We ate and drank well; managed time in the hot tub and on the tennis courts; and finished the traditional holiday jigsaw. The children really enjoyed themselves and there were very few squabbles, which gladdened my heart.

We went out for meals, went to the seaside and had fish and chips, and catered brilliantly well for ourselves in the house. We had a slap-up meal on the Wednesday evening, courtesy of our resident chef, Andrew, of course, when he cooked us a three-course meal with a mains of Beef Wellington – everyone’s favourite!! Gosh, it wasn’t half good!

Far too many tales to tell of the holiday but, suffice to say, it was lovely all being together for a week. Here’s few photos that offer a flavour of the fun we had……

5-in-a-bed; 3-on-a-scooter; kick-boxing-in-a-posh-frock; chaos-in-the-queue-for-fish’nchips; the-biggest-stick-find-ever; a-night-time-story; we-finished-it-jigsaw; and still-holding-hands-at-70.

G’night folks! See you tomorrow!