Diary

We had a quiet Saturday. A very quiet Saturday. It was the first day of Sue’s holiday. By 12:30 we were watching Oliver. I can’t stand musicals. She caught me off guard. I need to be sharper than that.

We spent a lot of the afternoon in the garden chatting about old times. Someone told her about a garden centre that was delivering pretty quickly. I agreed to get MORE bedding plants and compost. I spent 5 minutes looking for the “add to basket” button. The sun was shining on the screen which didn’t help. Then I realised that you had to email them with your order. So that will cost me another 50 quid although it should be free delivery. I haven’t heard back from them yet though. Hopefully I’ll hear something on Monday.

Sue made us a steak tea. A very good job she made of it too. One of the best steaks I’ve had for a while.

The plan was that after the meal we were going to watch a film. I found a couple on Netflix that seemed ok although by the time we sat down to watch I had forgotten the name of one of them. We started watching “Time Trap”. It looked like it might be OK but Sue was struggling to stay awake. It was almost 11 pm. I told her I didn’t mind if she went to bed.

I took the dogs out. We saw 3 foxes and failed to get any of them on camera. I saw a couple of bats but they kept a low profile once I had the camera recording. Typical.

This morning I woke at 6. Not sure why as I hadn’t got to bed until almost 1 am.

We Facetimed the grand kids around 11 am. Our daughter mentioned that it was going to rain later. I wanted to do a little more on the front garden. When we finished the called I went out to crack on with it. I moved the old wooden edging to have it down the side of the path. The garden looks a lot bigger now the bushes have gone. I weeded the area. There actually weren’t many weeds. By the time I had cleared up I had been out there a couple of hours. Now I need some weedkiller to make sure nothing comes up through the membrane (if thats the right word) and whatever I decide to cover the area with. Gravel or wood chippings maybe. I haven’t decided.

It is 6 pm now and it isn’t raining. It clouded over a few hours ago and the temperature obviously dropped. It sounds like the neighbours are gearing up for yet another party. We think they may have had a warning from the police as they have been quite for a couple of days.

We’re just settling down for a night in front of the TV.

If anyone tried to sign up for the Coronavirus offer at www.tradesharktennis.com the Paypal link is now fixed. I think I cocked it up on Friday!

Stay safe.

 

A rare day of peace! Sue’s last shift before her 2 weeks off. I was going to paint the kitchen today but my back was aching quite a bit from 2 days of digging bushes out. I slept on the sofa last night. Sue had gone to bed early and so woke up at 3:30! I went upstairs to bed. I hadn’t wanted to disturb her sleep with my snoring. I still felt pretty rough having gone to sleep with a massive headache but after two and a half hours in bed I felt a bit better.

I dropped Sue off at the hospital around 6:30. I was starting to feel a lot better and by the time I had got home and had some breakfast and a cuppa I was feeling more human.

Webbs is a garden centre and it was posted on Facebook that they were turning up at the hospital at 11:30 with free bedding plants. Sue asked me if I would try to get some. I never get a totally free day. I said I would go down at 11 and try to be first in line. That turned out to be pretty naive. I arrived before 11 and the queue was already crazily long. She had said she wouldn’t really be able to get them herself as she would have to change out of her uniform but there were loads of NHS staff in uniforms. Even worse though was that the NHS staff were all bunched together. I know they can’t always keep social distance at work but it was a terrible example to set to the public. The rest of the queue were not leaving space between themselves and the next person. As I drove past I could see that the guy from Webbs didn’t have even close to enough plants for everyone. I joined the queue as I was there but a family of trolls were behind me and were at most 2 ft away from me. I asked them to back up. I didn’t really understand their response. I could tell they were pissed and the smell was quite similar to the tramps that used to come into store during my food retail days. The guy’s grunt was possibly something like, “Fuckin dunt madder”. For those non UK residents that means, ” I don’t believe that is entirely necessary”. I left the queue muttering under my breath that they were all going to die.

When I got home I did a bit of housework. I didn’t really want to do much else. Sue had left me a shopping list. I told you, I never get a full day for me! I usually go down around 6pm before I pick her up from work at 7:30. There usually isn’t a queue at that time.

I had the root clumps to dispose off. The small ones were’t heavy but were quite awkward to get hold off. Two in each hand for the first trip. I didn’t have to walk quite as far as I had to with the bush clippings as the clumps could be thrown. The 2 heavy one were on the next trip. An intelligent person would have split them over 2 trips in combination with small ones. Thinking is for wimps. Two more trips and everything had gone.

I watched the BBC Corona Virus update. Before the Downing Street bit started they were interviewing a guy who used to be Cabinet Secretary for many years. He and some others had been looking at when the country might be able to relax the lockdown and he said they had come up with a date in the middle of June. That would be ideal. Fingers crossed.

I was surprised yesterday when I took the dogs out at how many people were out. They all seemed to be legitimately exercising but there wouldn’t be that many out in normal pre virus times. To be fair I hadn’t been that way for a while and at that time of day. We were on our way to the dog field. When we got there there was a kid riding a bike so I waited for him to leave before I let the dogs off. Charlie would probably have herded the kid into the pond (his party trick with other dogs). The dogs loved being able to stretch their legs. They have spent very little time off lead. Before the corona virus came along we had a really long spell of wet weather and the field was just not usable. I did take them down there a week or so ago and their recall had all but disappeared. Charlie was the worst although to be fair to him it was the first time he had the chance to play with another dog and it was one that he knew. Angus’ owners are pretty odd and they weren’t happy about Charlie running up to them. I can usually turn both my dogs on a sixpence but they’re out of practise. This time I had some treats in my pocket and we spent a little time on recall drills. They were soon back in the swing.

Anyway, back to today! I went to Tesco’s around 5:45 and as I pulled into the carpark I saw there was more of a queue than normal. It ony took 15 minutes or so to get inside and I didn’t have a huge list. I was home around 10 past 6. It is quite funny to see people hiding from other shoppers who aren’t quite as aware that there are other people in this world. One woman complained loudly to her husband when he asked what the hell she was doing. As she was almost climbing into one of those roll cages that the staff move the stock about in. She said at the top of her voice that HER and HIM aren’t going the right way. There are ARROWS!!

I think the security guard was following me. Pretty much everywhere I went he was there. Maybe it was because I forgot the sweet potatoes and went down the checkout aisle to get back to the veg aisle. Perhaps he thought I was trying to get out without paying. They’re pretty clueless in there. You get what you pay for.

I have put an offer on the Trading Guide of 1 month’s trading tips email free. Every little helps!

Chinese for supper!

Stay safe.