Making Plans

I met up with Gary today and we had a good long chat over brunch and then took a walk up to the manor house at Rivington, after two hours of scheming we still had so much more to talk about, but unfortunately he had to get back to the office.  We talked mostly about plans for the future, but also short term plans for visiting his house and a short break away next year, it was a very enjoyable time.  I sandwiched the time with Gary between two 90 minute walks from the car to The Barn and then back to the car, in all that time I only had to put up with 20 minutes of rain.  After lots of walking this week, I’m now really looking forward to a rest tomorrow, and as it’s going to be raining heavily and I have a backlog of house work to do, I’m going to get it.

I slept pretty well last night, woke at 6:30 and headed straight to Lytham Caffe Nero by car.  Even when I’m walking I prefer to start the day at Caffe Nero, even if it’s only for 30 minutes, because it’s relaxing and gives me time to wake up properly before driving on the motorway.  I left Caffe Nero at 7:30 and had a good run up to the Northern end of Anglezarke where I park my car.  I had an excellent walk to the barn and then home via B&Q where I had some paint mixed up ready for giving the living room a bit of a touch up – maybe next week. 

I popped into Lidl in Lytham for the first time to pickup some food for tonight’s big family dinner and was impressed by the organic/free range range there too, but it’s no better than the more convenient Aldi.  While I was in the shop the head of customer services from Green Thumb gave me a ring and we chatted about how they could improve their service for about 15 minutes as I wandered around the isles.

When I arrived home I immediately had to start the dinner as a roast chicken with lots of Yorkshire puddings and roast potatoes requires quite a lot of logistics in our small single oven.  I’m becoming more practiced at it though and I was very happy with the result,  especially my new Yorkshire Pudding tin that DID’NT STICK.  For dinner we had Jennie, Jon, Anna, Tess and Debbie.  While I was cooking I managed a few jobs around the house.

The twins are both starting to feel the strain now as they worry about getting university places and Anna especially is a little on edge and losing confidence in herself.  I had a talk with her to try and reassure her that all will be well, but of course that’s just talk, so the next couple of months are going to be difficult for her.

Debbie has worked very hard to her ‘Songs Of Praise’ themed parents event and she’s created a stunning presentation to anchor it.  She’s particularly buzzing about the fact that the kids are all so photogenic, which is not easy to achieve. 

It’s late now and I’m looking forward to watching an episode of Castle on TV before my bath/bed.