What I did on my Summer Holidays - Week One

I knew my two week summer break was going to be different this year because we now have the shop and Robert couldn't take any time off so I would be spending most of it on my own, but I was still looking forward to it.  Doing my own thing, driving around in my lovely little car with the roof down as the weather was being so good.

So just how wrong do you think I could be?  On my first day off I was driving to my dad's house I stopped behind a car who had come to a halt to let someone out of a side road.  The person driving the car behind me didn't stop and ran into the back of me. They damaged my precious and later that day I found out they'd damaged me in the form of a touch of whiplash.  Plan 1 and plan 2 out of the window.  Plan 2 had been to get back to the gym and do some swimming every day as I hadn't been for a few months and thought I would take this time off to get back into the habit.

OK, so not a lot of damage but it still meant being without my precious for a week.

On Monday, I had to attend a speed awareness course because a mean policeman had said I had been naughty and broken the speed limit.  He was actually correct, I had been driving over the limit, which is not something I normally do in town, especially on that road as I know they often patrol it with mobile cameras.  In my very shaky defence I would like to state that it was Robert's fault that I was speeding.  A few weeks earlier, I had got home from work on a Friday evening after having already done several errands on the way, and was starting to pack as I was going away for the weekend.  I had to iron some clothes so put the iron on and then couldn't understand why it wasn't ironing as well as it normally does.  When I looked at it more closely I could see that it was cracked and broken at one side and the foot plate was loose. I was in the house on my own, so I texted the two likely culprits and asked them who had broken the iron.  Robert replied that he had broken it three weeks ago, but it was still working and as I hardly ever do any ironing, he didn't tell me.  I mean, fair play to him for doing most of my ironing, but at that moment, when I needed it, it wasn't working and it was - in my opinion - his fault.  So I had to get into town and buy a new iron before the shops closed, which is why in my angry and rushed state I was going faster than I should have been.

The course itself was quite interesting, but it was a very hot stuffy day and I had painful whiplash, so I wasn't a very happy bunny at the end of it.

On Tuesday, when the weather was still glorious, I had to spend my time waiting in the house for the garage to come and pick up my car to repair and for the courtesy car to be dropped off, so that was a waste of a day, and now I had to drive around in a little Vauxhall Corsa instead of my lovely convertible precious.

Wednesday was an ok day as Katy and I went shopping so that I could buy her a new dress for the formal dance at this year's EFY.  I also wanted to buy a present for Bekah's baby, and we had fun going "Oo" and "aah" over all the cute baby clothes and toys, although I didn't end up buying anything as I had something in mind and couldn't find the perfect version of it.

Thursday was Robert's birthday.  He had to work in the shop, but Katy and I went over for the afternoon and then had dinner at the restaurant next to the shop which was delicious.

My yummy dinner.  Well...everyone photographs their meals these days don't they?

For the evening entertainment, we went to see Evita at the Lowry theatre in Manchester.  I had seen this advertised in January and thought it was perfect timing that it was in Manchester on Robert's birthday, so I bought the tickets and had kept it a secret until he opened his card that morning.

Marty Pellow was playing the part of Che and he was pretty good.  Don't know the other two leads playing Eva Peron and her hubby, but they were also very good.  Really enjoyed the performance despite getting hotter and hotter in the theatre as the evening wore on, and the programme was too heavy to use as a fan, even though Katy did a good job with it.

Along with what I was up to this week, there was also a trip planned for my dad to go down to London with Bekah and Kirsty and to meet up with Kim there and to take my dad to see some of the things he never got to see when he lived there as a child.

Kirsty, dad, Kim, Bekah

All was going well, but on Thursday Bekah had texted me to tell me that she was feeling particularly unwell with the baby sickness and had nearly fainted in the street that morning.  As a mum and a daughter this worried me as Kirsty had come home due to work commitments so my 86 year old dad was left to deal with an unwell pregnant granddaughter.  I talked to Robert and we decided it would be a good idea if I went down and spent the rest of the week with them in case either of them needed anything.  Bought the train ticket late on Thursday night and hot footed it down to London in the morning.  Bekah then asked if I'd mind if she went home as she really wasn't feeling well, so this left me and my dad together in London.  We took a lovely leisurely stroll along the South bank and saw some clever (although perhaps also a little mental considering the temperature) guys doing sand sculptures.

Dad preferred this one because he could see what it actually was

We stopped at the book market for a good rummage and dad bought two books.

You've got to wonder what this is all about.

Then we carried on our wander back up Whitehall to Trafalgar Square and sat down for a while doing some people watching.  As we passed the end of Downing Street dad asked "so this is where that man on a bike got into trouble?"

Current fourth plinth sculpture

Dad had decided that actually he thought he had seen everything he wanted to see and asked if I minded if we went home on Saturday instead of Sunday, so I ended up being away for less than 24 hours.  Still good to go and I got to catch up with Kim on Friday evening at dinner.

At Euston station, waiting for the train home

So that was the end of my first week.  Only one of the things I had planned for the week actually happened but there you go.  Life happens.