Feb - peace and quiet return for a while
I took the old Fiesta over to Carolyn's - free parking anyway. Got the paper chase underway for the log book to get it taxed. Went home on the bus and tube - with a flask of honey and lemon from Carolyn. Felt really awful with my cold and had another early night. Not much better on Friday - although went to the fitness class. We had internet problems so it was difficult to get stuff done that I needed to do. Didn't go ringing and had another early night dosed up. Went walking with Maryanne on Saturday 4th - she had had a cancellation so I filled in at short notice. We did a new walk from the Whip Inn near Princes Risborough. We had nice weather, after early rain, but it was very muddy underfoot. The pub did nice food although I felt the locals were giving Suki a long hard stare for being there. We had soup each and shared a calamari starter. Route card
In the afternoon the BT Openreach engineer came to fix the o2 broadband, which he did by changing the lines, and when he had left the BT phone line wasn't working. This proved a nightmare to resolve. O2 wouldn't do anything because there problem was fixed, and BT wanted to charge £129 to fix the problem as it involved the wiring in the house. Eventually Mike got DHL Head Office to intervene!!
Two days later I went walking again with Maryanne, Linda, John (with his dog), Alan and Mary. We redid the Bledlow walk from The Lions of Bledlow - the one where I had slipped and sprained my ankle last March. It was still very muddy in places - and poor Mary had forgotten her boots and was doing it in shoes! We tried to add on the extension this time, but when we got to a junction with a track we turned too far right and ended up going in the wrong direction, so back tracked and took the original route back to the pub. Route card. John and Linda went straight off, but the rest of us had a lovely lunch in The Lions.
Then on 18th I went walking with Steve and Mary starting in Abingdon. Maryanne was due to come but had by then succumbed to a nasty cold. I was almost better, but still had painful congested sinuses - something I have never suffered before. We again had beautiful weather and although it was a slightly longer walk at 7 miles, it was all flat so we were able to do it in just over 3 hours. Route card Had a super lunch afterwards at The Nags Head on Abingdon Bridge - I had rump steak on the rock.
Mike went to Bonn for 4 days on business and I had a nice quiet time to myself. I went out for lunch with Monica to the George and Devonshire as she had a two for one voucher. I also made a pie from leftover stuff - very old cooking apples going brown, remnants of morello cherry conserve, and some jusrol pastry. It was actually really nice and I lived on it for several days!
I made up the spare bed with the second set of bedding which Jayne had given me and it looked really nice and went well with the decor. It would also look nice with the cushions etc but I decided not to put them on as the next guests would be Lee and Emma with their jack russell terriers Neville and Beau.
While Mike was in Bonn an article about him, and his 1000th QP from a wheelchair, appeared in the Sunday Telegraph - and there followed a lot of media interest. At one point he was lined up to appear on The One Show but in the end that fizzled out because he was in Bonn.
Suki had her teeth cleaned and ended up having two of them out because she had ground them down so much. While she was under the anaesthetic she also had PRP treatment on her hips for her arthritis (very expensive!). She was very woozy for the rest of the day afterwards, but thereafter she has been bouncing around and even the stitches in her mouth didn't seem to bother her - although she had to eat only soft food for two weeks.
On 9th Feb I scored my 100th peal in hand for the Middlesex Association and the following day we finally scored the Cambridge Royal at Steve's - I was able to ring the trebles with Margaret on 3-4 and this worked much better.
We both went to the Barnes AGM on 11th Feb but we missed the dinner to go to a drinks and canapes party at Hampton Court House to celebrate Tim Evans' birthday. It was very enjoyable - there were enough people from Cantanti that I knew to chat to, and I was very relieved when Mike suggested leaving at around 10.15 when the dancing started downstairs.
In the afternoon the BT Openreach engineer came to fix the o2 broadband, which he did by changing the lines, and when he had left the BT phone line wasn't working. This proved a nightmare to resolve. O2 wouldn't do anything because there problem was fixed, and BT wanted to charge £129 to fix the problem as it involved the wiring in the house. Eventually Mike got DHL Head Office to intervene!!
Two days later I went walking again with Maryanne, Linda, John (with his dog), Alan and Mary. We redid the Bledlow walk from The Lions of Bledlow - the one where I had slipped and sprained my ankle last March. It was still very muddy in places - and poor Mary had forgotten her boots and was doing it in shoes! We tried to add on the extension this time, but when we got to a junction with a track we turned too far right and ended up going in the wrong direction, so back tracked and took the original route back to the pub. Route card. John and Linda went straight off, but the rest of us had a lovely lunch in The Lions.
Then on 18th I went walking with Steve and Mary starting in Abingdon. Maryanne was due to come but had by then succumbed to a nasty cold. I was almost better, but still had painful congested sinuses - something I have never suffered before. We again had beautiful weather and although it was a slightly longer walk at 7 miles, it was all flat so we were able to do it in just over 3 hours. Route card Had a super lunch afterwards at The Nags Head on Abingdon Bridge - I had rump steak on the rock.
Mike went to Bonn for 4 days on business and I had a nice quiet time to myself. I went out for lunch with Monica to the George and Devonshire as she had a two for one voucher. I also made a pie from leftover stuff - very old cooking apples going brown, remnants of morello cherry conserve, and some jusrol pastry. It was actually really nice and I lived on it for several days!
I made up the spare bed with the second set of bedding which Jayne had given me and it looked really nice and went well with the decor. It would also look nice with the cushions etc but I decided not to put them on as the next guests would be Lee and Emma with their jack russell terriers Neville and Beau.
While Mike was in Bonn an article about him, and his 1000th QP from a wheelchair, appeared in the Sunday Telegraph - and there followed a lot of media interest. At one point he was lined up to appear on The One Show but in the end that fizzled out because he was in Bonn.
Suki had her teeth cleaned and ended up having two of them out because she had ground them down so much. While she was under the anaesthetic she also had PRP treatment on her hips for her arthritis (very expensive!). She was very woozy for the rest of the day afterwards, but thereafter she has been bouncing around and even the stitches in her mouth didn't seem to bother her - although she had to eat only soft food for two weeks.
On 9th Feb I scored my 100th peal in hand for the Middlesex Association and the following day we finally scored the Cambridge Royal at Steve's - I was able to ring the trebles with Margaret on 3-4 and this worked much better.
We both went to the Barnes AGM on 11th Feb but we missed the dinner to go to a drinks and canapes party at Hampton Court House to celebrate Tim Evans' birthday. It was very enjoyable - there were enough people from Cantanti that I knew to chat to, and I was very relieved when Mike suggested leaving at around 10.15 when the dancing started downstairs.
