Moving on

Cherryfudge

The planting up is done: I went out and admired it again after dark! I was so tired afterwards that I lay on the bed and read a book for a while, and that was obviously the right thing to do as I've been able to work through the evening sorting out food rather than waste it.

DH did the ironing and got the cases out of the loft. I rescued all the glass jars from the recycling and put them through the dishwasher ready for all the jam I was going to make, and have only used one... but the rest will be set aside so I can make jam whenever I like.

Must get to bed now: I'm just waiting for the milk to cool enough to add yogurt and that will be the fridge stuff completed.

Cherryfudge

Yesterday (Sunday) was a busy morning as we went to church for the last of the summer-style services. I ended up having several conversations, which tick boxes for team building as well as social things. I've really enjoyed the summer format but it's back to business next week. Thankfully one of my team has taken on the rewrite of some material that didn't sit well last year - it's not huge job but takes focus and she's better at that than I am. On a minor note, I've asked one of the longer-term leaders to keep an eye on the time when we have our team meeting. It's not my strength and it acknowledges that I've taken on board a hint he gave about how people respond to shorter meetings!

So that was the morning... then home again to a makeshift lunch (fishcakes, cous cous, homemade ratatouille) that used up more freezer contents and created enough space to freeze lots of greengage puree. I've also discovered it's awesome in yogurt, which is just as well as there's a serious amount of it. Picked up the night's fall of greengages which was a lot less than it has been though there are still lots on the trees. We've brought these on holiday, not out of a misplaced sense of giving them cultural experiences, but for fresh fruit.

All packing completed, we set off mid afternoon and had a very straightforward journey, just stopping for packed-up sandwiches and no spends at a motorway services. I even spent some of the journey entering receipts into my accounts notebook! I am way behind, but a least those are out of the way.

Last night we arrived at Stratford: somewhere each of us have been in the dim-and-distant before we'd even met each other. We had a nice walk around in the twilight and I spotted the first lit Christmas trees of the year, though I suspect that's a specifically Christmas shop!

I can't say I slept all that well: the air con only turns down to 19C, which is a tad more than I'd have liked, and I still have a collection of midge bites courtesy of gardening at home. I've got an eye-strain headache that's not gone with paracetamol, so I'm hoping fresh air and distance vision will clear it. Also they've updated the hotel to give you the option of purple lighting which is quite funky but turns my skin orange! We didn't stick with it, but the hotel, while a rabbit warren that makes work look almost normal, is really well situated and we are going to have a further wander around town before going on to our destination. No doubt money will get spent.

Watty1

Enjoy Stratford

badmemory

My sympathy about the midges.  I hate the things, unfortunately they don't feel the same way about me.

rtandon27

I'm well impressed that you self-catered your sandwiches!  Very MSE & I'm sure healthier than anything store bought!  We are very bad for stopping for a meal deal when we go for a holiday drive anywhere near the services!

Cherryfudge

Watty1 said:

Enjoy Stratford

Thank you! What an interesting place it is, and very photogenic.

badmemory said:

My sympathy about the midges.  I hate the things, unfortunately they don't feel the same way about me.

I remember, as a youngster, counting over 100 midge bites on myself one day. Argh! It's just as well we don't get so many in Yorkshire (it's drier). I suppose I should be grateful they think I'm attractive...

rtandon27 said:

I'm well impressed that you self-catered your sandwiches!  Very MSE & I'm sure healthier than anything store bought!  We are very bad for stopping for a meal deal when we go for a holiday drive anywhere near the services!

Thanks - DH is good at organising his sandwiches. Mine had been in the fridge a couple of days though and I've a feeling it may be the reason I felt ropey today. Fresh sandwiches next time, or buy takeaway!

So yes, I spent much of the day with a headache that didn't respond to painkillers, added to which the hotel breakfast wasn't very fresh. I noticed the fruit salad tasted slightly 'fizzy', not inedibly so but not quite right, then the croissants didn't feel quite fresh either. I mentioned the fruit to the staff and was told another customer had already reported it and it had been thrown out. It's not the first time we've had breakfast issues with this chain and it doesn't feel like a treat anymore. I'm sure that for the the price of a hotel breakfast each, we could buy a week's worth of continental breakfast ingredients and be sure they were what we hoped for. I already had the headache when I woke up, by the way, so it wasn't caused by the breakfast.

We left the hotel, then had a text as we'd agreed to help fund something for one of the children, to say the payment needed to be in today. This would have been more straightforward if I could have used my laptop, but when I tried to make the transfer on my phone, I couldn't get enough signal to open the email with the code to proceed. DH suggested we went to the bank, but after about half an hour queuing, I was feeling the struggle so we went for lunch. I just had a starter and some water, I couldn't fancy anything to eat. However, I did begin to feel a bit better and we went back to the bank after the lunchtime queues had gone, and the member of staff who sorted it all out was brilliant. I didn't have any of the required forms of ID on me so they had to set it all up via DH who doesn't have the app but whose name is also on the account and who had his driver's licence. Phew.

Anyway the payment has gone through and I now need to research a regular saver account for the repayments to go into.

We then had a small adventure to do with DH's hobbies. I've no idea how this will work out (sorry to be mysterious but it's not my story to tell) but it was interesting. And no, he's not spent thousands on a picture though there were some rather eye-catching ones in a gallery we passed.

We wandered into a couple of charity shops (I bought a book for me and another for DH who has a birthday coming up) then went to the church where Shakespeare's grave is. DH wanted to see it but I found some of the memorials elsewhere sufficiently interesting and they didn't cost a fiver to visit! While we were there, there was a heavy downpour, much needed as the grass is light brown. We both got photos through the church porch as the avenue of trees looked very pretty in the rain.

By about four I was starting to feel more myself, but of course by then it was time to leave as we needed to be in Bath for the rest of our break. We've arrived here uneventfully (we are borrowing DH's relative's house) and had a chilled evening.

Expenditure:
Entertainment £5 + food
Book £1.50
Gift £7.

Watty1

Sorry about the  breakfast - maybe next time with that chain you could try a local cafe?    Hope Bath is fun.  I love that city.

rtandon27

Enjoy Bath! - one of my favorite places to visit! Lots happening there for the JA anniversary.

Cherryfudge

Watty1 said:

Sorry about the  breakfast - maybe next time with that chain you could try a local cafe?    Hope Bath is fun.  I love that city.

Good idea about the local café, we don't often go out for breakfast but when we have, it's been so nice that it could really add to the holiday.

rtandon27 said:

Enjoy Bath! - one of my favorite places to visit! Lots happening there for the JA anniversary.

Thank you - we've enjoyed exploring and yes, Jane Austen is looming large!

I've felt fine today. Thank goodness for iron guts! And the sinuses are clear again so I suspect it was just a temporary inflammation. A good night's sleep and a slow morning (DH went on a local walk) worked wonders.

We had lunch at the house then walked into the city. We were very glad we had umbrellas as the summer's rain has decided to make a belated appearance, but it's so out of practice that it changed from moment to moment. I'm always fascinated by new-to-me charity shops, and have bought a pair of trainers in one today (£7.50). My usual trainers are fabric and were soaking up the rain, which helped persuade me. I've also bought a book that I'd been considering for a while: £4.

We found some interesting shops of various sorts and spent some time looking round an antiques centre, then called into a small independent bookshop specialising in stories by women, mostly from the twentieth century. I strongly suspect there are some absolute gems in there, republished in the livery of the company that runs the shop. I didn't buy anything because I couldn't choose, but there were some wartime diaries I'd not heard of before, and another that was about a woman trying to improve conditions in her husband's business in 1914... I will look them up and try to make a decision! Meanwhile DH waited till my back was turned and bought the replica wartime poster I'd seen in the window and declared was 'absolutely me'. Of course I have no idea he's done this and will be delighted come Christmas.

We were both parched by late afternoon and found ourselves a vegan café. I had an oat milk cappuccino which was really nice. DH had his Earl Grey and we shared a coffee and walnut cake - it made life easier not having to work out how much dairy DH risked having.

We were going to go to the Abbey but decided to leave that for another day. Needing a food shop, we only saw Waitflower, which is a bit on the expensive side but the choice was excellent. We have been told by our hosts to 'help ourselves from the fridge etc.' so we used up some red pepper and tomatoes in a tuna pasta for dinner. I checked through the fridge later and found quite a few things to use up but there's too much milk, so I've frozen most of it. The rest will be a bit of a game to use.

This evening we redid most of the walk DH found this evening, up the hill out of town and with a great view. I found damsons falling onto the path so I brought back a handful to add to the greengages in the fridge. I adore damsons.

Well, I should have been in bed ages ago so I'll leave it at that for now.

rtandon27

Your comment about Waitflower made me giggle! Down here in the South everything is expensive!

I find MrS & MrT & Waitflower comparatively priced, but the odd time we step into a store, it is usually the W one as it is smaller and the staff are nicer. If you do come across a MrL - they are marginally cheaper!

TBH you are better off selfcatering especially when there are dietary considerations!  I often take a mini flask of nondairy with me to put into black coffee as much as we like dairy it does not like us!