Peace and quiet

This week has been one of those weeks where everyone is in and out. That is everyone but me of course - I have been the constant presence while the rest of them have flitted in and out. It's also been one of those weeks where the weather has shown itself in all its British glory - I'm very close to putting the heating one despite the fact that it's August. Having had the hottest April on record, we have been on track this weekend to have the coldest August Bank Holiday - not what we all wanted. It's been a good 5 degrees below the normal average and we've had enough. What's worse is every so often the sun does come out and we boil as we are wrapped up in jumpers! 

So to kick off with where everyone has been, Glenn had his cycling trip. What should have been a gorious week of mountains and smooth tarmac was instead 3 nights in Yorkshire on English tarmac (aka poor man's cobbles). It should have been 4 nights but the forecast was so bad for Friday they came home early. This meant that I was left to do a full day's work, walk Bertie, do the other household chores and then be expected also to put tea on the table. Despite agreeing a menu with the kids I had zero enthusiasm and Monday's Mac Cheese with bacon and brocolli was given reasonable reviews "tastes like really good prison food". Tuesday Abi took one look at what was on offer and went to Mia's for tea and so I capitulated and Izzy had chicken nuggets and I had poached eggs on toast. Wednesday I managed to russell up a half passsable spag bol but by that point I had really had enough. Thank goodness Glenn decided to come home on Thursday otherwise we'd have been eating ready meals. 

So as Glenn came in one door on Thursday, Izzy headed out the other. Kerrie and Ryan had been in London over night for her hospital appointment (all done - fingers crossed this is the start of the next phase for them!!) so they were picking Izzy up on the way through to take her to Amanda's for a few nights. Kerrie arrived much later than expected (she'd had a very long day but had been fed well!) so it was 7pm before they left. We then had 24 hours before Abi left for Devon, at which point we got 36 hours of peace and quiet all to ourselves - result! Amongst other activities in our litte staycation mini break we managed to get down to see Mum and Dad. We went on the bike and took the scenic route down. The origonal plan was to stop somewhere for a cup of tea on the way but somehow Glenn never quite worked out where so finally stopped when we were about 20 mins from their house by which time it was a bit pointless! It was lovely to see them and the house has come on so well - it is looking fabulous inside and out. 

The trip home was as busy as you might expect on a bank holiday Saturday on the A303. Luckily we had Glenn's amazing (slightly scary in places) ability to weave through the miles of stationary traffic so we made light work of it and came home with knees and wing mirrors in tact. This morning the peace ended with Izzy arriving home on the train with Ben and Laurie. We had to pick up Izzy's new school shoes which resulted ion her taking the boys into TK Maxx and Laurie having his first experience of rummaging through the rails looking for bargains. He did very well - he managed to find a pair of jeans, 3 t-shirts and 2 sweatshirts. Between that and Izzy's little haul I came out a fair bit lighter cash wise but they were happy - Laurie even did us a little fashion show!