A lovely weekend

As Mum has pointed out I also had a lovely weekend after leaving Keswick on the Saturday. On my way home I realised that I was driving past Catherine & Chris's house so I popped in to drop off the baby carrier that they had left with us for the remainder of the week. Having not seen or spoken to Catherine since last year at Keswick it was lovely to be able to spend a little bit of time with them this week.

It was then onto home to see Mum & Dad. After lunch I quickly sorted out two loads of washing and left them with Mum while I went to see Mark and Carlie. It was lovely to see them both but more exciting was meeting Noah who arrived about 6 weeks before. They were trying to get him into a bit of a routine which didn't go quite to plan as he fell asleep on me when he was supposed to be awake, but he was just so cute I couldn't wake him up! When I got back home a few hours later the washing was washed, dried and ironed - thanks Mum!

One of the reasons for going to Mum & Dad's from Keswick was because I was going to Katherine's in Dalton on Sunday afternoon so rather than driving back to York then back up to Dalton it made sense to stay in Stockton and go there on the way home. Katherine was having a baby shower with her bump due at the end of August and having just finished work it was a good excuse to have all the girls round. It was great to see her looking so well and it was a good chance to catch up with people linked to ASD that I haven't see for at least a year, particularly Louise who was there with her 8 month old Jack, and Becky and Jenny from Eversheds. Jenny's little girl Lucy was particularly useful when it came to present time, delivering the next present for opening to Katherine and of course helping to open them as well.

After that it was back home to get ready for a week back at work, now to plan the next holiday...

Keswick

I wasn't sure how to write about my week in Keswick so I've decided to go for the easy (but perhaps longer, sorry) option of trying to remember day by day details, so....

Saturday: I arrived at Keswick at 11am, narrowly missing getting caught in the traffic which would have added another 2.5hours onto the journey, unfortunately Helen & Colin weren't so lucky. As I'd been worrying about getting the tents up in the rain, it turns out I had no need to worry the weather was fantastic, so Matthew put my tent up, and then their tent, and then the trailer tent. The rest of the day was sorting tents out before going to the first meeting of the Keswick Convention.

Sunday: Another sunny day and a morning trip to the convention tent for the Family Service. Back to the tent for lunch and then while everyone else either walked Walla Crag or into town I opted for the afternoon in the sunshine on a blanket outside my tent, ending with an ice cream just as Matthew, Charlie and Abi arrived back from town. Again a trip to the main tent for the evening celebration.

Monday: A day I had been looking forward to, Sally and Rob were on holiday in Ambleside so had arranged to come and visit for the day. Starting with the morning seminar at the convention, they then went to town where I met them after the bible reading meeting. Looking forward to lunch at the Wild Strawberry we were disappointed that it was closed for the day, so we decided to go to Bryson's instead which was a great alternative and I recommend the apple pie. After that it was a bit of shopping while Rob stocked up on the things that Sal hadn't packed to bring with them and then Rob beat us both at Crazy golf, a very frustrating game where some holes are an easy hole in one and others were a very difficult 10 - for me and Sally at least! Dinner was a BBQ with lots of people I didn't know at first- Norton people and added extras from Wales. After the evening celebration with Charlie we stayed for the concert with Stuart Townend which ended with my jumper soggy with her tears and us both needing tissues - such girls!!

Tuesday: Another seminar at the main tent with Sally and Rob before they went back to Ambleside, while I stayed for the bible reading. In the afternoon Charlie, Abi and I had a trip to the Wild Strawberry having missed out on it the day before. Another evening at the main tent and then round to the Drew/Arnett house for a cup of tea and a catch up with Catherine before meeting Vicky and Matthew in the pub for last orders, and of course chips after the pub closed!

Wednesday: A lie in this morning while just going to the convention centre for the bible reading. To get a quick start on a walk we had lunch in town, eating sandwiches while sitting on the pavement. Then we set off to walk round Derwent Water. We lost a few on the way but I'm very pleased to say that I made it all the way round, Helen said it was about 6 miles but I'm convinced it was longer so I've done a rough route and calculated it as 8 miles so I'm sticking with that when I tell people about it. There was a strong temptation to get the boat launch back from various stops on the lake but I decided to stick with it and made it all the way round on foot. I took a break from the evening celebration to recover and to keep Matthew company as he spent all week on evening babysitting duty, I'm sure he wanted to read his book more but my constant chatting meant he only had 15 mins reading time before the others got back.

Thursday: Another visit from Sally and Rob for the seminar and bible reading, unfortunately I had to rush off afterwards to go to a work meeting in Penrith otherwise I would have been able to join them for lunch at the Wild Strawberry that we'd missed out on Monday. Meeting in Penrith wasn't too bad and I was back for 4.30pm in time for a little shopping before it was time for dinner at the Old Keswickian. It was then onto the Theatre by the Lake to see The Importance of Being Earnest (....a handbag...!), which was a really good and very funny production, still not sure why we needed 2 intervals though.

Friday: Final day of the convention, just went for the bible reading in the morning. Lunch at not Little Betty's (can't remember what it's called now, something about pickles?). Short shopping trip as it was now raining constantly, the annual purchase of Lemon Cheese from Ye Olde Friars, a visit to the Earthworks tent (the convention mission information tent/bookshop/fairtrade shop/coffee shop). The final evening celebration and as it was the final evening a last visit to the Keswickian for chips.

Saturday: After constant rainfall all Friday evening and overnight we woke to a very boggy field surrounding the tents so it was a quick breakfast of bacon sandwiches and try and get everything packed up and put the tents down as quickly as possible. Not knowing my way around a tent much I stayed in the car with Abi out of the rain. Although she did put up quite a fight to get me out in the rain, every time it started getting worse I'd sit in the car and shut the door only for her to insist "Jenny, Out"!

More photos of the week are here.

Justice on the buses

As I left work slightly later today I decided I was justified in getting the bus home instead of walking. Obviously the moral of the story is that I shouldn't have been so lazy. As I was waiting to cross the road one bus came past me, pulled up to the bus stop and left while I was still waiting for the lights to change. So I decided to walk past that stop and go to the next one, after waiting 10 mins I could see a bus approaching, the other guy waiting had already stuck his hand out to stop the bus but as it still seemed to be moving quite fast I did the same. Which made absolutely no difference whatsoever. The driver obviously decided he just didn't want to stop there this evening. This isn't uncommon, it's a very busy route and if they're full already they just keep going. But this one wasn't! I could see empty seats as it pulled past me.

So rather than taking the hint that I should really be walking home, I sat back down on the bench and waited for the next bus to come along ten minutes later and got home at the same time that I would have done if I'd walked straight from work in the first place.

There was one amusing moment on the bus though while the opposite lane of traffic was queuing at the lights and one particularly smug looking chav finished his cigarette and threw it out his car window but it hit the side of the door as he did. I saw it drop to the road but he didn't and there was that second of mild panic that crossed his face while he tried to decide whether it was better to check that the cigarette hadn't fallen inside the car or move off as quickly as possible as the lights were changing!

Is it worth it?

I thought I'd had a really good week this week with food, managing to stick to my weight watchers plan all week (well Monday to Friday at least). I also managed to fit in exercise everyday, going to the gym Sunday afternoon, Tuesday morning and Thursday after work, and walking home from work Monday, Wednesday and Friday. So did it pay off? Well not as much as I thought it would. Weigh day Saturday and I'd lost.....1lb. Rather disappointing but I'll blame it on the Chinese takeaway from last Saturday and try again this week. So is it worth it? With the bridesmaid dress looking like it needs to fit anytime from 6 months away, 1lb a week for 26 weeks...yes I suppose it is.

I'll just have to be more careful with what I eat when I'm not at home, the chocolate brownie at Susannah's last night won't have done much good, then there's the BBQ this afternoon and a whole week at Keswick with the best chip shop in the world....

And another step

I decided as I had a quiet afternoon today I might as well go up to Currys and I came home with the new fridge, toaster and microwave that I mentioned before. So now everything - except the electric can opener - all matches in a stainless steel theme in the kitchen. So here's a picture of that side of the room:

The fridge is still in it's box for now as it needs to sit for a while before it gets plugged in, but I also probably need to paint before putting it in it's place. Just need to decide on a colour now so I bought a few more tester pots this afternoon as well. The picture doesn't really show them very well but any thoughts - particularly on the one on the left?

One more step...

Thanks to another visit by my lovely parents, the kitchen is now one more step closer to being finished! Yes 3 months since it started and all it now needs is a bit of paint and then (I think) it will be finished - plus buying new fridge, microwave, toaster....but all in good time!

So in honour of the wonderful work done by Mum & Dad on the tiling here are a few pictures so that you can see what it is looking like now.

The curious incident of the recycling box swap

Someone has taken my recycling box. This wouldn't be the first time, twice before I have had to request a new box from the council and return home from work a couple of days later to find a bright new shiny box waiting outside my door. The last time it went missing was after a particularly windy day after the contents had been collected and I've no idea where it ended up after being blown around the street. This time though is much more curious. Everyday when I leave the house I notice my recycling box sitting in the little gap next to my front step and all this week there has been a little slug sitting on top of it.

Not Friday morning, no. I leave the house for work, do my usual glance down to the recycling box and not only has little slug disappeared but the box has been switched!! I know this because the older boxes were lighter in green than the current ones and this is an older box than my lovely clean (except for the slug) new, dark green box. Not that I mind, at least I still have a box but why bother swapping one green box for another one? It makes no sense....

But the most important question for me, what happened to the slug??