Bit of a Crap Week

First job of the day is to wish Jimmy ‘A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY’.  Not sure what plans you’ve got to celebrate but me and Phil hope you have a good one.  I nabbed this picture from Jim’s Face book and thought it was brilliant. 

It’s been a funny old week starting with a stay in Abingdon on Monday night and 2 very long days.  After being away, it took me most of Wednesday to catch up with shopping, washing, housework and cooking. I also picked up the keys from the agents and went to inspect the TMA flat.   I’d taken my cleaning stuff with me because I knew I’d want to get stuck in once I was there even though the professional cleaners were due in the next day.  Actually it wasn’t too bad and it didn’t take me long to whiz through which is not really surprising because it’s not a very big flat.  The tenants that live in the block don’t take any pride in their residence and my biggest (and dirtiest) job was picking up all the rubbish on the front lawn and consolidating this with the other bags of rubbish. When I say consolidate, I had to pick all the various bags all over the lawn, pavement and road and put them in the bins.  I also had to sort out the cupboard under the stairs as there were about 6 months worth of unread free papers.  Deciding the flat was looking a little bare I nipped to the new Dunelm store.  This was my first visit since the store opened; I do like Dunelms but you have to be careful because some things you can get much cheaper at IKEA.  They had some gorgeous red glass bar stools at only £29.99 that I was very tempted to buy but they wouldn't have fit anywhere in my kitchen.  I brought pretty much what I had wanted to get without spending too much.

I didn’t go to the gym on Wednesday so I really can’t understand where the day went.  I’d invited Christine for supper and decided to make homemade tomato soup and I was under pressure because time was getting on.  Unfortunately when I put my soup mixture in the mixer to blend I found out the blender was split so I lost half my soup down the sink.   I decided to try the hand blender but when I switched it on it splattered soup chunks all over me and the kitchen.  Poor Christine had to endure lumpy soup but still the ciabatta bread was nice and warm and we had red wine to wash it down with.   It’s the first chance I had to catch up with Christine since we visited her new cottage in Surrey.  Phil gave Christine the kitchen plans he’d drawn up for her galley kitchen and also the kitchen designs from our visit to IKEA.  There are some moderations to be made but at least now she had something to work with. 

It has been a long week for poor Phil with a nightmare journey on Wednesday both ways.  Apparently it’s all due to some road works in Bicester. Still, at least he has today off but only because he has blood and wee tests at the doctors surgery.  Yesterday I slept in late; I got up to make Phil ham and mustard sandwiches but then went back to bed because I felt tired.   I didn’t get back up until gone 8 and by this time Harriet was already up and in the shower.   I had a few jobs to do and decided to wait for the traffic to die down before going to the gym.   I had a good workout, popped into ASDA drove home and cooked basmati rice and Chicken Tikka Masala.   It was a Gordon Ramsay recipe and tasted very nice.

Sue & Alan popped round for tea and biscuits and a face-to-face catch up.   They had viewed a couple of properties to rent but at the time of going to press I don’t think anything is secured.   Sue relayed the tale of their visit to the Italian hospital which sounded like a nightmare from hell.  It was major drama trying to get a flight home secured through their insurance but after many hours of phone calls, faxes and huge amounts of stress they finally managed to fly home on Monday night. Sue & Alan saw their GP yesterday morning but won’t know nothing anything more until Alan goes to see the consultant in a couple of weeks.  If being diagnosed with tumour wasn’t bad enough, poor Alan is really suffering with a bad back.  I hope this gets better soon, although my gut feeling tells me that things are probably get to get more uncomfortable for him before they get any better. There is not much they can do at the moment apart from staying strong and focusing on the positive.  Hold in there Alan, we are all routing for you!

Phil came through the door not long after Sue & Alan had left.  For once he was cheerful and I was greeted with a hug and a kiss rather than his grumpy sighs and long face.   He’d had a good run in and a clear run home and was extra happy because he had a 3 day weekend ahead of him. 

And here we are at the end of yet another week and I am still jobless.  I am not sure what plans Phil has for the weekend or even for today for that matter. I’ve got a few emails to send and then I’m off to the gym.  The sun is shining so let’s hope it stays for the weekend.     Have a good one everyone………..