Tired Old Bones

Where oh where, did the weekend go???? It seemed like we had loads of time together when Phil walked through the door on Thursday night after another terrible journey on the M25. We spent all of Friday at the flat. Phil put up the extractor hood, fitted the bathroom and lounge door and scraped all the paint from the windows. He also wired in new light spotlights into every room. I can’t for the life of me remember what my jobs were but I know for sure that I certainly wasn’t sitting around doing nothing.


This weekend wasn’t nearly as hard as others that we have had recently and we got quite a lot of relaxing time. Phil watched the qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix on Saturday morning and submitted his TMA and then we went to the flat to lay the last of the floor tiles in the cupboard under the stairs. This wasn’t a straight forward job as the roof slopes down and it wasn’t easy for Phil (Big Boy) to manoeuvre in such an awkward space. Also, because he had to match up with the kitchen tiles, he had to do quite a lot of cuts. Still he managed to do a reasonable job and we tidied up and finished work by 2 o’clock.

After a shower we got dressed and as the sun was shining, we decided to walk to The Giffard for lunch. Phil put on his shorts and sandals for the very first time this year and he was very happy. We always enjoy the walk once we get to the canal and Saturday was a particularly beautiful day. The Giffard was as it always is, cheap and cheerful and nearly always hits the spot. The walk home isn’t as much fun mainly because it’s up hill but we still enjoyed it especially more because for a moment after the wine, we were contemplating getting a bus home. The only downside to the day was a phone call from one of our tenants informing us of a subsidence problem which leaves us with yet another problem to sort out. This is a new one for us and I’m not sure where to start; I guess Phil will have to do an inspection first to see how bad the problem is and decide what to do next.

Phil was meant to pick up Georgina on Sunday and take her down to his mum and dads for lunch but Carol phoned to say that Georgina had returned back from her skiing holiday and was in bed after being very sick so Phil had to phone his mum and cancel. It’s a shame really because she would really have been looking forward to seeing him but cancelling the trip meant that we could get on and do the grouting. We watched the Grand Prix live before going to the flat and after the grouting was done, we decided to down tools and call it a day.

We were undecided what to do for lunch but as we were in the car Phil decided we would go and have lunch at The Crooked Billet in Newton Longville http://www.thebillet.co.uk/. We enjoyed a very nice Sunday lunch here last year and even though we hadn’t worked terribly hard, we thought we deserved a treat. It was nearly 3 o’clock by the time we arrived so the pub was fairly quiet, although saying that, the restaurant was full so we had to eat our meal in the main bar which was fine. The service was very good and we enjoyed the courtesy canapés, cheese straws with goat’s cheese and a mushroom moose bouche but we were disappointed with our main courses. Phil went for the lamb which he said was ropey and I went for the sea bass and struggled terribly with the bones. My main quibble was the small portions but we also thought for what we had, it was very expensive. I wasn’t that excited by the menu either, it was very snobby and not very extensive. They do have a tasting menu which they do on a Sunday for £85 per head with wine but you can only have this if you book the day beforehand. Still at least we tried somewhere different but I don’t think we will be rushing back any time soon.

Last night was spent dozing in front of the telly and here we are now, another Monday morning. The alarm went off at 3.30am and although I got up and made tea, I was still half asleep when Phil went out the door just before 4am. Poor Phil, he is getting wearier and wearier as the weeks go on. But he must soldier on for one more week and at least this week is his last and this time next week, he can rest his tired old bones on a sun bed with a cold Kingfisher beer, watching the fishermen bringing in their catch. Bring it on!