Since starting his studying for the priesthood, my husband and I have had very little quality time together. So we decided that once a week on our day off, we would go out for the day and do something different from the normal everyday stuff.
Today is the first of these days, we also decided that one or other of us would choose where we were going as a surprise to the other. My husband chose today's place which turned out to be Gilbert Whites house in Selbourne, Hampshire.
It took a while to get to it and from the outside it looked like any of the other houses along the road! Once inside however you could see how much land there was at the back!
We wandered around the rooms looking at the displays, upstairs is also a large room dedicated to Captain Lawrence Oates, the Antarctic explorer who famously said "I am going outside, I may be some time" as he walked to his death in a vain attempt to save his fellow explorers.
Gilbert White was a priest and naturalist who was the first person to record in detail much of the natural history of the English countryside. Once we had walked around the inside of his house we had a cream tea in the tearoom before heading out into his gardens, which were amazing! we spent a long time walking around the acres of gardens and wild areas, and saw lots of birds and insects. As we were almost back at the house we found a labyrinth, well of course we had to walk it. My husband told me about them as I literally walked in his footsteps around it.
We had a really relaxed day together and both enjoyed it, roll on next weeks day together!
This morning I got Flower up for school as usual, we always have her over on a Monday night, and then once she had been picked up I went quickly to get some shopping before going to her school to watch the sports day. It was very warm and all the children had a sports bottle full of water with them. Flower was in the Yellow team so I together with her mum Sam, had put yellow tee shirts on i support. Go Yellows!! There were loads of races for all the year groups, Flower did her first race which was the obstacle race, Sam and I went to the finish line so that we could get photos, she did really well and came second. Then came her second race which was the "egg and spoon" race, well what can I say!!..... she pretty much ran with it, she didn't drop it once and as she crossed the finish line the others were still only half way down the track! One of the mums said "she's glued it to the spoon, but just as she said it Flower tripped on her way over to see us and I caught the egg just before it hit the ground! It wasn't a real one though. When all the races had been done the children came over to their supporters and had their lunch, lots like us had brought a picnic, which we sat on the sports field to eat. What a lovely time we had. My husband had asked one of his parishioners if he could visit, as she had not long come out of hospital, (she together with her husband are very dear friends of ours), so when she told him she would love to see him she also asked if he would bring me and Litlun and have dinner with them. It was a lovely late afternoon and evening, we all chatted then later we sat down to eat. MrsY we had a fab meal, and wonderful company thank you so much.
For some time now, whenever I have applied the fly repellent
to Mouse the sponge has got dirtier and dirtier, she really needs a bath, so today I decided to give her one. I did wonder who was going to get the wettest! I decided to fill her large water bucket with water before mucking out the paddock that way it would have a chance to warm up a little, as it is yet another hot day, much hotter than yesterday. I brought her in and tipped jugs of water over her mane and tail then added shampoo, then did the same for the rest of her body, after ten minutes of trying to rinse the shampoo out of her mane I decided there was nothing for it but to use the hose! Now Mouse is 3 years old and hasn't had a bath in the 2 years and 3 months that I have had her, I don't know about before that. So this was going to be quite interesting... or so I thought, I began doing her legs as she has had them hosed to get the mud off in the winter, she was fine so I went up to her shoulder, across
her back over her rump down her tail, round her udders then back along her back up her mane..... in fact the only time she showed any emotion was when I accidentally stuck the hose up her nose! she turned round and sniffed the jet of water!! then her ears showed surprise (it was rather funny) she even tried to drink from the hose! After using a sweat scrape to remove the excess water I put her back out in the field, no rug or anything as it really was hot enough to dry her off. She didn't roll either! as for me, I just got wet arms and feet, quite amazing really as I thought I would be in for a battle.
Today we went to the rare breeds show, Mum came over with her dog,then the two of them together with Flower, Litlun, me and my dog (my husband and Beth were working,) set off to the show.
We had, as usual got a picnic with us which we left in the cooler box in the car.
We wandered around looking at all the cows, sheep and pigs, my dog was quite unfazed by any of the animals including a huge pig which tried to taste her foot, where as Mums dog was quite scared, we had to walk round the animal free stalls for a while she got so upset, she doesn't like goats!
It was lovely and warm but not so hot that we needed to worry about burning, at 1 pm we went back to the car to have our lunch, putting the dogs in the crate with the boot open and plenty of water, they were happy to look out of the back window for most of the time.
Usually I prepare the picnic but this time Mum said she would do it, there was a huge salad, ham, chicken cold sausages in bacon, eggs salmon bread rolls, crisps, olives and feta. After which we had dessert which was Apple pie and custard. Yummy.
When we had all eaten as much as we wanted, we went back into the show, we wandered around the rest of the stalls, went and saw the rabbits, chickens and ducks, then some alpacas, then Litlun found a stall with ferrets on it, having had several ferrets I couldn't help having a cuddle with a lovely albino Jill ferret, even Flower held it, they were so docile, lovely animals.
We sat down and had ice creams mid afternoon, before heading back home for a cuppa, then Mum and her dog went home whilst I prepared the dinner.
I thought I would have a little look through my old blogs, starting from the beginning, just randomly and read a few. I am beginning to wish I hadn't now.
What on earth has happened to me? The blog used to be funny in parts with the odd joke or funny blog but now its drab and flat. May be my outlook on life has changed, as my husband has just suggested. I suppose in the last year and a half I have seen and had a few life changing experiences...
Maybe I should have more fun maybe I should change my job for something more fun, there is no fun in our job any more management have ensured that it is totally impossible, yet I read a newspaper report last week that stated work force performance was almost doubled if the workers were happy. I know that we now do all our obs and paperwork at the scene now as opposed to on the vehicles en route to hospital, just to give us time to think.
Yes I think its time for a change, but as I am no good at anything other than monkey skills I have no idea what I could do!
I got home from work at around 8am and couldn't believe how tired I was! Although we didn't have a great number of jobs we had quite a few cover moves, so I still had to be awake!
I decided to go to bed for a couple of hours before taking the dog to the swimming pool, that was a mistake! I was woken by my husband at ten past eleven, I was supposed to be at the pool at eleven thirty! Ahh well, we got there at 11:35 (speeding officer, me?? Never) Where I met my Mum and her dog and a man with another collie, the three have all swum together before and got down to the serious business of chasing tennis balls which we threw in for them.
Having got them out half an hour later and dried them off I returned home for some lunch. Storm rang to see if I would like to take the dog for a walk with her two today, we often walk the three dogs together. I collected them and drove to one of our usual walking places, it was quite cool today, although I may have felt it more being so tired. There are two paths we can choose from in this area, and today we took the shorter of the two.
Back home having done the dinner and sent my husband on his way to work, I settled down to a nice read before I went to sleep.... I'm not sure I reached the end of the page.
The above post appeared on our notice board at work. A little rude but rather amusing......and probably true!
This morning my husband got up and went to church in time for the 8:00am service leaving me to sleep on, when he got back he woke me up with a cup of tea, ahhh.
Then we both went to the 10:00am service where I sat with Flower and Sam, whilst my husband got dressed up in all the vestments for the service.
Afterwards we had a glass of wine and some birthday cake as one of our friends was celebrating her 90th birthday.
Back home I prepared everything for dinner, as my mum and her dog are coming over for the rest of the day.
After a cup of tea we set off with the dogs for a walk in the woods, its not easy walking then in this heat as they are both dashing around all over the place getting hot and then find it difficult to cool down, at least its cooler in the woods! We stopped off to do Mouse on the way home then sat and chatted whilst the dinner cooked.
Yet another chilled out calm day, I am starting to enjoy this . . . unfortunately I am back to work again tomorrow, that will be anything but chilled and calm I'll put money on that!!
Today my husband and I both have the day off, we decided to go down to our local market and get some veg and have a wander, its been months since we have been to the market.
We walked down, it was boiling hot again! once there we were surprised by how few stalls there were! one of the vendors told us it was because the pitch price has gone up so much its stopped people coming!
We got our veg and a few other bits then wandered home again, stopping en route for some cheese straws and scones from the bakery.
After lunch I went down to do Mouse accompanied by Litlun and her friend Jo.
Back home we got ready for the wedding then drove, My husband is working tomorrow so he said he would drive and not drink (yippee)
The bride and groom looked fabulous, the bride was wearing a long sheer white dress with a train and tiara, she said it took two hours to do her hair too! The groom was in his family tartan and looked very smart, I usually see him in white!!! (a ghi, he belongs to the same Aikido club as me). There was a hog roast and loads of salads in the evening.
It was a lovely day, and we wish the Bride and Groom all our very best wishes.
Today the temperature is supposed to reach 30 degrees. Nice for my dog and my mums dog as we took them to the canine swimming pool again, so they were able to cool off a bit. They were swimming with a third collie this week and all seemed to get on well, each (as is the norm for collies) chasing after a tennis ball. Although it was cool for them in the pool it was very muggy for us!Once back home my husband and I went into town to pick up a copy of the church times as my husband is appearing in it this week.Almost as soon as I came home Storm rang to see if I would like to take the dog out for a walk with her two dogs. I would usually keep mine in until she had dried off completely but today it was so hot that I thought it would be fine, she drove round and picked us up then drove out to a wooded area we often take them walking. We walked through the woods chatting then as we came back out again the heat hit us! I hadn't realised just how much cooler it was in the woods seeing as we still felt quite hot but back in the full sun again was almost unbearable.Once back home I had to prepare an early dinner for my husband as he has to go into work for his second night shift.Litlun and I went down to do Mouses fly spray and muck out the paddock, and even at half past six it was really too hot to be doing it!Apparently it was hotter in the UK today than in Spain! I don't doubt that for one minute.
This set of shifts (tour) is one of two tours before my proper annual leave, I have just had a weeks annual leave, which I had swapped with one of my work mates so that I could be at my husbands ordination and all that went with it! so it seems strange knowing I only have two tours before having my proper summer leave.The first day and first night were not too bad, we did little cover moves and most of the jobs were genuine and fairly straight forward. The second day and second night were completely different though and I am sure some of the many unnecessary cover moves that we did were down to the staff who work in the dispatch centre, but the jobs!! any one who knows me will know that after a certain job about 15 months ago, I hate jobs involving babies (paediatrics) and both the day and night we got one, the day job was almost a carbon copy of the bad job except we managed to get this child into hospital in a stable state. I have not and will not find out the outcome of this job, I choose not to know. the other was an over anxious mother but all the way to the job we were wondering what we would be met with!Still one tour down one to go.On Monday morning my travel tickets arrived for my coach trip to see my friend up north, (8th August straight after a night shift) I can't believe how cheap the coach fare is and I don't have to do any driving after my night shift!Ahh well five days off now.
This year I did a shift with a private ambulance service at the festival of speed, we had to be on site for 7am we were given radios and maps and a briefing of how the management wanted the ambulance service to deal with the patients it received. We were also given a meal bag and as much water as we needed.
It was really hot and sunny which made the day a really enjoyable shift, even if it did run over by an hour due to a car dumping oil on the track!
I was put with a girl I hadn't met before which didn't matter as she was really nice and we spent most of the day chatting, there were quite a few patients to see but only one or two had to be shipped off to hospital.
The Red Arrows did an air display as did a couple of helicopters. There were loads of bikes and cars as usual and plenty of celebrities, one of which was Dougie Lampkin who I saw two weeks ago at the Moto GP at Silverstone. He rode over to our ambulance and chatted to us for a while, he is as I said before my favorite biker of any discipline, I think what he can do with his bike is wicked!
My daughter Beth also had a job there and as she was going to it she ended up following Dougie up the track crossing, she got a short film clip and a couple of photos, one of which I have posted here.
All in all it was a good day, I just wish it had been the Saturday then I would have been able to spend a little more time with Litlun, who's birthday it was on Friday. Happy Birthday Litlun.
Today my mum and I took our dogs to the canine swimming pool. Mums dog has only been once before and really hated it, she couldn't wait to get out! Where as , on the other hand my dog loves it and can't wait to get in! Once there we showered off the dogs just to make sure they were not too grubby before they went in, then the lady who owns it put mums dog on a lead to ensure she did go in, she guided her round the pool for a couple of laps whilst my dog just kept going in after the tennis ball and bringing it back for me to throw in again. Suddenly mums dog saw the ball and made a bee line for it, that was the turning point, we found another ball and threw one for each of the dogs, ten minutes later mums dog was off the lead having as much fun as my dog.
After all the excitement of the last few days my husband went back to work Monday to his fire service job.Over the weekend it was extremely hot, he had to wear quite a few layers of heavy clothing and hadn't had enough to drink, back at work he had two prolonged bouts of hard physical work wearing full fire fighting kit in the extremely high temperatures we are having at the moment, and again he hadn't had enough to drink!During the night he woke me up feeling extremely unwell, muscle cramps, joint aches head ache and several other symptoms. I rang the out of hours doctors but changed my mind half way through the conversation and decided to take him up to the casualty department of the hospital.Once there he saw a triage nurse who took him through to the majors area of the A&E unit, where he was seen by a doctor. We were there for about 5 hours in total, but came away with some antibiotics as he has managed to get a kidney infection probably from not drinking enough fluids in this heat!My poor husband is not feeling at all well.
Yesterday morning I got up at the same time as my husband as he was going to be participating in his first service at 0800 am, followed by another service at 1000am where he and the other new curate Rachel would be introduced formally to the congregation. Between the two services we came home had some breakfast and collected Beth and Litlun, My husband's friends had come down to watch the service which was nice for him too. During the service the two new curates were presented with cards and the keys to the church and Myself and Rachel's partner were also given a gift, I was given a huge bouquet of beautiful flowers whilst he was given a bottle of wine. Then afterwards it was into the church centre for cake and wine (or squash in my case as I was driving).Back at home my husband put the new cards up and I put the flowers into THREE vases, the vases were all big too, the bouquet was so huge. We had a cup of tea and a snack then it was back to the priests house for a hog roast (!!!) to welcome my husband and Rachel to the parish. There were about 100 people there and live music. The food (can't comment on the hog, being as I am a veggie) was fab! there were all sorts of different types of salads, and couscous and bread it was lovely, there was wine beer and soft drinks, then came desserts..... what can I say, there was a huge creamy mousse with strawberries, meringues, brownies cakes of all types, key lime pie, but best of all (in my opinion) banoffee pie, it was delicious. (we took the car and were going to walk home).Near to the end of the evening Rachel and my husband, Fr Ted, were presented with Birettas, oh the joy!!! oops sorry I'm sure they are lovely I just can't take them seriously, which there was some amusement over, especially as Rachel had never worn one before.It was a lovely evening, both the new curates mingled with all the guests, I sat with Litlun, Sam, Flower, my son CJ and his girlfriend amber.
Today when I woke up, I had breakfast and did all the animals just as normal, but that's as normal as it got, after that it was showers and hair washes, Beth doing my hair and hers then getting dressed up and my mum coming round. Then we set off for the cathedral in which my husband was to be ordained Deacon, together with 22 other people.
We were very early but I didn't care I wanted to get as good a view as I possibly could, and the second row from the front, I think, was a good seat. I was sat with the girls and my mum, the boys, Sam and flower, and my husbands father and his partner were there together with lots of our family and friends, including a Priest friend of ours and a couple of my husbands work mates.
The service was quite long, about 2 hours, and it was very hot inside the cathedral but it was great, I don't think I can explain how amazing it was and the atmosphere, Just amazing. When the service finished the Bishop led the newly ordained Deacons out of the cathedral to get their licences and Bibles.
Everyone then began to leave the church to find the person they had come to support, it took ages for us to find him but when we did I have to admit I cried!
Once all the family had found us there were some surprises too, people who we didn't expect to see had turned up to wish my husband well, and give him cards and gifts, it was a really special day.
After about 45 minutes we decided to go and get something to eat, as by now it was almost half past seven, a local pub did the trick, then we set off home where my husband opened his cards and presents whilst we had a large glass of wine each.
Today things started going at a slower pace which is rather nice to be honest. I went shopping this morning, tidied up a bit, watered the tomato's and runner beans, then Sam came over and had a cup of coffee with me before the two of us and Beth went out for lunch. We decided to go to the cathedral that my husband is being ordained at, as they have a lovely restaurant, and I thought I might catch a glimpse of him. (I didn't) We had a lovely lunch though, Beth and Sam both had jacket potatoes whilst I had a salad. Once we had eaten we came back home and had yet another cuppa. When Sam had gone to collect Flower from school I went down to the stables to sort Mouse out, the owner of the yard was hay bailing hay in one of the front fields, it smells lovely even if a little dusty. Tonight we are having a film night, Litlun, Beth, Sam and Flower are coming round we are having some snacky bits to eat and watching some DVDs a nice end to the day.
I don't sleep well when my husband is away and although he isn't far, he's not here so last night was no exception, I was still reading at half past midnight, then this morning I was up at six thirty, not through choice though.
Once up I decided to take the dog for a walk, I took her to a park that, if my husband had decided to go for a run before breakfast, he would have gone to. Very sad I know but I have only seen him fleetingly over the last week or so, and wouldn't be married to him if I didn't want to be with him.
He didn't go for a run and I didn't see him, but I did get the dog walked early and as I was on a roll I went straight to the stables and did mouse, she has a new habit, on her tummy she sometimes gets flies settling (its a sort of hair free patch so it probably sweats and the flies go for it, all the mares seem to get it) well I had started to brush all the flies off before spraying the anti fly spray and she has got used to it when I get there now she walks over to me and slightly past me and stretches its so funny, the problem is she loves it when her tummy is groomed and leans over, when my husband went up to see her with me the other day she nearly fell over. Having groomed and sprayed her I mucked out the field and went back home.
Today I agreed to do a shift with the private ambulance service at a race course, I really am not keen on watching horse racing but this was at least on the flat and I was working crowd side so I didn't have to watch them.
Stupidly I watched the first race on the TV inside the medical room, the horses were being started in traps, it took them ages to get one particular horse in, it was running backwards and in the end they practically lifted its rear end in. that's when things got bad! the trap was shut and the horse reared up panicking, the jockey jumped across to get away and the horse went up again coming down with its front legs over the adjoining trap, that jockey got out too as the horse flailed about, one of the strappers jumped on it as it managed to get back into its own trap and they opened the back and got it out. After the race was started the vet tried to get it into the horse ambulance but by now it wasn't having any of it. The next thing we saw was the horse being led down the track with one of its front legs bandaged.
Fortunately this was the only (to my knowledge) injury/accident involving a horse at that meeting,it is also the first one I have seen on flat racing at that track.
Once back home Litlun and I had our dinner sat watching Alice in wonderland, which I think I will have to watch again to decide if I like it or not!
What a day!
Today was the last day that I spend with my husband as Mr and Mrs! Next time I see him we will be The Reverend and Mrs.
We both set off to go to the Bishops palace at ten past twelve and found a jam of cars outside which we added our car to. Once inside we found several of my husbands fellow uni students and some from other Uni's. The Ordinands (those who are going to be Ordained either Deacon or, if they have done their Deacon year, Priest all had name badges, we were given coffee or tea and chatted amongst ourselves until we were called in to lunch, the food was lovely, we had Salmon and or Chicken with green salad, warm new potatoes, tomato and onion salad, coleslaw and Quiche.
Dessert was either Chocolate mousse or strawberries with cream.
After this all the Ordinands were sent to one place whilst the spouses were sent to another. We were told about a spouses group which is a cross between a club and a support group, (or at least that's how it sounded) to be honest I don't think I am one of the "in crowd" and don't think I would fit in somehow! Still there were four of us who knew each other from the uni do's and we all took each others email address' I think this will be of more benefit to me as we all at least are on the same wave length.
After this talk we went back to have some coffee, I got a quick glimpse of my husband before he had to go ( they gave him no warning, just asked if he was there so he didn't even have a chance to say goodbye, very sad!)
Having finished my coffee I said goodbye to the others I was with and drove home, feeling quite sorry for my self!
Litlun and I had dinner together (Beth was working) and then our priest came round to make sure I was OK which was a rather nice thing to do, he had a cup of tea with us before going back home.
Now its off to bed. I wonder what my husband is doing right now?
After my night shift I came home and went straight to bed, My husband had left on Friday to do his very last residential weekend with his theological uni, on Friday, the girls were at work and my mums so you would have thought the house would be nice and quiet for a good sleep.... the dog barked at the postman and then the phone rang!! In the end I gave up. Storm and I were going to Silverstone for the GP and had decided to sleep in the car in a layby or something. I got up and sorted out the car had some lunch then made sure all the animals were OK before driving round to pick Storm up.
We drove to Silverstone leisurely as we had plenty of time, and as neither of us had been before we thought we would go straight there to check it out for the following morning, as we got to the roundabout there were some security staff stood there. Storm said "Ask them where the nearest place to park up for the night would be"
the security girl said "You can park in this car park behind me if you like!"
Storm and I grinned, we parked in the car park which was right by the entrance to the event! sorted out the seats in the back of the car and got sleeping bags out.
I hadn't bargained on getting much sleep, what with comings and goings from the event and an obvious party within the event, and the fact that we were squashed into the back of my car (even though it is quite spacious) but we both managed to get to sleep. We woke up at about 6:30, got up got changed washed and had breakfast of tea and croissant, very civilised considering! Whilst we were having breakfast one of the security staff came and asked us to move the car into the other half of the car park which wasn't tarmacked as they were using the tarmac one for motorbikes.
After moving the car we went into the event.
As neither of us had been before we just wandered around for the first couple of hours getting our bearings before grabbing another cuppa then looking round the manufacturer's village, Storm got a Rossi flag, towel and mini helmet, I think she might like Rossi!!
Then we went off to see Dougie Lampkin do a short display, he is my favorite biker of any discipline so I was really pleased when he signed my ticket and Storm took a photo of me with him.
We wandered around again before deciding to go to club corner to watch the GP. What an excellent spot we chose, as we didn't have grandstand tickets we had to watch form the hill, not easy to get photos! but after the first lap the very nice security staff told us we could go and watch from in the grandstand as there were loads of free seats, but if any one came in with our seat numbers we would have to move. How cool was that?? it was the corner most accidents happened on! fortunately they were all OK, most of the accidents happened in two of the other races and not the GP, it also seemed to be the point in the track where the riders would attempt scary over/undertakes.
Well as expected Lorenzo won, unfortunately for Storm Rossi wasn't there as he had broken his leg in the last GP in Italy.
We then watched the 125cc race where the local lad came 3rd, before we headed home.
