It’s not often that I write a diary entry for a blog post but today is an exception.
The weekend started at 4.15 on Friday with early getaway from school. I stopped off at M&S to buy food for the weekend where I chatted to a couple of friends I haven't seen for ages.
Tim was in Scotland and not due home until late evening so my first treat of the weekend, following some soup and a sandwich, was an early night – 8pm. I watched the television for a while but was asleep by about 8.15!!
We’d decided to spend Saturday catching up on some jobs around the house and garden. Just after lunch we went to Terry’s (Tim’s guitar teacher) allotment to pick damsons. We came home with the damsons but also green beans, Swiss chard, Bramley apples, blackberries and a cabbage! On the way home we popped into the supermarket for some preserving sugar and a nice bunch of flowers.
The flowers, with a chilled bottle of La Renaudie Fines Bulles Rose were for our neighbours Gill and Rory who’d invited us to a BBQ. Rhiannon called in for a chat so there was only just time to get ready - a last minute rush as usual to shower and get ourselves presentable!
The other guests were neighbours Bill, Jane, Chris and Alan. The food was wonderful. Jane had brought a delicious German apple cake, which, with gooseberry ice cream, was absolutely scrumptious! We reminisced and put the world to rights – as you do after a few drinks, however on this occasion I limited myself to a couple of small glasses of bubbles at the beginning of the evening. I needed to keep a clear head …
At 10.30 we thanked our hosts and made the long (about 50 metres) journey home. I had a very important rendezvous to keep.
I changed into my PJ’s, dressing gown, socks and walking boots and at 11pm set off for Stafford where I met with twelve colleagues, all dressed in similar attire, for a 10km midnight charity walk through the streets of Stafford in aid of Katharine House, a local hospice.
After a quick ‘zumba’ warm up session we set off. A big mistake was to start off at the back of the field of over 500 walkers which meant that we needed to weave our way through the hoards. This proved difficult as we were, for reasons of safety, confined to fairly narrow footpaths. The walk was an all female one, although the marshalls were mostly men. Corrie, Barbara and I formed a splinter group with Lizzie and Jenny, a couple of fantastic ex pupils. In ‘route march’ mode we soon moved through the field and finished in just under two hours, which considering it was dark and our slow start was pretty good.
We were met with cheers, a beautiful flower, hot bacon rolls and a drink. I was back home and in bed by 3am tired and with sore feet!
On Sunday morning I slept until about 8am and then embarked on what I hadn’t reckoned would be a marathon damson jam making session. I followed the recipe but it took until about 4pm to wash, make and bottle just 12 pots of damson and tawny port preserve!
Don’t ask…
Just time to make dinner and settle down to watch the closing ceremony for the Paralympics. Another fantastic experience. I thought the closing speeches were very emotional and a fitting end to our summer of sport
School work? No, none at all!
This was the first weekend of my new 'stepping back from work' regime. I’m exhausted but content …
