Sunday 23rd August

My lovely mother and daughter left yesterday morning; they crowned their holiday with tickets to see Hamlet at the Barbican starring Cumberbatch!  I was so jealous, I asked them how they enjoyed the production and they were speechless – words could not describe their joy.  “UNBELIEVABLE”, was their reply!

They left with promises of returning during the month of London’s Open Weekend next September.  They were looking forward to going home after a wonderful two weeks away – it was time for them to get back into their normal routine.

The pink flowers mentioned in my blog post on the 8th, lasted until this morning when I threw the last of them in the bin. The majority of them lasted the whole two weeks, so all in all I’d say Lidl flowers are great value for money!

Our Aussies arrived Thursday afternoon and we spent a good hour over a pot of tea catching up with a year’s news on both sides.  They had arranged to meet their daughter early evening, and off they went with a huge suitcase full of goodies for their four grandchildren.

Yesterday was very hot (29c) and Sods Law it was a huge cleaning and ironing day in preparation of new guests arriving this evening.  I have already been advised that these guests are gluten free so have already thought of some extras to do at breakfast.

It’s Chris’s birthday tomorrow – he is going to be 26 – I have been trying to get out of him what he wants to do and it’s been like getting blood out of a stone.  So I have taken the bull by the horns and decided to do an alfresco supper with drinks.  Eighteen people are coming round for 7pm.