OK, on the 21st I booked a lovely weekend away for this coming weekend. On the evening of the 23rd I had planned an enjoyable scrapping evening to get up to date with my pages for the 20th and 21st because Paul goes out to play badminton on a Tues evening and I had the house to myself. At 8pm I heard his key in the door ... "I'm home, but it's not good news", I went into the hallway to see his friend carrying him into the house. He had torn his calf muscle! He's done this before, 2 years ago, and ended up on crutches for almost a month so I could see that our lovely plans for long walks etc along the Suffolk coastline were not going to happen. So my lesson for the day is that I kind of regret not suggesting that he gave badminton a miss on the days leading up to a weekend away! Pic seems out of focus - think maybe it needed flash - ooops!

22 September

Monday. My day off. So I invited a couple of friends over for an impromptu lunch. The weather was nice and we sat in the conservatory chatting over a few glasses of wine. It wasn't until they both commented on how colourful that our garden was that I realised that it looks as nice now as it did in the height of the summer. Guess all that rain we had recently did some good after all!

21 September

My husband and I had been saying for a long time, that once we had taken our son up to university we would have a weekend break somewhere in the UK. We decided on Southwold as it is about 2 hours away and is a quaint little old fashioned British seaside town. Perfect to unwind, de-stress and explore the surrounding area. I spent a long time trying to find somewhere within our budget, close to the beach. Not many places take 2 night bookings until the winter months so it took a while to find somewhere. However, I found a lovely little one bedroomed apt overlooking a green, in the courtyard of a converted school house. I felt so happy that we had finally booked something, it was as much fun as booking our main summer holiday and it was something to look forward to after our son moving out. Little did I know what was in store ..... watch this space for 23 September page!

20th September

Well the big day finally arrived to pack our son off to uni. Can't believe we managed to get everything into the car but we eventually got him unpacked and settled in. His accommodation is great and his room soon looked like home (only tidier!) I couldn't believe how quickly he went from schoolboy to student and seeing him happy made the long journey home that much quicker. But boy does it seem weird at home without him!

19th September

This weekend it is our friend Richard's birthday and so on Friday night a group of us went out for a meal. Richard may have been the oldest one there, but that doesn't make him the most sensible! Proof indeed that getting older doesn't necessarily meal getting more mature ...

18th September

Some days it is easier to find things to use for the NSNED pages than others! Wednesday's was a breeze, Thursday - not so easy. It was an ordinary kind of day except for the fact that I had my legs waxed in the afternoon after work! I have to say that the lady that I go to is amazing and I have never once felt in pain or even discomfort so I feel a bit guilty at using the wording 'no pain no gain' but I do know that men think that waxing is an instrument of torture so please excuse me this once for not totally stating the truth!

17 September

On Wednesday I attended a card making class at a craft shop in Ware. The subject was 'Traditional Christmas' and I learnt quite a few new techniques and got to experiment with products that I had never heard of before. Whilst these aren't the type of Christmas cards I would normally send, I did enjoy making them and am now fired up with enthusiasm to actually make my own cards this year - if not all, then maybe a few!

16 Sept

The date for my son going off to uni is getting closer and closer. The pile of stuff being boxed up on the landing outside his room is getting larger and his room is becoming emptier. I went into his room yesterday and saw one of his guitars leaning on his chair and realised that I won't be coming home to the sound of one of his compositions blaring out of the amp and whilst I do sometimes moan about the volume, I'm not looking forward to the house being quiet when I get home from work. Going to miss him so much.

September 15

I know it is silly but one aspect of Autumn that I really don't like is the fact that Daddy-Long-Legs appear overnight. They fly in as soon as you open the front door, they get themselves in a panic trapped in lampshades and they seem to home in on me as soon as I go outside. They give me the creeps! I had a bit of a scary moment on Monday when one flew into my hair as I got out the car, so one thing that I have learnt is that although they are small and harmless, I'm still a little bit scared.

September 14

Oh dear, not a productive day! Ever since the plumber finished the bathroom, I have been searching for something different - colourwise - for the walls that aren't fully tiled. I thought I had found it. It was dramatic but alongside the pure white fittings and tiles and dark wood floor, I thought it would work. It didn't.

Paul spent most of the afternoon painting, and we both looked at each other when the first coat was finished, tried very hard to like it, but had to admit it really wasn't right. So today I have repainted over it in a neutral colour just to cover it up and the search continues ....

Alarming!

My friend and I both had burglar alarms installed at similar times and as we both hold emergency keys to each other's houses, we obviously also needed to know the access codes to turn off the alarm should it be activated while we were away. In order to make it easy to remember, we allocated the same number to each other so I could never forget hers, and she could never forget mine. However, what she did forget was ... 15 years later when the number '2' button on her keypad stopped working, she would have to alter her numbers and she really ought to have let me know. As when she was on holiday this weekend in Bulgaria and her alarm went off, I confidently went over with my key ... typed in my number ... and the alarms kept ringing! Thank goodness for mobile phones and thank goodness she had hers switched on near her sunlounger many many miles away in Bulgaria!

Decision day

As I walked into the supermarket, the first thing I saw was the display for Krispy Kreme donuts. I can normally walk past them, but I was tired, I was hungry ... I was weak! Next thing I knew, I had bought 4 of the gorgeous, sugary darlings. Not all for me, one each for me, Paul, Rachel and Jon. But then the problem is - which one should I choose for myself?

September 11

The 11th was a sad day for me as the thing that I did that day that was out of the norm was to go to a funeral. My cousin had died at the age of 58. It felt particularly sad as he was the exactly the same age that my sister is, had married the same year as her and had his family at the same time. It suddenly hits home that we should never take any thing for granted and to make the most of the happy, healthy times as you never, ever know when they may come to an end. Today I've come across problems at work that might normally have stressed me out, but you know, in the great scheme of things they are so trivial that it isn't worth getting worked up about them. And in not getting stressed, they seemed to work themselves out easier and quicker, there is a moral here somewhere.

September 10

The day for Jon to go to uni is fast approaching and on the 10th we went shopping for things that he needs. It isn't often that I get to go on a shopping trip with him so it was nice. However, typical male shopper: we had a list, we had 3 shops that we needed to go in, we went in, we browsed, we bought, we came home! And it was still cheaper than the Amazon bill for the books that he needs for his course. They look heavy going ....

September 9

Two posts in one day - the beauty of having a day off!

My inspiration for today is a rather gorgeous pair of red, patent high heeled shoes that my daughter bought. Whilst we are, more or less, the same shoe size, I tried these on and I simply could not walk! How does she manage to wear this height heel? My first thought on seeing them was 'how gorgeous' and my second was 'they don't look comfortable at all' Is this me officially becoming middle aged?

September 8

I have managed to move my hours around at work so that I don't work on a Monday any more - long weekends every week :-)

But sometimes when I know Paul is very busy at work, it seems a little unfair that I have a whole day to myself. Part of me thinks I should be concentrating on getting the housework all up to date, and then a friend will call and I'll suggest coffee .... housework can wait! I think it is very important to have 'me' time, and time to socialise and maintain friendships. You never know if someone needs a shoulder to cry on, or share good news. I learnt a long time ago that Girlie chats are essential to our wellbeing!

September 7th

The lesson for today? That there is sometimes more than one layer of wallpaper to remove when you come to redecorate! We had our bathroom completely gutted and replaced about a month ago and all we have had to do to finish it was to repaint the walls. However, when we removed the mirror, it took some of the lining paper away with it and we decided to strip the walls and start from scratch. Hmm ... didn't realise how often we had painted over the original paper - not the easy job it had seemed at the start. Paul may look as if he is smiling in this picture, but I can assure you he was not!

September 6th

Well it wasn't hard at all to think of a theme for 6th Sept as that is our 28th wedding anniversary! So what I have learnt today is that 28 years can pass by very quickly. My goodness, when I think of the things that have happened in that time. We've had happiness and sadness and enjoyed the good times while supporting each other through the bad.

We had a really nice evening, went out to a new restaurant that has opened in town. It isn't often that we get to go out just as a couple, although we go out a lot, it's normally with family or friends. Sometimes it's nice just to enjoy each others company.

September 5th

Oh dear. When we bought the Wii fit I vowed to go on it every day ... However, as you can see from the photo that I took of the screen, not only had 4 days lapsed since I last got on it, but I had put 1lb of weight on too! So my lesson for today is that good intentions are sometimes hard to stick to!

September 4th

A bit of background information: I work as a school secretary in the main office and also assistant to the exams officer in a large secondary school. September 4th was the first day back at school after the long summer holidays. I had kind of got into the habit of not going into work - 5 weeks is a long time to have off ! So I returned on Thursday to an overflowing 'in tray', dozens of emails, and you could not see the wood of my desk in the exams office for the amount of post results paperwork. And it suddenly occurred to me that parents of children who are miserable at the prospect of returning to school may not realise that the staff feel the same way!

September 3rd

I had no problems with what subject to use for today's page! I had tickets to go to the theatre to see Grease and the plan was to get the train at about 5pm and meet Rachel after work. But I had nothing else to do in the afternoon and so I got the train at 2pm and went shopping in Oxford Street first. We met up and walked into Covent Garden and had a really nice (and quick!) dinner and glass of wine and then walked onto Picadilly to the theatre. The production was brilliant and we had a lovely evening. So nice to do something midweek, why do we usually save all the nice things up for the weekend?

Sept 2

Day two! I normally pride myself on being fairly good at remembering birthdays and getting presents and cards to people on time, but 2 September proved this wrong on two counts. First of all I realised that I had totally forgotten to buy a card for a friend whose birthday had been on 30 August. I knew she was on holiday and wouldn't be home until the 31st but it just totally escaped my mind to buy a card and deliver it ready for when she got home. I am ashamed!

Then, it had been my daughter's birthday on 24 August and she really wanted a necklace with her name on like Carrie in Sex in the City. So I ordered one, but it wasn't ready in time for her birthday. But on 2 September the store called to say that it was finally in, so I collected it and gave it to her. She really wasn't expecting any more gifts and the smile on her face when she opened it was lovely, she really didn't mind that it had arrived 2 weeks late!

Sept 1st

First day of 'learn something new every day'!

September 1st was a pretty normal day which meant it wasn't immediately obvious what I would do. However, I did find myself baking at 7am which is not the normal time for a baking session for me! A friend of mine who lives by the station had been on holiday and had let my daughter park on her drive while they were away which saved her £6 a day in parking charges at the car park. I wanted to let her know how much we appreciated it, and suddenly had the thought that it might be nice to leave a bag of goodies as surprise. I was sure that after a lovely relaxing holiday she didn't want to have to go to the supermarket as soon as she got in so I decided to bake her a loaf of bread and a dozen scones to leave with some milk and a local newspaper. That way she could have a cup of coffee, catch up on the news and have something to eat before she got back to reality of stocking up the cupboards for a family of 4 kids!

So this is my thing I learnt - You don't have to use words to say Thank You - a batch of baking will do it just as well!