A Mad Week!

What a week! Time just flew last week with one thing and another which left me with very little time to think about anything! Son2 spent the first night in his new home on Sunday after a day spent ferrying bits and pieces around. I’ll confess to feeling a tad wobbly on Monday and Tuesday but that feeling soon passed. Of course I miss him but, as with Son1 when he moved out, not in the way I thought I would!

I had yet another birthday on Wednesday, they just keep on coming, and the boys both came round for dinner – that in itself was a weird experience – quite tiring! Now that neither have a bedroom to disappear to after dinner we had to entertain them! Yes we all sat around talking as if we had real visitors! When they went I sank into my chair as if I’d been entertaining all day! I had some lovely presents as well – a Radley umbrella, two quilting books, a crochet/knitting book, a lovely bundle of fat quarters in a batik fabric – very pretty – and some lovely quilt label fabric. Unusually no smellies or chocolates!

Oh nearly forgot to tell you – I bought a new food processor! A couple of weeks ago I saw a man at the checkout in Sainsbury’s with a huge box containing a processor. At the time I nudged John and said ‘oooh look at that – think I might treat myself next time I come in!’ I sneaked a peak and saw that it was £99 which I thought was OK as I’d got quite a lot of loyalty points that would help reduce the cost. Anyway, I went in the other evening to find that it was now reduced to £79!! With £67.50 in points I got an absolute bargain! I don’t feel too bad about my treat as my old mixer was 27 years old – John bought it for me on our first Christmas together, it’s certainly earnt its retirement!

Day off on Friday saw me meeting up with Janet in town. We had planned to be a little more daring and go out to a local village but as we had snow the previous evening we decided not to risk country roads and played safe instead. I also finally bought John’s Christmas present – the way I was going he would have had an IOU on Saturday morning!!

On Friday evening we went out for our traditional birthday family meal (Son1 & moi!), sadly Son2 had a prior commitment and couldn’t join us so it was just John, Son1, FDIL & I. We went to Zizis  - I had the tastiest duck I can ever remember having, it was divine and the meat just fell off of the bone.

Haircut Saturday – I’ve gone a bit shorter than usual! I hope when I wash it I can make it look as good as my hairdresser did! Oh and a near disaaaaaster! The shower wouldn’t work on Saturday morning – plenty of pump type noise but no water – John went in to the loft to find that the lagging hadn’t been replaced by the engineer a couple of weeks ago. The pipes were frozen in our well insulated loft! I had the bright idea of leaving the loft open for a while to let some heat waft up and by mid afternoon they had thawed – happily without bursting. What a mess that would have made! (edited – hair came out OK this morning!!)

Being the very kind and loving mother that I am, I offered my ticket for football to Son2 on Saturday – and to the sceptics amongst you, no it wasn’t because a) they’ve been playing very badly lately or b) the weather forecast was not too good! Well, it turned out I missed probably the best match of the season so far! Played in a blizzard and with the ground staff coming out at half time and just into the second half to clear the lines we actually won 3-0 – can you believe it? I watched on the TV and it looked a fantastic game – I’m just glad I was in the warm watching it!

Nearly finished – don’t give up reading now, you’ve come so far! Sunday arrived with a really chilly 9 degrees Fahrenheit (-3 centigrade) and, as the Sunday before Christmas is usually my baking day, I set about making sausage rolls and mince pies – using the new food processor for the latter and a really easy quick flaky pastry a la Delia Smith for the former. John graciously informed me that they were the best sausage rolls I’ve ever made – not bad after 27 years of baking for him!!!

It was Son1’s birthday yesterday – he was 23, how did that happen?? He and FDIL came for dinner along with Son2 and his laundry (!) we had a lovely roast dinner – good practice for doing it all again on Christmas day!

So that was my last week – sorry it’s so long – and here’s my Christmas tree, sadly the most decoration the Ramblings will see this year!!

Merry Christmas to you all and I hope you have a happy and prosperous New Year!

Here I am!

After a so-so week, the weekend is here with still gorgeous weather. After a so-so (I've decided I like that little phrase-ette) night's sleep, I woke full of good intentions. I set John the task of clearing the clippings for the ceanothus bush (which is now totally decimated) to the compost bin ( they've been resting in the garden for a couple of weeks just waiting for the trip to their final resting place which will be the local dump where they produce compost from our garden waste) and to mow the lawn. Meanwhile I was to sort the laundry get it washed and out onto the line to dry which I did with time to spare – let's face it its not really a difficult job is it, I mean I don't have to stand up to my elbows in soap suds do I? After that I was to go into the garden and begin the clear up for autumn. Task score John 2 – me 1! I had to go to the supermarket this morning because I had to get prints from my lovely boys holiday photos – no it couldn't wait any time at all, it's been months since we all got back and it's time to sort the photos out.

Suffice to say I was far longer at the supermarket than I intended to be and got home to find John pacing because son 2 had asked to meet him in town with a view to getting another suit – of course I went with him, I could feel lunch being offered! Typically the jacket for the suit was out of stock so we had to order it – a very helpful young man in Burtons really went out of his way. 'So', says John, 'do you want to eat?' Do I want to eat - what a stupid question. So off we went to Morgans so that I could show John where I'd been with Janet last week, it was a little busier but still able to give a personal service. The he says 'Do you want to have a walk around the shops?' Another stupid question. Debenhams had 20% off most stock – daft not to at least have a look round wasn't it? I tried on a cardigan which was the most beautiful purple fluffy cardigan-come-jacket but just couldn't make up my mind so I brought a 'gypsy' style top and a black t-shirt. Having tried on the cardigan my appetite was whetted and I just had to find something so wandered into Marks & Spencer and spent ages looking for something similar. John kindly bought me a chunky purple cardi so I treated myself to a pair of black trousers! I need to confess that I also bought 'work' clothes when I went to the supermarket – does that count though when it comes to buying clothes?

Anyway – moving on, we came back from town in time to watch the start of the football scores rolling in on TV. Disappointingly Ipswich Town Football Club conceded a goal very early on giving me the perfect excuse to have an afternoon nap – not that I needed much of an excuse! Of course as a result of that I haven't done any gardening – again!

Tomorrow we are off to a 'Wedding Fair' in preparation for our preparations! The bride-to-be's Mum is joining us which will be lovely and I'm looking forward to being able to take some photo's of the lovely scenery at the venue.

Meanwhile, I leave you with a few photos that I have taken today with my gorgeous new Blackberry Curve!