Skip to main content

Happy birthday Glenn!

It's been a weekend of celebrations which have spilled into this week and carry on for another little while yet, all to mark Glenn's big 50. It's fair to say none of us feel like he should be 50 - surely that's the age old people were when we were young, but if it's true then let's make the most of it. The party started on Saturday afternoon when friends started to arrive for his birthday bash at the local pub. We had 30 friends from all over come and join us for a lovely evening of food, wine and music from the last 5 decades, all courtesy of Glenn's play list. This meant quite a lot of reminiscing. Not just from him but everyone else. We rolled home just before 2am having had an amazing evening. Given the abstention on my part of late on the alcohol front I decided to drive in the end, proving to myself I definitely don't need to have a drink to have fun. It also meant I was hangover free on Sunday morning, a good job as someone had to walk the dogs and amuse the girls. Glenn on the other hand might have polished off quite a lot of Prosecco, white wine and then at least half a bottle of port (the other half enjoyed by George) and had a slightly fuzzy head in the morning. He went to bed as chatty as anything stating 'I don't think I'll even have a headache in the morning...', only to wake in the morning with the statement 'I think there's an elephant on my head, I don't remember going to bed...!' A full English and a lie down in front of moto GP finally addressed that.

Yesterday afternoon Glenn headed into London, leaving the girls in the safe hands of Nanny Di and
we had another amazing evening, this time a room on the 50th floor of The Shard and dinner at a
Michelin starred restaurant, Hakkasan. The Shard was just incredible - views all the way across London, the highest bar in the city and prices to match. You only celebrate being 50 once though so all worth it. We had a lie in this morning, a rare event indeed, and then wandered over to Covent Garden for brunch and more cake (I might have mentioned it was his birthday), before catching the train home.

Being home on a Tuesday meant that I could go and cheer from the sidelines of a school match - almost unheard of for me. Izzy was playing Hockey away and Abi at home. In St Gabriels match seemed a bit uncoordinated but this was a bit different. The girls came out playing well and once they hit into the swing of things it actually looked like a proper game of hockey. Abi was a bit hesitant at first but then scored the first goal for her team (cue huge shouts from us) and was away. She played really well and was awarded Man of the Match - very proud Mum and Dad! Izzy's afternoon was more coaching in nature but she loved the trip out in the mini bus, a chance to visit another school
and learn some new skills. Oh and of course, the match tea!


Both girls have taken to Thorngrove brilliantly. Today watching Abi on the field being congratulated with hugs from her team mates was just lovely, and watching Izzy coming out of her class, laughing and chatting with her new friend Effie as though they've known each other for years - it feels like we made the right decision. They are full of positive comments about the school, teachers and their class mates. Abi has already been off to see new friends last weekend, Izzy is doing the same next - I think it's all going to be just fine.

With all this coming and going we've been trying to find somewhere where Bertie can go when we are away. This hasn't proved easy as we started looking for someone to have both of them which limits the options. In the end we decided Scooby is best with Di, so it's just Bertie. We mentioned it toa friend who lives in the village and she recommended a family who live in a neighbouring village.
We went to have a look and immediately knew it was right - what a relief! So off went Bertie for his
first sleep over and he loved it - another problem sorted locally. I love living here.

So, a few days respite and then this weekend we have tickets for Madness at Newbury Races with George and Deb, life clearly starts at 50!


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Busy, busy, busy

Full English brunch for these two! Life is VERY busy and I don't feel like we have stopped for weeks (or is that months?) It seems like the 'to-do' list is endless and while I know we don't have to do it all at once, I have taken on the unenviable task of trying to get the Muppet to finish all the work he promised / we have paid for and that has been like pushing a mountain of water up a very steep hill. We've got to the point where I think we have got all of what we are likely to get and the rest we'd rather finish ourselves anyway. The electric gates are clearly a work of his imagination based on the gates / the electric cables he spec'd and the cheapo motor mechanism - there is no way they'll work so we have decided to not bother and source proper gates that do the job and look better as well. Knowing that we are almost at a point where we sever the ties feels very liberating. Looking back this last 6 months has been incredibly stressful and just didn...

Decluttering

Girls buying baby clothes - this could get addictive! It's Easter weekend already and we still haven't completed!! However we have made some progress, most importantly with the paperwork which has not been Steve the Builder's forte throughout this process. Stags finally got their act together and got in touch with the planning office and got an update from the Planning Officer. Apparently she is broadly happy with the application, and is prepared to pass it with only a few minor modifications which we are completely comfortable with. The Building Control Officer also came and did all of what he needed to, which means the final certificate should be issued which allows the warranty to also be issued. On our side we finally tracked down the paperwork (or more correctly got the BC Officer to come out again and do a second assessment) for the outstanding BCC on our windows (which went in 6 years ago but due to an admin error were never registered) - nothing is straightforward i...

Bank Holiday sunshine

Off to meet FiFi and Grumps for a walk  (and yes, she is on the seat) Finally after weeks of rain and cold weather, the tide has turned and we have glorious sunshine for the bank holiday weekend and half term - hooray, it's about time.  Also just in time is half term as the kids were definitely ready for a break. They have both done brilliantly settling into the school, making new friends and finding their feet in an unfamiliar environment. Izzy has just had her exam week and felt it went OK given she hadn't covered all of the syllabus, and Abi's exams start as soon as she is back next week. I hope she's done some revision as she left for Devon with Claire, Adam and Mia today and isn't back until Saturday. There is talk of looking at some of her notes but who knows. My view is that a bit of R&R will probably be at least as beneficial if not more so than cramming all week so she should take the time to relax and have some fun - she deserves it. So we packed Abi o...