We didn't leave the house and garden, no not even once over the weekend

Well ... that was the plan, anyway.

In pursuance of that plan we went to the supermarket after I finished work on Friday. Because we had a load of money off vouchers, we went to Tesco. Only to find that they didn't have any wine.  Yes, OK - they did have wine, but not the wine that we prefer to drink. So we bought a little supply to see us through Friday evening.  I must say that I am getting more than a little irritated by Tesco. They always have irritated me a bit, but the irritations are getting worse.  We had to have each and every one of our money off vouchers approved, individually, when we went through the self service checkout machine. Two of our vouchers simply wouldn't work at all at the self service checkout machine (it was only later that I saw the tiny print that said you couldn't use them at the self service points). It was all quite a lot like hard work.  I am beginning to think that they may almost have irritated me to the point that we might not go there any more (once we have used up all the other vouchers we've got :-D ).

So that meant that we had to go out to Sainsbury's on Saturday to buy wine for the rest of the weekend. Fortunately, I had some wine vouchers! And fortunately, there was no real problem using my wine vouchers.  But this meant that we did have to leave the house and garden on Saturday.

On the way home we called into a recently opened "antiques" shop by the station.  We decided that we weren't much minded to spend £50 on a rusty tin bath for the ducks. If it had been £20 we would have been tempted, but not at that price!  It's a cute shop though. Like the Tardis, it is much, much bigger on the inside than it is on the outside and there are loads of rooms with loads of fun things in them.  There is also a little tea shop at the back.  Must try it out one day. But not today.  Now we are going home to pick up our plan of not leaving the house and garden for the whole of the weekend minus Saturday morning.

Then the doorbell rang.  It was Sarah, who moved in to #4 Queen Vic Road with her husband Phil three or four months ago.  They had been out and bought fireworks and wine and potatoes and meat and veg and were having a fireworks party that evening.  Would we like to go?  Debbie from next door was also going - but not Steve who had to go to work.

So we left the house and garden AGAIN at about 7:30 and wandered around to Sarah and Phil's place - to find not just Debbie there but also pretty much all of both Sarah's and Phil's families (apart from Sarah's dad who for reasons best known to himself lives in Mackay in Queensland).  So we drank wine and ate baked potatoes with meat and cheese and salad and went outside all wrapped up against the cool evening air (although mercifully it wasn't raining) and watched 15-20 minutes of fireworks and then everyone went back inside for cake and more wine but Debbie and The Builder and I went home.

It is probable that it might have been better if we hadn't decide to sit down in front of the telly with another glass of wine and for The Builder to watch the football show.  Largely because the next thing I knew was that something very odd but not football was on the telly, I hadn't drunk my wine - and it was 02:30!!! I shook The Builder awake and went belatedly to bed.

We didn't even manage not to leave the house and garden on Sunday! I spoke to Stella and Tony on Skype.  I spoke to Taffa and Cally on Skype. (I also later spoke to Freyja on Skype - but not to Austin). Then we got dressed and had breakfast and went out! But only as far as the allotment which *nearly* counts as part of the garden.  We did manage to stay at home for the rest of the day though. We had deconstructed chicken kievs for our Sunday lunch, with a three fruit crumble to follow (cherries, blackcurrants and apple). We watched telly and played with the ducks and chickens (who we had let out of their run for the afternoon) and generally mooched about.

So we didn't, at all, really, manage to fulfil the ambition of not leaving the house and garden, no not once over the weekend.  But it was a very pleasant weekend, filled with nice surprises, nice wine and a lot of rather nice food.  So not so bad, then.

Looking out of the bathroom window

Out exploring and munching on slugs and snails and tasty morsels