Life!

Went walking with Maryanne, Madeleine and Kath on 5th Feb. Maryanne and I drove to Madeleine's house and then she drove us to the start at Crazies Hill where we met up with Kath.  It was a dull day but not too cold and stayed dry so quite nice for walking.  There were some interesting animals on the route - a field of alpacas (very cute), herds of white deer (somewhat surreal) and the most beautiful thoroughbred foals - each horse and foal had its name and immediate lineage on their head collars! Finished with a nice steak baguette - the pub was very dog friendly. 6.5 miles, 3.26 hours, 448 ft of ascent  Route Card It was the Barnes AGM and dinner on 9 Feb. Mike was out at the District Meeting in the morning and then ringing a QP at Twickenham before ringing in the QP at Barnes at 3 pm.  I thought it would be nice to walk over to Barnes from home to collect the car and then take Suki home and have a shower before the meeting.  I didn't leave early en...

Group photo outside the final tower of the weekend - Stepney February 24th/25th . Itinerary Dinner at the Double Tree Hilton in Greenwich Peter decided at the last minute to come and stay with us on the Friday night - and joined us in the Red Lion after the Barnes practice. The next morning Mike and Peter went off to do the first day of ringing - I stayed home!  I took Suki to Linda's about 3 pm and then went by public transport (tube then DLR) to the hotel, arriving just in time to watch the rugby (Wales v England) - they were just singing the national anthems when I tuned in.  Mike turned up about 5.15 and went off to the meeting but I carried on watching the rugby.  Then we got changed and went to the bar, where I had a nice G&T, and then to the dinner.  The food was very good and I felt very comfortable and sociable - I knew just about everyone in the room and had toured with most of them.  I was involved in the handbell ringing between ma...

Well for me anyway - can't say the same for Suki who has perfected the art of finding the best places for sleeping all day! Mike was out ringing all day on New Year's Day, so I had a nice quiet day to myself to get things done.  As usual I made lots of resolutions, goals and targets for myself - with three different apps by which to measure it all (although one had already been uninstalled by the end of the month)!  Was quite pleased by the end of the first week to have eaten more vegetables!  I got the accounts for the Middx S&W off to the Treasurer, and finally got the Numbers Club accounts off although spent a long time agonising over them because yet again I couldn't make them match the bank account funds exactly - but then they didn't match when they were handed over to me! It seemed a long month - but I achieved a lot and was full of motivation to get everything sorted and cleared ready for a new start.  I did all the scanning and shredding, inc...

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 ...

We toyed with the idea of travelling down to Devon on Sunday night after handbells at the convent, but it was a dreadful night with heavy rain and we were both tired so we went the following morning.  A good decision as it was dry and light!  We didn't rush, but got away at 10.15 and arrived at 1.30.  Heavy traffic in places but no hold ups.  I managed to pack everything in the car, including the two new cabinets, but left the knitting machine for another day. We unpacked the car and had some soup and crumpets for lunch, then I took Suki out for a walk (it was raining by then so too wet for Mike) and put up a few decorations, and the tree, and piled up the presents.  The family were soon exchanging tree/presents photos via WhatsApp. LtoR: Ours, Carolyn and Lorraine's, Amanda's, Leanne's We went to The Bell at 6.30 for an hour to meet up with Bob, Michelle, Barry and Ruth and then came back to watch Carols from Kings on the iPlayer before walking...