Happy Easter

 

My eggs, collected over a lifetime

It is barely believable that we are already celebrating Easter when Christmas seems so recent. Where does the time go? The weather is generally getting warmer but remains stubbornly damp. While this means that my garden looks lush and colourful, it would be nice to go out without anticipating rain. I have seen a few cartoons alluding to daylight saving time equalling less rain! I know I am not the only one to wish for drier times.

I finally bought  new pair of tennis shoes. It has only taken me three months to find a ladies' pair in my size. I wore them for the first time on Sunday and fell over. I have got so used to having no grip under foot I literally fell over because the shoes stayed firmly fixed to the court and I moved! I even have a blister from running around in new shoes. errr.

There was a short spell of dry weather long enough for me to paint the railings on my balcony. I now need to wax the wood and paint the gate to the courtyard. Those never-ending jobs line themselves up for dry weather days, should we have them - hey ho.

I have spent time with Ezra-Mae this last week. This mostly involves following her around and feeding her. I crocheted an Easter basket and filled it with raffia and eggs for Ezra-Mae. I gave them to her and then told her not to eat them all at once. I don't think she listened too closely to that advice. This is the first year she fully understands that this time of year means an almost unlimited supply of chocolate. Apparently, Easter eggs are signicantly more expensive this year - not just eggs. Everything seems to go up each time I go shopping. Life over here is scary!

Ezra-Mae felted tipped her face. Just another conversation topic. People thought she was bruised. 

I bought a laptop to do my editing on just before Christmas and already it is back with the manufacturer. The webcam is faulty and it will take a month to fix. Ridiculous. Asus has joned my ever- lengthening list of companies I refuse to use ever again!

I am also irritated with Boots the Chemist. A long time ago now I was offered a free blood pressure check up. I was give three options for times. Two were on 29th March and one was on 30th. I chose 6:30pm on 29th knowing it was Good Friday. I then received two sms reminders and three email reminders. They clearly thought that as an old dear I would forget. Well, surpirse, surprise! I turned up for my appointment and everything was shut. This was probably a way to check how high my blood pressure could rise. I then phoned three times on 30th... No answer. Each time I tried immediately after the phone stopped ringing it became engaged. Odd that! Be warned Boots - I am followng this up. You have also joined the list of crappy companies that perform well under par. 

The Big Top

A trip to the circus

As I was away for Mothers’ Day I had the treat of going to the circus with my daughter and grand daughter the following Sunday. Ezra-Mae is becoming very opinionated. She has already decided that Nana’s cooking is superior to anything she gets at home – long may that last! I am honoured. She was also excited about going to the circus even though she hadn’t been to one before and I doubt she really knew what to expect.

The Circus was Zyair from Columbia. We worked that out from the flag on top of the tent. The clown was brilliant. He held the whole thing together. The other acts were mostly lacklustre. The performers went through the paces without aplomb. The finale was memorable, if not a little scary – three motorbikes whizzing around the inside of a ball at breakneck speed needed split second timing. I reckon I held my breath throughout the entire routine. Overall, not a bad afternoon in sunny Milton Keynes.

I also met E-M and Danielle up at the Community Orchard on Tuesday. They arrived before me. Someone asked if they were looking for Andie. My wonderful little girl corrected them. She emphatically said, “No, Nana!”  How could an adult get it so wrong.

Despite a dearth of tennis this week due to inclement weather– even though we have had the Equinox, I have been exercising. I have to remind myself summer is on its way – I have started my swim challenge. 4600 lengths of my local pool before the end of August. By the end of this week, I will have knocked off 600!

In search of wild garlic

I have also been out and about on my bike. The other day I met up with Sophie for a foraging session in a secret location that is close enough to a pub for a short repose afterwards - perfect.

Now Spring is here I will be sorting out my garden – This means I will be containing those plants that grow in the wrong places – weeds to the layman. This is the year I will get a table and chairs so I can drink my coffee outside in the morning. I promise myself, this year my courtyard will be another room!

My week with Anita

“Are you awake?” Well, you should be. Anita now knows what it is like to share a hotel room with an early riser. We went on our long-planned trip to Norfolk for a tennis holiday this week. Bits of me still ache so it must have been good. We played five hours of tennis for three days and three-ish hours on the other two days.

I’d like to warn my club-playing friends that I am on it!!!! I am coming to play with renewed vigour – once my body recovers, that is. It wasn’t just the tennis that has made me suffer. I also had one or two too many red wines, far too much food and probably an excess of other things over the week as well.

The hotel - Dunston Hall  - was rather nice. As you drive down the lane to the car park it makes for a pretty imposing view. I guessed it was Tudor. It looks a bit like Hampton Court. I asked the young man on reception. He said he thought it was Elizabethan. I said that is Tudor. Oh….

Dunston Hall

Actually, the Hall was built as a private residence in 1859. Victorian! It has gone through a lot of tough times but now it looks rather posh. The other inmates for the week were Bridge players, MG enthusiasts and a few odds and sods. I reckon the hotel chain had cornered the market for groups, although, the restaurant service was dire (they couldn’t cope with groups) and the food inconsistent. Other members of our tennis group warned us to record everything we had as the bill would also be wrong. It was!

I am making my trip sound bad. It wasn’t. There was a wonderful spa area where we soaked after tennis and on one evening, Karl came and joined Anita and I. Karl… I’ll save you the joke. We hadn’t come apart. We enjoyed your company as always.

Karl... 

The pains linger but now it is a fading memory. Anita and I visited Margy and her Mum on the way home – another wonderful get-together! Then back in Cosgrove we hit the local – The Barley Mow – for an evening celebrating St. Patricks. Despite the creaking knees we even danced that night away over a couple more red wines! What else could we do after a whole week of tipples.

Meet up at Margy's

All is well with the world

When the sun shines and flowers come into blossom, the world feels a much better place. I draw back my curtains each morning to a courtyard almost full of colour. It is only the beginning of March. Everything has come up far too early this year. There is even a bumble bee buzzing around the flowers early each morning. I wonder whether it is the same one.

The robin that follows me around is still present in my garden too. Sammi says that robins follow us around because they think we are the oxen pulling the plough. So, my son likens me to an oxen – I feel a bit insulted. Robins recognise that us humans turn over the soil and expose the worms for them to eat. Whatever the reason, I do have a regular visitor. I have bought him a bird bath that has the most pathetic of solar fountains pulsing away. He does use it, surprisingly!

My blooming garden

On the downside, my wheelbarrow has a completely destroyed tyre and I have been looking online to replace it. It is a 30cm tyre but none of the tyres fit the wheel size. Replacing the whole wheel is a possibility but a wheel costs half as much as a new wheelbarrow. What to do? I could get a new wheelbarrow that is not rusty or I could find a replacement wheel and hope the old wheelbarrow remains usable for at least a couple more years. First world problems!

I have taken up drawing after a long break. A friend in the village came round for an afternoon’s art activity. I had forgotten how relaxing it is to get absorbed. Other things that fill my time are cycle trips – getting less muddy by the day. Recently I cycled through a speed trap and the man in charge of the speed gun called out to me to slow down. How sweet! If only my legs could exceed 30mph these days!

 

 

 

HMRC Woes

Finally we get sunshine again

A woman’s fury knows no bounds. This is especially true when you are kept waiting on a phone line to the HMRC. The music is irritating. The constantly regurgitated information is incorrect and, as a result, my blood on Monday morning boiled.

The repeated message asks you to use the website for information. This is fair enough but my enquiry was not answered on the webpage. The ambient music grated. I was also told intermittently at 8am on Monday morning that wait times yesterday were up to forty minutes. The lines are not open on Sundays. Lies!

What is worse, I had to phone up twice and also phone the DWP as well. So, I had more than double the issues. Five minutes into my turn with the elusive HMRC I was finally stymied by a security question. What was the exact date I filed my self-assessment last year? How did I know?  The woman answering the call said she could only accept my first answer. My second phone call ended rather abruptly after I had given the woman an earful. Stupid XXXXX!

I am an older woman with a fading memory. When sorting out pensions the HMRC should take this into account. Sometimes I forget where I have put the kettle. I now realise I need a list of possible questions at my elbow so I can instantly find answers. Of course, I now know when I filed my tax return in 2023 and I could put money on it that I will never be asked the same question ever again.

My pension is due this May and I am somewhat short of a full one. Living abroad is part of the issue. The woman I spoke to told me to look up form NI38 and fill in form CF83. These forms are if you are planning to go abroad so I could not fill it in in retrospect. I have now written a letter and sent it snail mail to Newcastle Upon Tyne. Snail mail can’t be any slower than phoning.

In all, my waiting times were over an hour each time. This is over two hours in my life that I will never get back. There was even an article in the Guardian to say how the HMRC is failing us. Fiscal drag is partly to blame, apparently – who would have thought.

Telling Sammi about my issues, I found out that he too had been on the phone to HMRC at the same time. I blamed him. It must have been him blocking the line! We plan to co-ordinate in future.

Possibly as a result of the trauma suffered contacting the HMRC I spent most of the week being ill. I developed a cough and cold that kept me indoors and awake at night. I tried to keep going as normal but life was just too much. The upside of lying in a sofa for a few days has meant my heel is back to normal – total rest cured me!

So once Saturday came around, I said to myself that is time to get better. I set off on a walk to Stony to the Farmers’ market and then onto Wolverton. Walking was important as I needed to test my Achilles problem. I can say that both the bad chest and the poorly ankle are now fully sorted.