The Last Weekend

In spite of all the moving jobs on the ‘to do’ list, we managed to have a really pleasant weekend, our last in this house. Of course the sun helped our moods and for the first time in a long time, we actually ate our lunch on the patio. Phil wanted to use the electric chip fryer for one last time so on both Saturday & Sunday he cooked homemade chips and sausages, burgers, chicken and spare ribs on the barbeque. It was a weekend of ‘last time’s for me. I kept thinking this is the last BBQ we’ll have in this house for who knows how long and this morning I was thinking this will be my last ‘putting out the rubbish’ day. I certainly felt a little sentimental but Phil didn’t seem too upset as he cleaned out the BBQ and the chip fat fryer for the very last time, certainly the last time this summer. Quite fitting really considering today is the official beginning of autumn.

Phil hasn’t been sleeping very well and almost every night wakes up at 3am ‘ish. I have to say this isn’t because of Neil’s dogs who have been very quiet ever since we gave Neil the mega-sonic dog collar; no, he says he’s waking up because he has so much on his mind. So because he was feeling knackered I said we could have Sunday off and not doing any jobs, which is exactly what we did. On Sunday morning after reading the papers in bed, Phil announced that he would like go for a walk. I suggested a bike ride but Phil didn’t fancy getting the bikes down from the eaves. It’s funny but we haven’t used the bikes ever since we brought the bike pulley system because although it solves the storage problem, it’s a complicated and dangerous manoeuvre getting them back on the ground. A few months ago I saw an article in the times which cited The Secret Garden in Wolverton as one of the Top 10 things to see in Milton Keynes. I hadn’t even heard of it before and neither had Phil so we decided to set off along the canal to Wolverton. We walked along the canal until Great Linford then got onto the red path. The last part of the walk took us back on the canal by Wolverton train station and then under a tunnel and hey-ho we were smack bang in The Secret Garden. The Secret Garden was created by local volunteers and is maintained on a weekly basis. I suppose the garden was quite pretty but it wouldn’t be in my Top 10 for MK, but then again I’m not really into gardens. Still at the very least it has satisfied my curiosity.

The whole walk took us just under 2 and a half hours and we more than ready for lunch when we got home. Phil did the barbeque and after we’d cleared up we decided to go The Odeon to see the film Rocknrolla. We parked up at the CCF and dropped off some stuff at the same time. One good thing about living at the CCF is that we can go out our front door, straight through the middle of the city centre flat, past the fountain and out by McDonalds and we’re right at the cinema. Normally we go to Cineworld but the show time at The Odeon suited us better yesterday. I don’t really like films directed by Guy Ritchie as I find them violent and complicated but I have to say I really enjoyed RocknRolla and so did Phil. When we got home I tackled the ironing and we finished up watching a recording of Ricky Gervais doing his ‘Fame’ lecture. Altogether, we had a fairly chilled, lazy and mostly lovely weekend. Just wish they could all be like that..............