Farewell to 2020 - May to August

 May

The hot weather continued so we spent more time with local walks and time in the garden.

Everyone else seems to be doing baking as there were still shortages of flour etc in the shops. I joined in making banana bread and some chelsea buns.

In the middle of May, we were able to get out for a walk with our friends again. We were careful to stay distanced. Walks were enjoyed at Hemsted Forest, Hawkham and Sutton Valence/Wierton. With pubs closed, we now take bottles of cider/ale with us to enjoy with our lunch, one each for myself and Tracy, and two each for Dave and Karl.

We also found out that Treacle is a brilliant swimmer. We had stopped for lunch by a large pond and she swam right across three times, running around the outside on one of the trips. The doggies had a lovely time.

As another home project, I decided to renovate and varnish the garden seat. I was able to order some  strips of wood for replacement slats for the top from Wickes and Dave collected these for me. Shops like Wilko remain fully open and this is where I found the stain/varnish that I wanted. This job kept me busy throughout the summer.

June

I cleaned out a cupboard and found some cross stitch that I had started many years ago. I only had the Autumn one to finish and then the Winter one. I really enjoyed doing this and plan to do some more some time. I seem to have plenty more to do.

I finally found a company to buy my old car from me. It was recommended by D&D. I used cartakeback.com. They gave me a great deal. It was £200 more than the local scrap dealer quoted me. When I emptied the car, I took the spare wheel out of the boot too as my new one only had one of those inflate kits.

Walks this month were in Monkdown, Edenbridge and Coxheath.

The hot weather continued. It was almost unbearable some days. On occasions I was wishing I was back in the air conditioned office. Some evenings I would sit outside with a lager and my colouring book and pens. It was still warm at midnight sometimes. 

I took Kat and Jake to the goat sanctuary for the first time. They both loved it. Most of the goats are very friendly and don't mind being stroked. We had a really lovely afternoon.

July

The original plan was for us to be going to Marrakech but this was all cancelled. Our holiday has been rebooked but it was too expensive to book the same place, so we are going to Gran Canaria, hopefully. We have also had to pay another £200 on top of what we had already paid. I guess the holiday companies need to try and get back some of the money they have lost since planes were grounded. The skies have been considerably empty. I checked on the flight tracker app a few times.

One weekend we set up a tent in the garden when Jake and Kat stayed over and they slept the night outside. Best place to sleep on these hot nights. Jake loved his first experience of camping.

Our big July walks were at Shoreham, home of lavender and lavender ice-cream, Crockenhill/Chelsfield, a new geocache series set by myself in Benenden area, Tandridge/Godstone, Hamstreet, Eynsford and Kingsnorth.

On a mid-week walk with Karl and Charlotte, we actually stopped at a pub for drinks and lunch. Everything was table service and it was very well organised. I had my first fish finger sandwich and it was far better than expected.

The wearing of face masks became mandatory in shops and busy areas. I have decided to go for washable ones and stocked up with several, with some disposable ones in the car, in case I forget. 2020 litter seems to be mainly discarded facemasks. This is my favourite one.

August

Our annual Partylite conference was also cancelled, and rescheduled later in the month to be online. It caused extra challenges for the team as air travel was cancelled. As it was online and only for four hours, they had the highest number of attendees ever. 

For my birthday, we had a lovely day out with Dan and Cheryl. We had booked Segway at Leeds Castle. First we had a wander around Mote Park as we were too early to go in to the grounds at the castle and wait there due to limiting their visitor numbers. We had a lovely time whizzing around the castle on the Segways, after a brief training session. It was a perfect day for it. After this we went to Toby Carvery for lunch. It was good to be "out out". Dad visited the pub while we were there and we had a lovely catch up.

Kat, Jake and I went back to the goat sanctuary for another visit. Emily and the boys joined us too. We had a great time there and after we decided that we weren't ready to go home yet. So we went to a shop and got some bits for lunch and visited Teston. It was very busy. It seems to be the new thing to have outside birthday parties as going to friend's homes is not allowed in large groups. We were able to find a table in the picnic area. We had a walk around after lunch and reminisced about many happy camps there. 

Our fence was done on some of the hottest days of the year. I was constantly fetching out pints of water with ice for the guys. It took them 4 days. The new concrete posts are such an improvement. It was expensive but now there won't be any need for back breaking work replacing posts, just the fence panels which slide in if the wind breaks through them again.

We were able to get away for our holiday in Pewsey with Karl, Tracy and the girls at a lovely cottage that they had found. We were not able to eat out anywhere as the pubs were still limited on numbers but we did order a takeaway from the local on the first night. This came in individual meal boxes and was very good. We tried again to re-order later in the week but after a lot of messing about it turned out they were too busy and kept trying to book us into the following night. We ended up getting fish and chips from the shop in the village.

Our walks while we were there were at Netheravon, Milton Lilbourne, Morgan's Hill, Caen Locks, Wilcot, Little Bedwyn, Woodhenge and Larkfield on the way home. There was just one day when the weather too bad to get out for a walk so we stayed in and played games, Cluedo and Blokus mainly.

We also said a sad farewell to my step-brother, Michael. He had a good send off at Hastings Crematorium. His sister did the eulogy with fond memories of childhood. It was really difficult being spaced apart in the room and not able to support each other properly. There was a second room for overflow where they could watch on a video screen. Afterwards, we all went up to Dad's grave and left the flowers there. 

After several trips to Margate to get stuff moved out and into storage, we could finally cut ties with that chapter. It was hard work but we got as much done as we could in the short time we had and lack of help. I managed to put my back out so was really struggling at the end of it. This was my office for the weekend....

Sunday ended with a great family barbeque and far too much to eat. We had another opportunity to go "out out" on the bank holiday Monday. We went to a lovely Turkish restaurant in Hythe with the same family. We don't see each other for ages and then twice in one weekend. We were able to have two separate tables of 4 each. The food was very good.

September onwards to follow as soon as I get chance......

Farewell to 2020 - January to April

 I'm back.  Not sure if this will just be a one off for now or if I will keep it up regularly.  I can't believe I got logged into Blogger so easily after not being here for nearly 10.years. I expected to have username and password issues.

Another year over and this one was very different! The world as we knew it was changed and we all had to adapt accordingly. Here goes.... 

January

The year started much the same as any recent previous, with a New Year day walk with our geocaching friends at Badlesmere and a visit to the Red Lion pub. Four more walks were enjoyed this month at Camer Country Park, Ivychurch, where one of the doggies knocked me down into deep mud and Treacle found a turnip to bring home instead of a stick, a muddy wander near Goudhurst and another walk in Badlesmere. We also had a wander around Rye.  

We had been playing Munzee for a while but I was asked if we would be interested in joining a "clan". With monthly personal and group challenges, this added a new dimension to the game and has made it more enjoyable. There is much more to this hobby than we realised. 

New words were becoming more talked about, even more than Brexit... Covid-19 and coronavirus ....the invisible enemy that was soon to change our lives, apparently hitting the UK by the end of the month, as checked on Wikipedia. Although some friends have said that they had the worst flu like symptoms ever in the months before. Maybe it was creeping in before it got international fame!

February

The start of the month we got out for a meal with Dan and Cheryl at the Pheasant. Geocache walks for me this month were in High Halden and Harston, a geo meet back at Badlesmere and we enjoyed a short break away in Molesworth.  The pub where we were staying had a game that we were introduced to, Northamptonshire Table Skittles. They even had a league there that we watched for a while. 

We also enjoyed an evening at the Riverside Inn for Dave and Matt's birthday. We were now all carrying hand sanitizer, something that Matt has been doing for years anyway. The conversation often returned to Corona and how it was affecting us but we didn't foresee what was to follow in March.

I managed to get to see the Moon exhibition at Rochester Castle. It is a touring artwork by UK artist, Luke Jerram. I had hoped to take Jake there but he decided he didn't want to go so I went on my own after work just before it moved on. It was amazing. Glad I didn't miss it.

It was also my little brother's 50th birthday in January and my nephew's 21st in March, so a joint birthday party was held in Hastings. Fiona made a lovely cake with a cup of tea on top and a mouse. Apparently, Mike always has a cuppa and his nickname from school is "mouse".

March 

Walks in search of Geocaches were in Norton, Stuppington/Chartham and Barham. After this walk there were no more for a while as "lockdown" was announced. It was almost unreal, like being in a film, with the Prime Minister addressing the nation about the seriousness of the current situation and how we were to "stay at home" as much as possible. Schools and non-essential shops were to close, along with pubs, etc and no bowling!! After 20+ years of bowling at least once a week, this came as a big change for me personally. Most people "don't like Mondays" but for me the start of the week was league night. I hope that when we can get back to bowling, everyone will want to come back. A week before lockdown was official, I began working from home as I had a slight sore throat on the Monday. A laptop had been prepared for me in advance. It took some adjusting to the new environment, setting up on the dining table with my work office in a couple of boxes. It was great not having the rush, and to be at home with the hounds.

March also saw the final breakdown of my silver Megane. It was taken to D&D Autos where it stayed for weeks as they had reduced staff and while we argued with the Warranty insurance company who wouldn't take action unless I could produce paperwork that proves that I had the cambelt changed at the correct time. I found every invoice except this one. 

April 

In the end, I made the decision that, in the worst case scenario, the car was going to cost more to fix than it was worth. There were also a few other things not working that helped make that decision. So the car hunt began with Car Gurus. With working from home and not being able to go anywhere, there was no rush to find a new car so I took my time until I found the right one. I did consider buying something other than a Megane but after a lot of consideration, I found one in Sittingbourne with low mileage and Sat Nav. For the test drive, we were given the keys and could just drive around where we wanted on our own. We bought it the same day. 

We had some great weather in April and lots of time was spent in our garden enjoying the sun with unusual lagers from the local shop and big bags of crisps to share. I managed to finish the Lee Evans book that I had started a long long time ago. 

I decided to set up an Easter tree as we were home more and it was something cheery. It was a pink one that I had for a long time bought in a post Christmas sale, decorated with hanging eggs, some paper butterflies that I made and a Pocket Dragon at the top, A Point of Light. 

Zoom meetings became more and more popular. We had weekly meets with our geocaching friends, quiz nights with lots of friends and our Partylite training meetings were also now on Zoom. Without being able to have Partylite parties, my business was now all online. It is possible to do parties on Zoom, Facebook Lives or other but I haven't got to this yet. 

We also said a sad farewell to our geocaching friend, Richard. Unfortunately, it was not possible to attend the funeral, only the very closest friends and family could go and they were distanced too. We could watch the funeral online and were given a link and password to log on. It was a lovely service, with some lovely words from friends that were there. 

Shops saw shortages, I think this was due to manufacturing issues with social distancing, and delivery problems. Also, our crops are usually harvested with the help of foreign visitors. There was bulk buying mainly of toilet tissues, flour, etc and pasta. I went to Tesco one evening and had to choose things that I wouldn't normally buy and the dog food shelves were empty. I managed to get their food in Pets at Home but there was also limited choice there.

Farewell to 2020 ...to be continued

Wednesday 16th March 2011

I could have gone to an Ann Summers Party this evening but as I still don't seem to go 10 minutes without coughing, I thought it best to stay at home. Maybe next time. When I got home from work, I started cooking dinner and realised that putting my new saucepans in the top cupboard was not a sensible idea as they were very heavy to lift out. So time to clean out the cupboard and re-arrange. At the back of one of the cupboards I found an old sweet/biscuit tin that had 4 saucepan lids in. Two of these were for the two saucepans that I have replaced this week and the other two were for saucepans that were thrown out years ago! They have now been added to the stuff for the tip that I'm accumulating. I've used 2 of my 3 new saucepans this week already. They were half price from Sainsburys in their Homeware sale. We had a look at Matalan at the weekend but we didn't see anything this good.

Monday 14th March 2011 - Bowling Fun Night

Another league over, we finished in 2nd place. This evening was our Fun Night. We did have fun but not through the help of the bowling alley. In previous years, we have had a reduced bowling rate, buffet food provided and free game/drink vouchers for “spot” prizes for strikes when a coloured pin is at the front. No such luck this time. I had contacted Toni earlier in the day and she asked for us but the management wouldn't do anything for us. We played 9 pin no-tap, where 9's also count as strikes. Previously we have played a game where we take the best score over the 3 games and add these up. The aim is to a strike in each line. With the better bowlers now in our league, I thought we could see a few people getting 300 games. So we decided to take the total of the 3 scores and add in the handicap on each game, this made it more fair on the less skilled players. If we had played the other way, I later worked out that I would have won as I got an amazing score of 297. The winners for the evening were Frances for the girls and I came second. Stuart for the boys with Jim (Snr) in second place.

Saturday 12th March 2011

I woke up at normal time this morning and decided that I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep so I read my book for a while. I got up about 9. After shower and breakfast, I got on with some cleaning. I didn't intend to clean the oven. I was only going to clean the outside. I opened the door to clean the top of it and before I could stop myself I was spraying Mr Muscle inside it. I cleaned out another cupboard too. By the time I'd washed all of the parts of the shelf rack a few hours had passed and the oven was ready to clean. I hadn't really thought that it needed doing but it definitely did. The water that I was rinsing the cloth out in was soon treacle coloured. I should try to completely clean the inside of at least one cupboard every weekend. It's hard when I'm out so much.

After Dave had finished the lawn, and we had some lunch, we went shopping. To Lidl's first for a few bits and pieces, then on to Dobbie's Garden Centre. It was still busy over there. They have parking attendants to help keep it running more smoothly.

At Chris's tonight we watched “Doomsday” and “Due Date”. I have no wish to watch either film again, maybe Due Date when it reaches TV. “Doomsday” was much too violent for me and I spent quite a bit of time “watching” from behind the pillow and trying not to listen to the sound. It was good to see Alexander Siddig (Bashir) again though.

Friday 11th March 2011 - Hospital with Dan

I was able to leave early today to take Dan to his hospital appointment. I'd made sure that we weren't busy and what was left was covered. The appointment was for 2.30. We arrived in plenty of time and were soon moved from the main waiting room over to another to see the fracture specialist, Mr Abed. He showed us Dan's x-rays on the computer screen. It doesn't look good. He pointed out the broken bits and the arthritis on Dan's big toe. Dan wasn't happy about that either! He sent us off to have the cast removed and then for more x-rays. There is a grey area showing that the consultant is not sure about what is going on there. With the plaster off, we went back to the main waiting room to wait for Dan's turn for x-rays. This was all before 3 pm. We were soon called round for x-rays. I feel sorry for the people laying in beds in corridors waiting, I assume, for x-rays. No privacy. We then had to go back and find the helpful, friendly girl who was assisting the consultants. Mr Abed is still not liking the look of the damage that has been done to Dan's foot and has passed him over to the foot specialist, Mr Southgate. Dan has to go for an MRI scan on 21st and then to see Mr Southgate on 29th. He will decide if an operation is necessary, and how to proceed. We then went back to the plaster room. Dan wanted to have plaster on at first as he was unsure what a “boot” was and how much protection and flexibility it would have. The guy in the plaster room was very cool and funny. He got a new boot out that apparently the footballers also have when they get injured. The boot is really clever. It goes on over a sock and then the sides, front and back are pumped up to support the foot. It is recommended that this is kept on more than off, and slept in too. A serious bit of kit with it's own little pump. We had to pay attention to his instruction. We got out to the car about 4 pm.

Everyone else went out to play poker at Chippy's, even Dan. I watched “St Trinians 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold. I thought I had seen this one before but now I'm not sure that I had.

Thursday 10th March – Chilston Ice House Talk

I got out of work promptly. I still had to go down to the City Link offices as I didn't have today's despatches ready until 10 minutes after our tame collection driver, Dean, had arrived. I was able to get home and we set off to Chippy's straight away. Dinner was ready almost as soon as we arrived. It was lovely. Meatballs and pasta, and grated cheese with a very cool mini cheese grater. Our destination this evening was a hall in Charing Heath, for 7 o'clock start. The only bit we were interested in was the Chilston Ice House Talk, as we helped with the clearing last year. Dave slept through most of it. Lesley talked about the work being done by Lenham Archaeology group in the area. She had a white box in tow. We wondered what a “1A pot” was when we saw it. Was it her collection labelling system? It turned out that it said “IA pot” for Iron Age!! Ah, that makes more sense. We escaped before they started their AGM and adjourned to the Red Lion pub. They had Early Bird on so it had to be done.

Tuesday 8th March 2011 - Pancake Day

At lunch time today, I went to Tesco as I needed something quick to cook for dinner for 4 of us and some ingredients to make pancakes. I didn't have any plain flour. I also bought some 10p packs of batter mix for use in future use. I got fresh pizzas for dinner as frozen ones would have defrosted before I got home. Kat said it wasn't right to have pizza and pancakes! We all had a couple of pancakes each on rotation.

Our Tuesday night viewing this evening was another episode of Heroes. It seems we've been watching it for ever.

Later this evening, I watched another Time Team episode. It was a really early one from 1994, the 3rd episode of the first series. Tony has hair! They were in Much Wenlock. I had to rewind when I noticed they mentioned “The Shit Brook”. I thought I was imagining it. Apparently a brook ran down the road and was called “shit” brook because it was effectively the town's open sewer!

Monday 7th March 2011

At lunch time I had another wander around Dobbie's. I will still be going to Pets At Home for the guinea pigs' stuff as they only have aquarium stuff. I didn't see any but I have heard that they have chickens there too. They do have a lovely card section. I was able to get a sympathy card for Christine as she had the call that she has been dreading for months. Her best friend died today. She has been in the hospice for a while now and been slowly getting worse. It's always sad when it happens but such a relief when someone has been suffering for so long.

I got a letter today from the Parking Services Department of Ashford Borough Council regarding the Penalty Charge Notice. I was impressed that they have replied within 2 weeks and more importantly that they have cancelled it. The photos taken of my car do not show the differences in the new yellow lines and the very faded ones. I didn't need to send them the photo that I took. The letter ends with, basically, don't do it again as I won't be so lucky to have it cancelled. Still hate traffic wardens!

This evening I called Julie to ask if Mum and Dad were OK as I haven't been able to get hold of them for a few days. It's OK, they are safe. I found out who the 3rd broken person is. It's Stephen, my nephew, he broke bones in his hand last Thursday and has been to East Grinstead today to get it pinned together. Sounds painful. I think I can now stop worrying about who the 3rd person was but I now also know two people who have broken their toes. As long as there's not a 3rd person out there with a foot injury?

At our Partylite Unit Training meeting, we waited ages for a new consultant to arrive and then she claimed she had broken down. Everyone was dubious as to whether she had even bothered to set out. So we started the meeting late with just the 5 of us. From now, the plan is not to have Unit Training meetings but to have special meetings by invitation tailored to consultant's needs. Sounds good. It will also mean that I won't miss as many bowling evenings as originally planned.

Sunday 6th March 2011 - Walk in Hythe

I couldn't believe this morning that I woke up about 11.30. It's just as well I woke when I did as I was having one of my weird dreams again. This time the only thing I remember is being a police woman and being about to arrest my mum as she had lots of bombs and arms that she was taking to be disposed off! Very strange! Wonder if that was the effect of the Tizer or the Whittards tea?

It was soon one o'clock and time to set off to Hythe. Based on the last walk that we went on, we wanted to get there early so that we could park easily. Dave had a few minutes snooze in the car before we went for a little stroll on our own, then had a look in the shop of the light railway. We were the first ones to arrive and Mark introduced himself. He then rounded up others that were loitering by the railway shop. Only 16 people today, including Heather, Andy and Mikey, (and two dogs) today. We set off towards Palmarsh. Mark pointed out various birds and points of interest. I have trouble remembering things but I do now know that if a bird makes a noise that sounds like “teacher teacher teacher”, this is a Great Tit. We also saw robins, a chaffinch and lots of the usual gulls and pigeons, etc. At Palmarsh, 2 miles later, we crossed the bridge, checking that it was the expected 20 metres across. This was to be the planned width of all of it, and 3 metres deep. Just across the bridge, there is a small sound mirror. There was also one up on the hill that we could see and one that had fallen away.

Tonight I watched the recently recorded Hawaii Five-O. I'm quite enjoying the series. Tonight's episode introduced a new character. Masi Oka, Hiro from Heroes, is playing Dr Max Bergman in a few episodes. I've also watched Bones: The Doctor in the Photo. The night watchman, Micah Leggat, was Mathesar in Galaxy Quest, which we only watched last night. I thought he looked familiar, maybe from Star Trek, but couldn't quite place him. Love IMDB! Great for sorting out my questions. His name is Enrico Calantoni.

Saturday 5th March 2011

Dave had gone to work already by the time I woke up. I found another Time Team episode that I hadn't seen to watch with breakfast. Picked Dan up about 10. Having got him safe home, he got settled on the sofa and we watched a couple of Michael McIntyre's shows while I cleared the table up and got some Partylite bits sorted out. Dan insisted on hobbling up the shop to get some french bread for lunch. I got the hoovering done while he was out. Dave came home in time for lunch and we had sausage baguettes.

Dan soon fell asleep after lunch. Dave and I went to Folkestone. If I had realised there would be walking involved then I would not have worn my boots. My feet ached by the time we go to the Guildhall. The beer was OK but I definitely prefer a dark brew. It was surprisingly busy. From here we went up to Chambers. No dark beers on here either. We went back via Tesco Express so that I could get something quick to cook for dinner when we got home. Meatballs and spaghetti are always a quick option.

At Chris's tonight we watched Galaxy Quest and Lost in Space. Both great films that we hadn't seen for a while.

Friday 4th March 2011 - Dobbies, injury and upgrades

Today was Dobbie's Garden Centre official opening day so Christine and I decided to walk down there during our lunch break. We were so glad we walked as it was extremely busy. Their car park was full and the neighbouring car parks were being used. I wonder if this was pre-arranged with Beefeater and Travelodge? The shop looks great. I didn't get as far as the pet departments as this is not Christine's thing so I will have to drag Dave over there sometime soon. I got to look at the girly things. Mostly it is similar stuff to Bybrook. Christine said that she thinks they will do well and it could be the death of Bybrook. We'll see. Bybrook were petitioning against it being built. I can see why they were concerned.
On the way back, I got some bad news from Dave. I always feel ill when he says Dan's ok but … This time he was sitting in A&E having dropped something very heavy on his foot. He got x-rayed eventually and he has two breaks in his ankle. Poor baby. I've not seen him yet, only Dave's photo. It's was looking very colourful already and I think it will be turning some very pretty purples over the next few days.

This afternoon, I was invited to the Microsoft Dynamics AX Kick Off meeting. This will be our replacement for our current CRM and accounting system. The plan is to get all company's over to the one platform, starting with the main offices in Canada, then we are 2nd. My manager, who was heading up the meeting, is due to go to Canada for meetings later this month and needs input from key users of the current system. She is an accountant first and foremost and needs to be able to make sure that we all get what we want to keep the business running smoothly. Having been to the first meeting I'm feeling a bit more keen on the change but not a lot. Why change something that is working for us! It is going to be a long road to the change and we don't see it happening in the next year. We've used the current system for 12 years now. I helped with that change over and the upgrade several years ago too. It was a lot of work on both occasions.

Thursday 3rd March 2011

This evening Batty and I went to Jose and Maria's for chinese. It was a lovely evening, as always. I love chinese but I can't eat the quantity that everyone else seems to manage. I was ok this time but generally I end up hungry before I go to bed. I took along a couple of cheesecakes and Maria had cooked an apple dessert too so we had lots of pud. Enrique was cute asking for his mash potato out of the freezer as he said he hadn't had dinner despite having had MacDonalds! He didn't get his mash anyway. He was playing “Super Nintendo Entertainment System” on the laptop. It kept him out of mischief for hours. Jose and Batty fixed (hopefully) Batty's laptop and watched TV while Maria and I put the world to rights and exchanged information. No, it wasn't gossip!!

Wednesday 2nd March 2011

As I can't get to bowling next Monday, we rescheduled our game for this evening. It was fun. We managed a 6-2 win. This is the last game of this season. We needed to win. Shame it wasn't 8-0 but we can both be blamed for not getting there. It was very close. We lost the game that I got the lowest score in. I think I got a 198 on one of the games. I didn't get any games over 200 on this season. The standard of bowling has gone up considerably with our 3 new teams. It will be interesting to see how next season plays out. Whatever happens on this final game, we will finish in the top 3. Jose and Sara are due to play the team that is in 1st place on Sunday. No pressure but we need them to draw or win so that we can be 1st. The team that is currently in 3rd place can't catch up with us as they are 4 behind us.

Tuesday 1st March 2011

This evening, being the first of the month, we met elsewhere. We watched a Next Generation episode, Disaster. It's the one when Picard gets to take 4 kids on a tour of the ship as a prize for winning, and they get stuck in a lift together while everyone else on the ship in different areas thinks that they are the only ones alive. Deanna Troi gets to be captain and Worf delivers Keiko's baby. I still can't take Worf seriously. He might well be saying “prepare for battle” or something equally heroic but I hear “I am Weasel”.

Monday 28th February 2011

Another busy end of month. I did nearly 50 invoices. I have been asked why I leave them all to the last day as there are our regular monthly ones that just need to be duplicated with a few details amended. If only I had time to do them earlier!! I seem to be permanently busy. I used to have a relatively quiet last day of the month as it wasn't necessary to send anything out as if it wasn't delivered in the same month it didn't count in that month's sales. Now the Sales guys carry spare software packs to leave with the customers. I think at 4 pm this afternoon, one of the guys was off on a 4 hour journey just to make sure it was delivered today.

I said “bye, see ya later” to Buffy this morning. It is sad that she isn't here now even though she was noisy and a big distraction.

At bowling this evening, we were surprised that we won 6-2. We were playing the team that we were joint 2nd with. If I had been playing better, we could have won the middle game too. Batty wasn't bowling well on the 3rd game but I got 198 and we won by 8 pins.

Saturday 26th February 2011 – Tower of London

Another soggy day. After a full English breakfast at the Kiln, we met up with Matt at Ashford Station, we set off to London for the boy's birthday trip. It was my first trip on the fast train. We headed straight for the Tower. With our train tickets we were able to get two of us in for the price of one. This makes it so much more affordable. Having been round the towers, we then queued to get in to see the Crown Jewels. We were herded like sheep through the ropes and through the tower to look at the jewels and royal memorabilia. A few hours later, having seen all we needed to see, we contacted Terry who had found us a pub, a nearby Wetherspoons. We settled in here for a few hours with dinner and a pint. It was good to catch up with Terry. We got on the bus to Covent Garden, one of Matt's favourite haunts. We said our farewells to Terry. The boys had ice cream from the shop that sells breast milk ice cream though I doubt that's what they had. It definitely wouldn't appeal to me! We then went on a hike around the side streets, following Dave while he tried to remember where a certain pub was. We abandoned the search eventually and made our way back to St Pancras station.
Link to today's photo album on Facebook

Wednesday 23rd February 2011 – Wingham Wildlife Park

We slept in until gone 9.30. I was so tired. As I knew I didn't have to get up early, I was up until 2am catching up on stuff on the Sky+. Checking out the window, rain. Not good for our plans. We could either stay in and sulk about it or carry on as if it were dry. After all, we're not going to dissolve. So we set off for Wingham Wildlife Park. Getting through Canterbury was relatively painless. We followed the instructions on Dave's sat nav and found it relatively easily, although the sat nav tried to direct us off a side road but the main entrance was off the main road. After parking, we had to cross that road to get to the Park. After getting our tickets, the first stop was the tropical house. There were lots of birds flying around in here. There were no butterflies to see as it was too cold. The hornbills were very noisy and were hopping about on their branches. We also saw lots of bats through the windows of a very dark room. They were quite a lot bigger than the ones that we see out in the country. The highlight of the place for me were the penguins. We were able to be there for feeding time and the keeper gave us a talk too about the penguins. We were able to buy a tub of wiggly things to feed the meerkats too which was lovely. I think originally this was a bird park only as this still seems to be the main feature. Despite getting wet, it was a good day. Can't wait to go back soon.
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Monday 21st February 2011 - Happy birthday Dave

As soon as I got up, I dug out Dave's birthday cards and presents so that I could see him opening them, before getting ready for work. As much as he wanted the Sky Trillium book that I'd bought apparently it is the 3rd of 3 and not the 1st. Oops! I was able to order Black and Blood Trillium later.

At work, our Manager told us of another panic on Thursday evening after the flooded kitchen. She was still working at 6.30 and the fire alarm went off. She went downstairs to go out and found that there wasn't a fire at all. The cleaners had opened the hoover under a smoke detector. It was so bad that it was like a fog! She didn't know how stop the alarm going off and the fire brigade turned up before she had chance to find out. Several of the key holders were also called and one of them came in to help. Tania thanked everyone who helped with the clean up and the call out today. She said that she was proud to work with such a great team of people.

Another colleague noticed all the tool bars had disappeared from the program that she was in. She thought it was something that she'd clicked on that had caused it. She has done this before. After we had decided that it wasn't something that she had done, we checked ours. They had disappeared too. It meant that we'd have to use short cut keys until it was fixed. The IT guy didn't know what had happened either. The server was restarted at lunch and that didn't fix it. A call was put through to the helpline. They were able to tell our IT guy what to do to fix it. Some dll files got corrupted.... apparently!!?! All fixed now. With these problems and covering the phone line today, I was late finishing and not ready for when then City Link driver arrived to collect. After work I had to go to the City Link offices to drop off 3 more and also drop the post off at the post box. Trying to get the big bag into the box was a bit of a struggle. I got it to drop in properly eventually.

Off to Asda next with the plan to get us something good for dinner but due to me not having my mobile connected to the ear piece, Dave didn't hear me properly and told me that he wasn't hungry and would be OK with just a sandwich. I bought some ham so that I could have ham, egg and chips and he could have a ham sandwich. I found the Monty Python films on DVD which were on Dave's present wish list.

Once home, and Dave realised that I didn't say that I was going bowling and not cooking, we were quite disappointed. We both had ham, egg and chips which was good anyway, followed by trifle. We watched “The Life of Brian”. Apparently I had seen it before but we think it could have been as long as 25 years ago when we lived in Folkestone. There were a couple of sayings I knew but didn't realise that they were from this film like “My name's Brian and so's my wife”.

Sunday 20th February - Folkestone

I had planned to spend the morning in front of my computer doing more blog stuff or photos but I soon ran out of time. We got the call that Chippy would be here in half an hour. So I made moves to get ready. I ended up having more time to play with my hair and make up as Dave disappeared to the market with Dan so I let Chippy know and he went for petrol first.

We set off before midday and headed for Folkestone. After a quick cuppa, we wandered down to the Wetherspoons in Folkestone for their lovely roast dinner. £5.99 for a roast including a drink. Today they had the double stout. We have now found out that you don't have to make your mind up straight away and order the dessert at the same time as your dinner. You can go back and show your receipt. Dave and Kat braved the dessert. I was restrained and didn't get a bowl of profiteroles. Dave very kindly sacrificed one for me.

From here we wandered down to the harbour and along the sea front to the coastal park. Kat so wanted to go on the zip line but was afraid of getting a dirty bum. Still a kid at heart but grown up enough to know she didn't want to be dirty. The original plan was to walk back towards the car park and take the lift up but we ventured up the zig zag path. I have taken loads of photos.

Then we headed towards Chambers but apparently they are not open on Sundays. So it was down to The Pullman for the next drink. I had Ruby Mild. It was good but not as good as the stout I had earlier. From here we wandered back via Tescos, laughing at Dave getting stuck on the railings and having to be helped off. After coffee and cake we set off back to Ashford in time for me to get ready to go bowling.

We were asked if we wanted to play our game tonight as Mark in the opposing team can't make it tomorrow. I'm feeling slightly cheated. They wouldn't oil the lanes for us. Apparently it's not cost effective to oil just two lanes! I was assured in the morning that they would be done. After much sulking my Mark, he opted to come back tomorrow morning to bowl when they would oil it for him! We bowled our game with Terry. Terry did OK. Batty did really badly at least 20 below his average. I had two bad games but my last one was OK. Mark will now bowl tomorrow just enough for them to win all 3 games. We are currently just 2 points above them at the top of the league. Now they will win and we end up in 3rd place! Grrr!!! The only advantage I guess is that I can be home tomorrow night for Dave's birthday.