Weekend Report

We went to Whiteley this weekend, to visit Jeanette and Matthew, to inspect their new house and generally to potter about and catch up with family. We went down after work on Friday, had a surprisingly good run down and arrived at about 10:30

The house is a Georgian style new build on an estate just outside of Whiteley , which is about 15 km from Portsmouth. It's a nice house, 3 storeys with a little garden and in a very quiet area. Matt has been digging the garden. It was almost as overgrown as the allotment, by the look of the pictures!

Saturday dawned as a rather pleasant day. By the afternoon it was positively glorious. In fact, we've been having some truly lovely weather these last few days. It's been autumnal in the early mornings (quite foggy today!) and cool in the evenings, but the middle of the day has been warm and sunny and very pleasant indeed. Anyway. Back to Saturday. We ambled off to the Whiteley Outlet Shopping Centre and pottered about in the shops. There was a food market in the courtyard. I bought a little bay tree. And some coasters. A few stickers. A couple of cards. But no food!!! Truly, no food at all. Jeanette and Matt bought some sausages and burgers at one stall, but I bought nothing! Very restrained of me. I might have bought a vegetable box, but they didn't have any you could take away. They were perfectly happy for me to reserve one and pick it up at the end of the day, say around 5:00. But who knew where we might be by then, so I didn't. I think it's the first time in recorded history that I've been to a food market and not bought anything!!!

By 5:00, in fact, we were away down in and around Portsmouth. We took all of the weeds that Matt had dug up on a scenic drive to the tip. We abandoned the weeds at the tip. While we were waiting for it to be our turn, Rebecca teased all my hair up into spikes and made me look very scary! We drove up Port Down to admire the view (and very spectacular the view is) and the old forts. We went and played in B&Q, and finally managed to buy a 2 for the house. We went back to the house and drank wine and Matt and The Builder plotted what might happen in the newly dug garden. And then plotted some more. And perhaps a wee bit more. Then Matt got to barbecue our dinner. In the dark. By candlelight! They need a lamp like then one in our garden!

Sunday was a beautiful day. The Builder and I took ourselves off mid-morning to drive to Salisbury to collect his parents. They haven't seen Jeanette and Matthew's new house. Fortunately the weather was absolutely perfect. Mick, The Builder's dad, has unpleasant emphysema and can't go out if the weather is too hot, too cold or too humid. On Sunday morning it was ideal. We had roast chicken for lunch. With baby potatoes and savoy cabbage and broccoli and cauli and carrot and swede mash. And stuffing! (We had forgotten to buy the stuffing on Saturday, despite passing many supermarkets and grocery shops in our travels and despite regular mutual reminders. We had an apple strudel for dessert and then all repaired upstairs to the lounge room (kitchen dining/spare room, cloakroom on ground floor, lounge and bedroom on second, two bedrooms, a bathroom and an en suite on the third) for as bit until we drove The Builder's parents home again. It was a lovely weekend. And very nice to be able to take Gwen and Mick to visit Jeanette, Matthew and Rebecca.

And so home. Trundle, trundle, trundle. Up the Fosse Way. For reasons best known to himself, The Builder randomly decided to turn off the Fosse Way and head towards the M42. NO real problem. You can get to our place that way, it's just not quite as direct as straight up the Fosse Way to Leicester and onto the M1. And the M42 tends to be a bit on the busy side. But no worries. We got to the M1 eventually. And ground immediately to a complete halt. There were 6 miles of stationary traffic! Hmm. We inched our way ever so slowly to the next exit and came off. No worries. We'll head down this here A50 until we get to the A38 which will also take us straight home. AS it would have done. Except that the exit onto the A38 was closed :( Back we tracked along the A50 and headed up through Derby, eventually finding the A38 and heading home. Got there about 9:00, having left Salisbury at 5. So not too bad a run then, despite the occasional hold up and the standstill on the M1.

When we had left on Friday evening, we had had a long discussion about whether to lock the cat in the house. Eventually we decided not to, and left the cat flap open. We got back – and there was no sign of the cat anywhere. He’d eaten some but not all of his wet food. He hadn’t touched his biscuits. He’d used his litter tray but only once. Gloom. We headed out hunting, torch in paw. No sign. Bigger gloom. We’ve lost the cat. Aaaargh! I’ll be in awful trouble. We went to bed, catless, but leaving the dining room window open. And lo, when we woke up, the cat was asleep on his cushion. He'd scoffed all the food I'd put out at bedtime. He then scoffed all his breakfast. Then he went to sleep on our bed and didn't even move when I straightened the doone. Now I come to think about it, I have seen the cat going out through the cat flap, if somewhat gingerly, but I have only ever seen him come back in through it if I have been stood on the inside shaking a box of cat treats. It looks as though he had been outside all weekend. The Builder thinks that he might be finding it difficult to get back in because it’s quite a step up from the ground to the cat flap. Come to that, it’s quite a step up for me if my knee is playing up. The Builder thinks he might make a step by the back door. But at least we know that the cat knows where he lives!

We had the most spectacular thunderstorm last night. Sheet lightning that lit up the sky like daylight.

I have to do a course!!!!! It starts in ten minutes. Three days this week, then half a day a week throughout this academic year. Post Grad Certificate in Teaching and Learning. Gulp! Qualifies me to be a University Lecturer, should I be minded. Off I go!