I’ve been sitting here all day – Sleeping.
The chance would be a fine thing. I like being busy but when I can see that the next time, I will have an hour to do absolutely nothing is two full days away then perhaps I have too much in my schedule. Our calendar is always full. I have now taken to block out times when I need to get big jobs done at home.
For instance, I knew that I wanted to leave the lawns cut and the apply the feed and weed before we left, so that it would work its magic whilst we were away. I then had to factor the weather in as well. Therefore, I planned to and did manage to cut the lawns on Tuesday morning and the applied the feed/weed on Saturday morning. Now of course it wouldn’t really have mattered if I didn’t manage to complete either or both, but it is satisfying that I did.
I am probably weird that I have all this stuff whirling around scheduling itself in my head constantly but I do. Karen calls this very weird. I knew that the only time I would have to pack would be Saturday afternoon and so that is what I did.
Karen also knows what she has to do by when. But unlike me doesn’t operate a scheduling device in her head. As a consequence, the closer we get to departing the more the stress kicks in, as she starts to run out of time every time. This manifest normally in quite a lot of shouting happening in our house. Mainly in that everything in the world becomes my fault. I think some of it comes from being frustrated with me in that I seem to have found time to do everything, whereas in reality I have just planned my time better and not left things to the last minute.
Admittedly she does still have an awful lot on her plate. Working as I remind her is her own choice, but that can be factored in. Being primary Carer for her Mum whilst we are at home is exhausting for her. There have been a number of ‘Mum incidents’ that she has been called to deal with over the past few weeks. She also feels that she should go and see her every day to check up on her regardless and to make sure she has done the exercises to try and keep her mobile of sorts. She does find the responsibility draining.
Anyhow enough about the day-to-day routine stuff. We have also done some really good things since returning from Paris. We had a weekend in London, our first since the Lockdowns. We finally got to use the voucher I bought Karen for Christmas 2019 and went on the London Eye and then our first boat cruise down the Thames. They were both jolly good and interesting. London itself was heaving with people. It was a glorious day and it seemed that other tourists like ourselves were out in force. We ended the evening seeing the musical ‘Come From Away’ about the planes and passengers diverted to Gander on 9/11. It was astonishingly good. The following morning, we went to Braintree Shopping Outlets on the way home.
The Local Theatre scene has kept us busy also and we have seen some great performances in the past few weeks. ‘Everyone’s talking about Jamie’ changed my views on Drag Queens (I was strangely frightened or disconcerted about them before). ‘School of Rock’ was much better than we were anticipating, and the version of ‘Romeo & Juliet’ set in Norfolk we watched at the Maddermarket blew us away. Not only did I completely get the story, but I laughed at all the jokes – normally Shakespeare goes over my head.
I also saw ‘Fascinating Aida’ live at the Theatre. This was so rude especially with the language coming from 3 ‘older’ ladies, but incredibly well performed and extremely funny.
We also had a weekend in Blythburgh kindly hosted by Graham & Jo in the second home. We explored Orford Ness and Southwold together and had a great time. It reminded me that all of Suffolk should not be ‘tarred’ with the Ipswich brush.
I had a good day out with the boys going to Brighton for the away match with them. The only disappointment being that we didn’t manage a single shot on target, and the point we got from the draw is probably too little too late. Whilst we were out for the day, Karen went shopping and for lunch with Ellie which meant a lot to her as she enjoyed the chance to shop with someone other than me for a change.
I played some more Golf (and appeared on Look East doing so – I am far too modest to talk about it, but it surprised me as well!). I do enjoy the playing and equally the socialising during and afterwards. I can see some minor improvement in my game but I remain consistently inconsistent.
Karen has had work coming out of her ears. She still finds it difficult to say No to a school she likes. Which is good for her bank balance but not for her supposed winding down to retirement.
And so, to this trip of 18 days to Florida. Whilst we are pleased to be going back, the trip came about by almost necessity. The villa we have booked has had to be rescheduled 4 times already and these were the only free dates available this year. As the owner has our considerable deposit and been helpful when we had to cancel despite the booking terms and conditions, we just felt obliged to take the booking. Ironically the villa is the largest we have ever booked as originally, we thought there would be five of us. But never mind we didn’t want to waste the money we had already paid. We also had a voucher from BA for the flights that needed to be used with an imminent expiry date. As a bonus though, Graham & Jo are flying out to join us after 10 days as a start to their trip to Florida, so we won’t be alone all the time.
This is also planned to be a Disney free trip as we have already got booked another trip here in October this time with the boys and Ellie when no doubt I will ‘dragged’ around the theme parks then. We still have an interesting schedule planned. I do wish though that Barry, Ellie & Neil were coming this time with us as well though.
