Had pedicure and manicure. Lovely. Did all paperwork etc for trip. Did packing. Mike went ringing at chalfont with Tony. I stayed in with cold beer and csi followed by Foyle s war.
I drove down to Bovey on Sunday 13th - leaving after church and bellringing, and arriving about 3 pm. It was great to be there again and I relished the thought of a few days on my own doing my own thing. The house was absolutely boiling inside, with the radiators all pumping out heat, even though the thermostat was set at 10 degrees - which was the equivalent of the outside temperature that day. I couldn't make it click at any setting - although once I had turned the heating off for a while and then turned it on again in the evening it seemed to work ok for the rest of the week (typical). The first thing I did was to install the new bedside cabinets I had bought - they looked great. I even lined the drawers - and it was a good opportunity to sort the drawers out too. Then I put the new bedding on which Jayne had given me for my birthday in 2017! It was pretty and lovely and soft to the touch Suki loved the new bedding so much she wouldn't get up the ...
Had nice relaxed start. We went to 10.30 as ringing at Barnes later because of patronal festival so couldn't do both. Dreadful service. Back to church Sunday with dumbed down words and naff hymns. Followed by splendid buffet lunch in hall. Went to black park country park in the afternoon. Rained quite a bit but managed to stay under trees during worst bits. Cross stitched for a while when we got back and watched morse. Then went out to eat. Aimed for strada but got to Lara and decided to go in. Amazing mezes starter. Had kofte and then baklava and turkish coffee. Mike took half his seafood casserole home. Nice red wine called pamukkale.
Roving Ringers Reunion this year ( see separate post ) was based at the Best Western hotel in Tiverton, with the Sunday ringing at towers in Exeter, so it made sense to go down to Bovey for a week either side of the weekend and for Lee and Emma to look after Suki. I drove down with Suki on Wednesday 20th. The car was stuffed full of baby things for Lee and Emma - both from her friends in London and from Amanda out of our loft. The big things from Amanda I put in the boot of Mike's car to bring at the weekend. Peter had moved out the previous weekend and had left it very clean and tidy. It was lovely to have the place to myself again. The scanner, and fridge wine rack I had ordered from Amazon were waiting for me, and I was very pleased with both. Each worked well in their own respective ways. I rang a QP of Kent Minor with Tim and Nellie (one of his "improvers") - we had several starts and I learned that the tenors and 3-4 ring the same lines -...