Well, all sorts of bits & bobs happened this week – only some of which I actually have photos for!
By far the most stressful was us p[opping next door to eat burgers and sit down to watch Anita & Rob's older daughter, Ellie, playing for England Under 18s in the Youth Commonwealth Games. The sport? Fast Fives Netball – who know that was even a thing? 5 a side, three shooting areas with different points to be gained, a bit like basketball, and a 90 second frenzy in each of the 4 quarter time periods of the match when the points went up massively per goal.
And the location? A very swanky 'Trinbago' – as Trinidad & Tobago are called for the purposes of sporting commentary it seems. Niiiice. Ellie is, like me, a defender – though clearly far, far better – and handily taller – than I ever was. The Surrey County Second Team that I got into in about 1984 wasn't quite in the same league..
A tough opening game vs South Africa unfortunately, which England lost – though went on to win their other 2 pool games and ultimately Ellie came home with an impressive Bronze medal.
The week has also heralded a nice night out with Sophie & Nicky for Soph's birthday. Drinks then a supper at Tabor on Heddon Street. Delicious food though teeny weeny tapas-y portions, you can def feel that a night out is a tad pricier these days! Still laughing that when I met Soph at the station I thought I was being self-deprecating about my own lack of up to date fashion sense when I said I didn't know that jumpsuits come with pockets at the front these days – having then checked the neck label at her request, it turned out she did actually have her outfit on backwards!
H has been making the house niff of vinegar – J&R had much better luck than we did damson picking, so kindly dropped off a couple of whopper bags of purple berries. After a lot of stewing, de-stoning, adding ingredients, stirring, a tiny bit of unfortunate burning and some re-saucepanning, we now have several jars of what will hopefully be lovely damson chutney to go with cheese.
Pam a bit unimpressed by our pony house when she dropped by for a Sun eve sundowner..
And it was finally warm enough – ok with the help of a roaring wood burner – to sit in the bottom of the garden for a whole evening, H loves his sofa spot, with the dog curled up in what he calls 'the Daddy chair' between his legs. I got slightly spooked by crawling noises coming from the large gap down the side of the shed. H insisting it was our resident toad (fine by me), but me thinking it sounded a bit ratlike (less appealing!)
We seem to have a tentative plan to sleep in a tent in the garden tomorrow night – testing out a possible future camping expedition – so I'll have to put my ear plugs in or I'll be running back up to the house thinking about things that go bump in the night before midnight! Eeeeekkkkk…..
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