March - Easter 2016
At the beginning of the month it was Carolyn's birthday and we all met up for dinner at a pub/restaurant in Kennington. We were booked in for 5 pm as we had been told that we would have to leave by 7 as we had children with us, but actually they let us stay as long as we wanted. We all met at Carolyn's flat first and then travelled together. Mike couldn't make it as he was out ringing all day and couldn't get back for the early eating time. We had a great evening and I had a really lovely steak. Carolyn and I did a lot of laughing! I had found the instructions for building the shed - which Carolyn had annotated as we had built it - and we howled with laughter all over again when we read it out.
Mike and I went to lunch at the Leander Club on 20th March to celebrate Ian Schofield's 60th birthday - interestingly it was exactly the same attendees who had done the same to celebrate his 50th which was rather neat. It was a lovely meal in very pleasant surroundings.
I did quite a lot of walking with Maryanne this month - on 8th March went out with her and Alan and Mary and did a walk starting at Ashridge Estate and which crosses a lot of the Wormsley Estate, which is owned by the Gettys. It was one we had done before and spent some time trying to find the path on the other side of the golf course - we got it right this time.
On 15th March we did a walk at Turville Heath - which was a really good one although the car park at the start was a bit obscure and small.
And we walked again at the end of the month - see below for the disastrous outcome!
I rang quite a lot of handbells in the month but only scored one peal - for ANZAB! We had a couple of goes at the 41 minor again with Tim when we were in Devon but didn't get a peal - just a QP of the Cambridge/Carlisle 23.
I went to several concerts in which Mike was singing. Monteverdi Vespers by Goldsmiths (Mike had joined for the term), Cantanti's Just A Song at Twilight, and Chiswick Choir's Elgar's Spirit of England and Vaughan-Williams Sancta Civitas.
I continued with my Zumba and Forever Fit classes twice a week too.
Easter was early this year and Mike and I went down to Devon for the week. I had a lovely week and did a lot of handbell ringing and walking. Good Friday was an absolutely beautiful warm sunny day and I had a lovely walk in Yarner Wood that morning which was a brilliant decision as I didn’t see a soul whereas I expect Hay Tor was swarming judging by the number of cars going up the Hay Tor road. Mike went on the Walk of Witness - I dropped him off by the swimming pool on my way up.
By contrast Storm Katie hit that evening and Saturday was awful – heavy rain, grey and cold. I was supposed to go down to St Endellion in Cornwall with Mike and was going to walk while he attended a music festival, but I chickened out as it was so wet and spent the day cross stitching instead! (Nice!!)
We had Mike’s mum for lunch on Easter Day – which was nearly a disaster. I got back from Church, prepared the chicken and put it in the oven, had a coffee and then went off to get Mary – turning the oven on as I left. I took Suki with me as she had been on her own for a while. Mary was having coffee when I arrived, so we sat and waited for her to finish. When we got home I turned the veg on and got the Christmas pudding steaming and then we sat in the lounge for a while until I decided the veg would be nearly done and I would make some cheese sauce for the cauliflower. When I checked the oven it was barely warm, and although it was lit it was on so low it wouldn't even warm the pot! I turned it up to 9 but it made no difference. Disaster. The chicken was stone cold. Luckily I had taken the George Foreman Grilling Machine down with me, so Mike hacked the chicken up and I grilled the two breasts for me and Mary and a leg for Mike. It looked a bit surreal on the plate but it was tasty enough, and the veg were nice – luckily I had decided not to have roast potatoes. The pudding (with Cointreau) was excellent and we had homemade brandy butter on top. We had coffee afterwards and a cherry liqueur chocolate and so all ended well thank goodness.
We got back on the Tuesday afternoon and on Wednesday 30th March I went walking with Maryanne - Bledlow. This is when disaster really did strike. We met at the pub in Bledlow – the car park filled up rapidly with a ramblers group but we got away first which I was pleased about as I hoped this meant we would be first back and thus first with our lunch order. It was extremely muddy underfoot. Suki excelled herself by poohing twice before we got to the first field so I had to pick it up! At the kissing gate after the first field we stopped and debated whether to wade through the deep water and mud in the gateway or try and get round it. I saw that the ditch under the hedge was very full of water and thought I could sink the two bags of pooh and the bags would biodegrade by the time the water subsided. I looked round to see if anyone was coming – my feet started sliding in the mud and then I landed in the mud with my right leg twisting awkwardly and heard a loud snap followed by a lot of pain in my ankle. My brand new (£200) coat and my waterproof trousers were smothered in mud and I was in a lot of pain. Maryanne dragged me out of the mud and after a while I stood up. I carried on for a couple of fields to see if I could walk through it – but when I tried to scrape my foot sideways to get the mud off I nearly fell over again the pain in my knee was so bad, and it was soon clear that my ankle was not going to ease off, so we turned round and went back to the cars – passing the ramblers! We had a coffee in the pub and then I drove home before my leg stiffened up. Driving was ok provided I was careful when transferring between the pedals – luckily I could press down enough to brake. I sat with my foot up when I got in. Later in the evening Lorraine rang and said she would come home from Carolyn's and run me to the hospital. We went to Hammersmith Hospital UCC at 9.30 - at least we were able to park outside on the road at that time. It was very quiet – only about 3 people around – but it still took about 2 hours to get through the process. The x-ray was inconclusive – with the Doctor humming and hahing about whether it was broken or not. In the end she decided it wasn't, although she would know for sure in 5 days when the radiologist reported. Meantime she gave me some crutches and referred me to the soft tissue injury management clinic - my appointment was for 29th April!! Luckily Mike was free that evening and the next evening so he replaced me in the two handbell peal attempts I had arranged. They were unsuccessful with the first one - Lincolnshire - but did ring a QP of it which was dedicated to my recovery, and the next evening they were going well with St Clements Major when it got dark and they realised they hadn't put the lights on!
I used the crutches for a couple of days, moving from two to one after a day, but ditched them in favour of hobbling on the Saturday because I was going to Majorca and didn’t want to take them on the plane. Mary very kindly gave me some exercises to do and this gave me something to focus on and something positive to do to aid recovery.
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| A lovely steak! |
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| Family group - trust the birthday girl to be hiding! |
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| A surprise cake! |
I did quite a lot of walking with Maryanne this month - on 8th March went out with her and Alan and Mary and did a walk starting at Ashridge Estate and which crosses a lot of the Wormsley Estate, which is owned by the Gettys. It was one we had done before and spent some time trying to find the path on the other side of the golf course - we got it right this time.
On 15th March we did a walk at Turville Heath - which was a really good one although the car park at the start was a bit obscure and small.
And we walked again at the end of the month - see below for the disastrous outcome!
I rang quite a lot of handbells in the month but only scored one peal - for ANZAB! We had a couple of goes at the 41 minor again with Tim when we were in Devon but didn't get a peal - just a QP of the Cambridge/Carlisle 23.
I went to several concerts in which Mike was singing. Monteverdi Vespers by Goldsmiths (Mike had joined for the term), Cantanti's Just A Song at Twilight, and Chiswick Choir's Elgar's Spirit of England and Vaughan-Williams Sancta Civitas.
I continued with my Zumba and Forever Fit classes twice a week too.
Easter was early this year and Mike and I went down to Devon for the week. I had a lovely week and did a lot of handbell ringing and walking. Good Friday was an absolutely beautiful warm sunny day and I had a lovely walk in Yarner Wood that morning which was a brilliant decision as I didn’t see a soul whereas I expect Hay Tor was swarming judging by the number of cars going up the Hay Tor road. Mike went on the Walk of Witness - I dropped him off by the swimming pool on my way up.
By contrast Storm Katie hit that evening and Saturday was awful – heavy rain, grey and cold. I was supposed to go down to St Endellion in Cornwall with Mike and was going to walk while he attended a music festival, but I chickened out as it was so wet and spent the day cross stitching instead! (Nice!!)
We had Mike’s mum for lunch on Easter Day – which was nearly a disaster. I got back from Church, prepared the chicken and put it in the oven, had a coffee and then went off to get Mary – turning the oven on as I left. I took Suki with me as she had been on her own for a while. Mary was having coffee when I arrived, so we sat and waited for her to finish. When we got home I turned the veg on and got the Christmas pudding steaming and then we sat in the lounge for a while until I decided the veg would be nearly done and I would make some cheese sauce for the cauliflower. When I checked the oven it was barely warm, and although it was lit it was on so low it wouldn't even warm the pot! I turned it up to 9 but it made no difference. Disaster. The chicken was stone cold. Luckily I had taken the George Foreman Grilling Machine down with me, so Mike hacked the chicken up and I grilled the two breasts for me and Mary and a leg for Mike. It looked a bit surreal on the plate but it was tasty enough, and the veg were nice – luckily I had decided not to have roast potatoes. The pudding (with Cointreau) was excellent and we had homemade brandy butter on top. We had coffee afterwards and a cherry liqueur chocolate and so all ended well thank goodness.
We got back on the Tuesday afternoon and on Wednesday 30th March I went walking with Maryanne - Bledlow. This is when disaster really did strike. We met at the pub in Bledlow – the car park filled up rapidly with a ramblers group but we got away first which I was pleased about as I hoped this meant we would be first back and thus first with our lunch order. It was extremely muddy underfoot. Suki excelled herself by poohing twice before we got to the first field so I had to pick it up! At the kissing gate after the first field we stopped and debated whether to wade through the deep water and mud in the gateway or try and get round it. I saw that the ditch under the hedge was very full of water and thought I could sink the two bags of pooh and the bags would biodegrade by the time the water subsided. I looked round to see if anyone was coming – my feet started sliding in the mud and then I landed in the mud with my right leg twisting awkwardly and heard a loud snap followed by a lot of pain in my ankle. My brand new (£200) coat and my waterproof trousers were smothered in mud and I was in a lot of pain. Maryanne dragged me out of the mud and after a while I stood up. I carried on for a couple of fields to see if I could walk through it – but when I tried to scrape my foot sideways to get the mud off I nearly fell over again the pain in my knee was so bad, and it was soon clear that my ankle was not going to ease off, so we turned round and went back to the cars – passing the ramblers! We had a coffee in the pub and then I drove home before my leg stiffened up. Driving was ok provided I was careful when transferring between the pedals – luckily I could press down enough to brake. I sat with my foot up when I got in. Later in the evening Lorraine rang and said she would come home from Carolyn's and run me to the hospital. We went to Hammersmith Hospital UCC at 9.30 - at least we were able to park outside on the road at that time. It was very quiet – only about 3 people around – but it still took about 2 hours to get through the process. The x-ray was inconclusive – with the Doctor humming and hahing about whether it was broken or not. In the end she decided it wasn't, although she would know for sure in 5 days when the radiologist reported. Meantime she gave me some crutches and referred me to the soft tissue injury management clinic - my appointment was for 29th April!! Luckily Mike was free that evening and the next evening so he replaced me in the two handbell peal attempts I had arranged. They were unsuccessful with the first one - Lincolnshire - but did ring a QP of it which was dedicated to my recovery, and the next evening they were going well with St Clements Major when it got dark and they realised they hadn't put the lights on!
I used the crutches for a couple of days, moving from two to one after a day, but ditched them in favour of hobbling on the Saturday because I was going to Majorca and didn’t want to take them on the plane. Mary very kindly gave me some exercises to do and this gave me something to focus on and something positive to do to aid recovery.
