Birds and Cars

Where I work there is a colony of House Martins around the building (birds, not the group!). Allegedly it’s the largest colony in Hampshire. Anyway, they flit around the window outside my office and occasionally one lands on the windowsill and have a good look in. That happened today with a little baby one who sat on my sill looking at me through the open window – I edged my camera out of my bag to take a picture but sadly he flew away. Oh well, next time.

The car went in for a service and MOT today and passed - hoorah! I'm a few hundred quid down but I expected that. Now I have to pay the road tax which is another financial whammy this month - it's going to be a skinto month ahead that's for sure.

Looking forward to a nice lazy evening tonight - Peter is bringing home some sort of takeaway (not sure what - but who cares, it will be lovely). I've only eaten a few Ryvitas today so hopefully I won't blow my diet too much.

My favourite game show is on too "would I lie to you"; although the telly has actually been quite good this week (Who do you think you are? / My Zinc bed) it's also bit quite 'heavy' and it's time for a bit of light relief.

We are seeing my folks on Sunday - hopefully to go to a boot sale, do lunch and visit a garden that's open (I am ever the optimist as the forecast is terrible for Sunday!). However, tomorrow is supposed to be super hot and sunny - hmmm not much sign of that outside my window at the moment - it has been overcast and humid all day - we shall see.

Quiet Few Days

Had a very quiet couple of days Saturday and Sunday. Sunday morning was a wash out weather wise anyway so I had a very rare lay in. We only ventured out to Homebase to get a new mop (how exciting!). The horrible thing was that we saw the lovely garden furniture that we’d purchased in the summer in there for half price! It’s absolutely sods law – I wanted that particular set and nothing else would do so took the gamble of getting it a full cost, in the summer, in case they sold out and now the darn thing is discounted by about £150 – grhhh.

Anyway, for the rest of the weekend I’ve been doing more sorting out of bookcases and worked out that we need another very tall book case upstairs to accommodation our vast collection. There are some rather nice ones in Argos; Homebase sell exactly the same style at the same price – I guess they must be part of the same group.

I’ve also put some anti-weed membrane down one side of our rear veg plot and covered it with rather attractive white gravel that we got cheap ages ago. The plan is to try and stop the slugs decimating our crops as they hate travelling over rough surfaces. Peter spent a lot of time clearing the area to the rear of the plots ,which were covered in sharp brambles, with a view to gravelling that too when we can find the next lot of cheap split bags up at Homebase.

Having finished reading the truly wonderful ‘Seventh Gate’ by Richard Zimler I’ve now moved on to a crime novel, ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ by Michael Connelly. I had made a start on the ‘Fourth Hand’ by John Urving but just couldn’t get into it.

Today Peter has got the day off work and has gone up to Heathrow with some mates. The arrangement was for them to pick him up at home at 7 O’clock but they turned up about 20 minutes early putting Peter into a bit of a spin. I have the habit of turning up early for things but if the appointed time is that early I try to be a bit considerate and wait around the corner until the appointed time. They must have the same bug as your hairdresser Anne!!

This evening if there’s not much on the box I intend to spoil myself with a Sky Box Office movie. 'Untraceable' is supposed to be a good thriller.

Tension, Day Off & Collecting Rebus

Had a bit of a tense afternoon at work on Thursday. A colleague opened criticised something I was doing and didn't back off when I politely made it clear that it really wasn't their concern. A frosty silence ensued after that and I was glad I didn't have to be there for the next four days. It really rankled with me as I had helped this person out with their work that day and had done quite a few other personal kindnesses that week to help them out (using up some of my own time at home). It is one of my less pleasant character traits that I don't forgive easily and I store stuff like this in my head for ages after they happen - I certainly won't be doing any 'favours' next week and for some considerable time I don't think.

Anyway, yesterday I had a day off and made good use of it. Went to see a friend in the morning, dropping off some recycling in Tesco's on the way and earning some clubcard points. The reason for the visit to the friend was to drop Peter's camera off as it is no longer working (after 8 months of very infrequent use) and I hope to get a replacement as it was purchased through my friend's catalogue. It was nice to see my friend - she has just changed job from a very stressful one to a much less stressful one and she is clearly much happier - it's much less money but if she can manage on less I think she's done the right thing.

Next it was off to see my parents who have just returned from travelling around he UK in their motor home. They made sure I was loaded up with a huge bag of fallen apples, a bag of runner beans and plant before I left. You never leave my parent's place empty handed. Whilst I was there a BT guy was fixing a problem on the telegraph pole outside their house and, as a kindness, made a change to improve their Internet connection speed. Their existing speed was so slow it was unbelievable and over the years I've made calls to their Internet provider and BT - Peter and I have also fiddled around with their computer no end - so to have it fixed is wonderful!

On the home front Peter has been treating me this week. We watched a programme on Ian Rankin recently where he was talking about his Inspector Rebus novels and touring around Edinburgh explaining the settings where the books take place. After the programme I expressed my wish to collect all the Rebus books and read them in order. Whilst Peter has been on a course this week in Poole he has been going into a secondhand book shop and purchasing any novels he can find in the series - I think he has brought about 8 home this week which is very thoughtful. Peter doesn't normally read novels, he's more of a 'factual' book guy but he is getting stuck into the first book 'Knots and Crosses' which for some reason has really pleased me. I guess it's because I love reading fiction so much I want others to see what they are missing. My dad was the same, never read fiction at all until he retired and now he's always got a book on the go.

Today have been up since 6.00am as felt really awake and it's been lovely to sit in the conservatory and watch the sun brighten the garden, having forgotten what the sun looked like! Not many birds around at the moment but I have seen one of our grey squirrel visitors - I do find them lovely to watch. Hope to poke around the garden today - tackled the grass yesterday which is a chore - so I can concentrate on 'prettifying' stuff today.

My Right Foot

Went to Tictchfield Haven today bird watching. First of all we had a pot of tea in the café and then set off for the furthest hide as an Osprey had been spotted. We weren’t disappointed because there he was obediently sitting on a post consuming a fish and he stayed that way for hours apparently. As we left the second hide my right foot felt a bit strange and achy and by the time we walked along the road to get to the fourth hide it was very painful indeed and I was limping along. I decided to go back to the car and Peter dashed to the last two hides for a quick recky and then we went home. As soon as we got back I went straight to bed and took some tablets. They didn’t take effect immediately so had a hot bath which seems to ease it a bit and then went back to bed. It took about 4 hours for the pain to ease and the foot in question felt hot to the touch compared to my ‘normal’ foot. This morning I was expecting it to be the same but apart from the odd twinge it feels ok. My self diagnosis is tendonitis which can last anything from a few days to months – I hope I’ve got the few days variety. At least with my job I’m largely sitting down so I won’t aggravate it.

Tonight I went to fat club. I lost another pound this week. It's very slow but I'll get there. As my friend at work says, a 1lb a week is 52lbs in a year which is about 4 stone so I must keep that in mind!

Letter Box Day

Had Friday off work as 'time off in lieu' and got lots done at home including sorting out two book cases into a logical order; I never realised we had so many books on birds, churches and gardening!

Unusually the whole day was also without rain, so I sat outside in the afternoon and read my book, bliss!

Today Peter has gone to footie and the weather is windy, dull and occasionally rainy(so back to normal then!). I'm 'pottering' and have so far stewed up some homeground rhubarb, caught up on some internet stuff and cooked myself lunch - being on this diet makes you prepare meals properly rather than grab the nearest unhealthy thing.

Spoke to the folks who are up in Glasgow at the moment, they have been touring round the country and said they have only had one rain free day in two weeks! This year's summer really has been pants, last night I was so chilly I felt like putting the heating on (not going to though, economy is the buzzword in this household at the moment).

Not sure what it is today but we seem to be having 'letter box day' - I keep hearing a continual flapping of the box as stuff gets pushed through; telephone directories, take away menus, political newsletters............. Talking of telephone directories, I question the need for them - I would say that probably about 70% of households these days would search for a phone number on the internet so a huge lot of expense could be saved if customers were asked if they actually needed one, not to mention saving all those trees!

The 7th Gate

Work is quiet this week as most of the bosses are away and we are doing our annual file clear out - how we accumulate so much paper I don't know but I end up throwing and shredding sack loads each year.

On Monday night I went to Slimming World to be weighed and the lady who runs the class apologised for the way myself and another 'new starter' had been treated the previous week by the stand in leader i.e no starter packs available, not being told how to follow the plan etc. Anyway, despite this I had lost a 1lb so that's a step in the right direction.

This morning I got up first as Peter was going into work a little later. Came downstairs about 6.15am and it was so dark outside and torrential rain was falling outside - it really is like November at the moment instead of August.

I seem to be on a 'film' and 'book' binge at the moment, because of the crap weather I've watched numerous DVD's and am devouring books at a rate. This evening I'm watching 'Juno' and I've just started reading 'The Seventh Gate' by Richard Zimler which is very good so far and has the most beautiful dust jacket and inside cover I have ever seen on a book.

A couple of free days

Had Thursday and Friday off work as leave. Thursday I spent at home gardening, tidying the house and chilling out in the garden with my new book (yep, I finally finished '19 Minutes' - to be fair it did have a very dramatic twist at the end which was worth waiting for). Now I'm reading 'No time for Goodbye' which is about a teenage child who wakes up in the morning and her family have disappeared from the house - no trace. She goes to live with an aunt and in adult life decides to appear on a TV reality show to try and find out what happened - it's an intriguing premise.

On Friday I had a busy day. First point of call was getting rid of two large boxes of recycling at Tesco's, then it was off to my work's sister college in Andover to meet up with my opposite number there for a tour around as I hadn't visited since the two colleges were merged last August. It's the same college I went to when I was eighteen and it's changed loads and is very modern compared to the building I currently work in. I was actually quite jealous of the modern furniture and matching chairs and tables! Made arrangements to 'do lunch' at a future date with the senior P.A.'s as we never get to meet up normally and I can go and work on a different campus for the day.

Next it was off to my parents place to pick veg as they have a bit of a glut at the moment - got some lettuce, beans and tomatoes - lovely.

Next it was off to pick up friends for our second attempt to see Mama Mia. We got in this time (it seemed to be pensioner day in the cinema). At the start of the film (and the singing) I thought this is far too sickly for me but I just got totally absorbed in it; I love Abba anyway, the Greek scenery was to die for the actors were clearly having a ball making it. Any woman over 40 should see it definitely. I always did like Colin Firth but Pierce Brosnan was pretty hot to say the least! The humour was great and Meryl Streep acted and sung her heart out - she is my all time favourite actress, it seems there is nothing she can't turn her hand to. If you haven't seen the film, go see it AND don't go until the last end credit rolls or you will miss a treat!!

It's Saturday today and after a sunny start the rain has set in big time, as predicted. I got up far too early this morning and went back upstairs at 9.30am for a lay down as I was still tired and I didn't 'come to' until Peter came to tell me he was going to footie at 11.30am - whoops! As I can't do any weeding in the garden, as I was planning, it's a day indoors for me today.

Decidedly Autumnal

Called into Sainsers on my way into work this morning. The one I visit has just got a clothes department and I had a good look round there, they do some really nice stuff in their TU range. I put several skirts in the trolley and then took them out again as I'm watching the pennies, plus I figured if I lose weight they will be a waste of money. Anyway dark 'army' green appears to be in for the autumn - I quite like it.

Work was busy today but both main bosses are now on leave so my co-worker and I have next week on our own to do the annual file clear out (its a dusty job so we're going to dress down for it and take a radio in to releave the boredom).

I have the next couple of days off as time off in lieu so I'm looking forward to having some time to potter about at home and see friends.

The sun actually came out this afternoon but now the rain has set in again - autumn suddenly seems to have appeared - when does it officially start anyway?

Costa Coffee & Slimming World

Met two pals in Costa Cofee in town after work which was lovely - we all parked on meters though so only had a hour of gossip which wasn't really enough.

Got home and postponed my dinner as I went out to join the local Slimming World class and for obvious reasons didn't want to eat until after the initial 'weigh in'. The class was a bit of a fiasco to be honest as the usual leader wasn't there and the women running it had forgotten to bring any new starter packs or registration cards so I sat through the whole class without really knowing all the rules. Anyway, going to give it my best shot and see if it works and I should be able to pick up all the books I need next week.

Weekend

I had a very calm weekend this weekend and didn’t set foot outside the door once (except to visit the bin or nip into the garden).

Peter was at aircraft events on both days so on Saturday I cleaned the house and chilled out with a flim or two or three:-

The Savages – starring the wonderful Philip Seymour Hoffman. It was quite downbeat (as a film about two siblings dealing with a parent with alzheimers would be) but wonderfully thought provoking and acted.

We Own the Night – this was a sort of gangster/cop movie which was really very good but I fell asleep before the end darn it! Not because it was boring, it’s what lazing on the couch does to me!

The Lake House – ridiculous ‘time slip’ mush staring Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. Best avoided.

On Sunday I continued ploughing through ‘Nineteen Minutes’ by Jodi Picoult – I am enjoying it but feel like I’ve been reading it forever, it’s such a long book. Quite honestly I just want to finish it so I can move onto the next.

As the TV scheduling was so rubbish during the evening (no Top Gear for Peter – except a repeat – and no ‘Midsomer Murders for me), we watched a film I’d bought from a boot sale “Hearts in Atlantis” staring Anthony Hopkins and based on a Stephen King book – it was really rather good. After that I went up to bed but got absorbed in TV again, latching two women from the Women’s Institute touring brothels in Amsterdam, New Zealand and America – it was all very bizarre and I now know what a ‘butt imp’ is – what an education !!!!!