2018! New Year
Got up extra early on New Year's Eve so that I could go to 8 am communion at Barnes because there wasn't a service at Chiswick. When I got there discovered it was Matins! Monica was there - I hadn't been expecting her but she had come back early - so we went for a lovely breakfast of porridge at Gail's after the service. Did the ringing circuit and then came home and worked my way through the pile of stuff I had dumped in the living room the day before. Everything had been found a place and put away by the time Mike came in from playing the organ at the convent. I had also filed all the music away again - for a fresh start in 2018! We were still working our way through the cheese at mealtimes. I made a start on my own paperwork - which I wanted to clear before setting forth on Mary's probate. There were a huge number of Christmas cards to open and log and lots of letters to scan in.
My new year's resolution is to keep an expense account for a year and I set up a new access database to do this - from a template I found online. It will be useful to see how much it costs us to keep a second home going!
Other resolutions are the same as always - get fitter, lose weight, drink more water! I booked a fitness class for every day of the week to get started.
On New Year's Day Mike went out ringing all day on one of his QP days that he organises. It was reasonably successful and they scored 4 QPs. I went walking with Maryanne. We were due to do the Maidensgrove walk again - and this time Maryanne was going to show me the brick kiln which is a point of interest in the instructions but requires a small detour. However when I arrived at the meeting point Maryanne jumped into the car and told me she had forgotten her boots. So she went back for them and meantime Suki and I explored Russel's Water Common - doing a circuit that took just over an hour and was just under 3 miles.
Maryanne got back just after 11 am and we then did a shortened version of the Maidensgrove walk (3.5 miles), which missed out Nettlebed altogether. However it worked really well and got us back to the car just before 1 pm which was perfect timing for our pub lunch which was booked for 1.30 pm. It was only after we got back that Maryanne discovered she had a walk sock on her right foot but an ordinary sock on her left foot (and was beginning to get a sore heel)!
Lunch at The Crown in Pishill was excellent - and we both had pudding as a special treat. The pub was very dog friendly and the landlord gave Suki water and treats as soon as we sat down.
Through the rest of the week I cleared all the paperwork, did all the ironing, and went to Forever Fit, Barre (tried for the first time and probably too much knee bending for me) and Aerobics! So far go good. I also went for supper with Pru and Caroline - we went to Cotes and Caroline complained that her meal was burnt and we got the cost of the meal and the bottle of wine taken off the final bill so it was only about £15 each.
My new year's resolution is to keep an expense account for a year and I set up a new access database to do this - from a template I found online. It will be useful to see how much it costs us to keep a second home going!
Other resolutions are the same as always - get fitter, lose weight, drink more water! I booked a fitness class for every day of the week to get started.
On New Year's Day Mike went out ringing all day on one of his QP days that he organises. It was reasonably successful and they scored 4 QPs. I went walking with Maryanne. We were due to do the Maidensgrove walk again - and this time Maryanne was going to show me the brick kiln which is a point of interest in the instructions but requires a small detour. However when I arrived at the meeting point Maryanne jumped into the car and told me she had forgotten her boots. So she went back for them and meantime Suki and I explored Russel's Water Common - doing a circuit that took just over an hour and was just under 3 miles.
Maryanne got back just after 11 am and we then did a shortened version of the Maidensgrove walk (3.5 miles), which missed out Nettlebed altogether. However it worked really well and got us back to the car just before 1 pm which was perfect timing for our pub lunch which was booked for 1.30 pm. It was only after we got back that Maryanne discovered she had a walk sock on her right foot but an ordinary sock on her left foot (and was beginning to get a sore heel)!
Lunch at The Crown in Pishill was excellent - and we both had pudding as a special treat. The pub was very dog friendly and the landlord gave Suki water and treats as soon as we sat down.
Through the rest of the week I cleared all the paperwork, did all the ironing, and went to Forever Fit, Barre (tried for the first time and probably too much knee bending for me) and Aerobics! So far go good. I also went for supper with Pru and Caroline - we went to Cotes and Caroline complained that her meal was burnt and we got the cost of the meal and the bottle of wine taken off the final bill so it was only about £15 each.
