Sunday 27th June 2010 - Out and About

I had breakfast in the garden again as it was so hot already. During the morning we set off for Marden to go to the Air Ambulance Open Day, stopping on the way at a pond shop to get stock up on more fish food. There was something wrong with the pricing in the shop. On a big sign it said buy two, get one free. So at £6.70 a bag we picked up 3 bags. When we got to the till the assistant tried to charge us £15 for 2 bags and then £6.70 for an extra one. We had to point out the big sign that had the offer that we wanted. Then she rung them through the till at £15 instead of £6.70 x 2, so we got an even better bargain.

At the Air Ambulance Centre, Dave bought me a jigsaw puzzle and a leather book mark. We saw the real Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It is a beautiful classic car. There were other lovely old cars there too but nothing compares to this. When we got back to the car, the thermometer said it was 34 degrees.

On the way to Teston, we stopped at a lovely pub in West Farleigh, The Tickled Trout. It was very welcoming and the food was good. The Tiger beer was served in Tiger glasses, even my half pint. I had a lovely ham and cheese ploughman's. We went on to the dog show at Teston. We had a lovely ice cream and a wander around the stalls. I think we had missed the main attractions. The field looked quite strange with gazebos and little doggy tents in the main part of the field and nothing much around the edges.

We then went to another Aquatics shop. There was also a farm shop here. They had lots of lovely fish. The Koi, Sturgeon, etc outside, marine and tropical inside. As I wanted to go back via the A20 rather than the M20, we found ourselves near to Hobbycraft which is somewhere that I've wanted to go in for a while. So we stopped here. They even have the Bob Ross stuff that Dave can't get in Ashford any more and they also had stuffed animal kits which are difficult to find too. And a good jigsaw selection.

Back home again, I had another hour to soak up more sun in the garden before getting ready for bowling. It was so hot though that I moved my blanket into the shade and had a snooze.

When I got back from bowling, I sat in the garden until 10 pm reading my book. As it was getting darker I had to use the torch on my mobile to get the chapter finished.

Saturday 26th June 2010 - Solar Scope and Emily's party

I did a bit of housework and then got out into the garden as soon as I could. I started with breakfast and book by the pond. After breakfast, I dragged the picnic blanket out of the car with my hat, and settled down with iced coffee. I have had a Mythology book for years and decided I would read it from the beginning rather than just use it for reference. I have bravely, or stupidly, offered to do a talk at the astronomy club. I am interested in the mythology behind the stars names so I thought I'd read the book, make notes and then do selective research for a talk. Hopefully I will be able to put something together.

In the afternoon, Dave set up the solar scope. It was good. I soon worked out how to use it. I like the “twizzly” bits. If we ever get a proper telescope, I think I would enjoy it more if it had “twizzly” bits. I think I looked through it more than Dave did. I took some photos. They haven't come out very well. I got one on my phone, and edited and uploaded it on my phone. I have now checked it on line and it is very pink. I probably wouldn't have posted it if I had seen it on the PC first. The sun is not pink but is a beautiful orange. You can also see solar flares of the edges.

We went to Chippy and Sammy's for the evening as it is Emily's 18 month birthday. As well as all of the lovely nibbly bits, Chippy had made a lovely beef stew. There was also profiteroles and apple pie. I took a bottle of wine along and had the last glass at home when we watched Dr Who. I liked Dr Who but I don't think Dave was impressed. That's the last Dr Who until Christmas. I'm still shocked that I've finished a bottle of “real” wine. Lambrini, that I was drinking at Teston, doesn't count.

An observation from Kat... if Dan has been home then the music channel is on when the TV is switched on. If Dave was the last one watching TV then Cartoon Network is on!

Friday 25th June 2010 - Astronomy Club

After dinner this evening, we went to astronomy club. I got a lift there, the boys were so busy singing Christmas songs in competition with each other that they didn't hear their Sat Nav saying to turn left. Ooops. A quick turn around and we were soon there. Tonight was Steve's talk on Jupiter, after Drew's news of the month. Steve's talk was good. We learnt that even this gas giant has rings, and hopefully they will find out more on the Juno mission next year. After the break, as it was still too light outside to see any stars, Drew showed us what we might have been able to see had it not been dark using the club's favourite software, Stellarium; and what we might be able to see if we took the ground away! The joys of Stellarium. We looked at the summer triangle consisting of Vega, Deneb and Altair, amongst other things. One of the youngest members set up his new telescope in the car park before we left and we were able to see Venus.

Tuesday 22nd June 2010

The excitement at work today was at lunch time when it was noticed that there was a car parked into the back of another one. We were trying to work out why, if you crashed into a car, would you leave it there in place. Then the owner of the “innocent” car came out with a colleague and they pushed the other car back to the parking space it had rolled from! Oops! Some silly person had left the hand brake off. The stray car didn't want to stay back in it's place. The owner came out to apply the brake. We couldn't work out from our nosy office whether much damage was done.

This evening for dinner, I cooked toad in the hole. I didn't have any packets of batter mix left. What is the point of “packet batter mix” and just what is in it? All the real batter recipe requires is flour, egg and milk/water. If I remember rightly all you need for the other is the packet, an egg and water. The one I usually buy is only about 9p so I'm not sure what is cheapest either. I might still buy some more, just for convenience and in case I run out of plain flour!

I managed to clear my clothes out of Dave's wardrobe today... finally. He should be able to shut his wardrobe doors. I've now got more hanging on the outside of my wardrobe than ever before. I've also made use of a bit of space in another wardrobe that should soon have less and less in it. If I buy clothes at the moment, I'll buy a size 10 skirt so how come I can't get into size 10 skirts that I bought years ago. I think as the people of the world are getting bigger, the clothes manufacturers move the sizes up.

Monday 21st June 2010

I missed yesterday's blog, and so I had to think what did I do. I don't think I did a lot. I think Dave's blog covers most of it, apart from bowling in the evening. At bowling today we won 8-0 but that was probably because we were playing against the Ace Team and Helen wasn't there as she isn't well. Jim was playing quite well on his own but it's hard work playing with an absent player. We keep our 3rd place for another week and managed to close the gap by 2 points.... I dare say, it won't last!!

I'm watching Raising Helen. I didn't realise before but the young girl is in Heroes, the little boy is in The Cat and The Hat and the Pastor is in the film I watched on Saturday, My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Off to bed now, I'll have to record this to watch the end another time.

Saturday 19th June 2010 - Fancy Dress & Camping shopping

The original plan for today was to do some archery at the Batfarm. We have been keeping a check on the weather forecast all week and it was forecasting strong winds and showers so we decided to have a shopping day instead. Not a normal shopping day though. We started out at Kengate to sort out our costumes for a Tudor themed birthday party that we have been invited to in August. As neither of us are “normal” size we didn't want to leave it until too close to the date as we might have found that they weren't able to help us. The first dress that I tried on was beautiful but, as was pointed out to me by one of the girls there, it did look very big on me. I was also having trouble getting the skirt bit to stay tied up. We found a couple of smaller dresses to try. One was too tight and although I got it zipped up, I felt that if I was trying to move about in it all day it would have ripped. I also tried on a gold one but Dave thought another red one looked better. This red one had a matching “Anne Boleyn” style head dress but Dave thought that one looked silly. So we have opted for a ring headdress, a red and gold dress and a hooped petticoat. Now I just have to remember not to dye my hair a colour that clashes with the dress.

After dumping our cardboard recycling and broken gazebo at the tip, we then set off to the farm as we were going with the Bat. We set off to Johns Cross Camping Centre. We bought a few things here. They don't have as many tents set up here. I would guess that they stock more and most of them you would look at their website for. It is worth a visit though. On the way from here we found the Oak and Ivy pub. It was very nice but we had to wait a while for our food and I complained that my chips tasted like they had been sitting for while. The fish was lovely though. I think they were struggling as they had a wedding party they were trying to look after that wasn't due to arrive for another couple of hours. We would like to go back again one day to give them another chance. Dave and Batty's food was OK.

We found our way to Camping International afterwards in Gillingham. We had another look around the trailer tents again.... we can dream! When we got to the tents we found that all of the tents were being offered at 10%. We are glad that we waited a week now. In the camping shops today we bought: a table; a cooker; a 2 seat bench; a BIG kettle; some BIG tent pegs; a big sleeping bag, pillow and fishing stool for himself; and a tent. Our tent even has a carpet. I talked Batty out of buying the huge fishing bed yet as he would also have to upgrade his tent at the same time.

Thursday 17th and Friday 18th June 2010

Thursday: I left work later than I wanted to today. I was very busy as Sarah was off sick again and I had lots of orders to sort out. I was so late getting them sorted that I had to go to City Link offices to make sure that they went. In the end, we got down to Folkestone soon after 7. Maria had been out to get the Chinese which was really good, as always. For dessert, we had cheesecakes. Once dinner was finished we went into the jacuzzi. It was very relaxing. Maria has been learning Makaton so she started to teach us some. We now know the alphabet and how to ask for a drink, as long as it's tea, coffee, wine or beer, we'll be OK.


Friday: I missed out on covering a candle party tonight. Karen texted me but she didn't receive my reply. I was rather disappointed. I phoned her at lunch time to get the details and she had already passed it on to someone else. Damn technology! I will have to call her straight away next time. I went shopping Sainsburys after work for a change. I bought us some chicken for dinner and 24 tins of lager for £10. The football season has very few advantages but the cheap lager is one of them. I wonder how long they will last me. Later Dave and I watched “American Pie: The Book of Love”. It's not as good as the earlier American Pie films. I didn't save it on to disk to watch again. I guess it will be on Sky again sometime if anyone would like to see it.