Not a Blog!

I know, I know, I know. I’m late, so very late. Look, I’m sorry, but … life … you know. I do try to take one day at a time but just lately several days have been ganging up on me at once. I was going to write my blog on Saturday (yesterday). I worked double shifts last week so didn’t have the time to do anything else. Then Saturday kind of got taken over with other stuff. I’m afraid this will be a brief blog explaining why this is a brief blog.

Did I finish the garden in time? Yes. Did the girls like it? Yes, they loved it. Have we been able to use it at all in the week they’ve been home? No. It’s been too frigging wet and cold. Honestly. Where has summer gone? We’ve had the odd few days here and there where it’s reluctantly crawled into the twenties, but mostly it’s been cold and damp. I’m still wearing three layers and boots to work. The dream of eating dinner in our beautiful new garden sadly hasn’t happened.

They moved out of university with mixed emotions. Sorry to be leaving their home of three years and such a beautiful campus but looking forward to the next stage in their lives. My wonderful brother made the killer driver in his large van to go and get them. I am beyond grateful to him for doing that. I have never driven a van before and certainly didn’t want my first time to be on the M6 in rush hour traffic. If he hadn’t been able to help, I guess I would have ended up doing several trips in my little Toyota Yarris. I had Wednesday and Thursday off work, but I wasn’t very well Tuesday night. I’m not sure why, but I felt sick and queasy all night. I wasn’t sick but kept waking up feeling like I was about to, which is probably worse. Consequently, on Wednesday I was woozy and sluggish and struggled to get anything done. I felt better on Thursday so rushed about doing all the shopping and cleaning to prepare for their arrival later that day.

In anticipation of hot weather (ha) I picked up a tower fan from Home Bargains for only £20. I had been considering getting them a Dyson but as they cost upwards of £300 it was something that needed much thought. So, when I saw this one, I thought it was worth a punt. I brought it home and set it up. I switched it on. Cools a whole room in minutes — the box proudly stated — hmm, well unless the room is only six inches square, no it doesn’t. Honestly, I could cool a room better with a paper fan than that useless thing. It was also loud. Really loud. It would be like sleeping with a jet engine in the room. It was obviously going to have to be returned.

Franki phoned to let me know they were ten minutes out. I jumped in the car and set off to meet them at the storage locker. It was four o’clock. So, school and college kicking out time. I hadn’t factored in that the storage unit was behind the local college, university and sixth form, and next to an upper school. It was chaos. Kids, cars and buses choked the roads. By the time I got there, they were pulling up in the storage unit’s car park.

We found an assistant and they showed us to our locker. It was huge. Mahoosive. The girl’s stuff barely filled a corner. We drove back to mine and unloaded my brother’s van of all the stuff the girls needed for the summer. So much stuff! It was dumped in the lounge so he could get going. I went to sort out dinner whilst they ferried it upstairs and made a start putting things away.

We were all hot from the long day and it was an okay evening, so I laid the table outside for dinner and waited for them to come down so I could show them the new, incredible garden. They made all the right noises and seemed to love it. Then we ate massive platefuls of slow-braised beef in red wine, roast potatoes, and fresh veg, followed by Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. It started to cool down, so much that we moved indoors for the ice cream.

Early night for us all and the next day I was up and gone before they were stirring as I had a day’s overtime at work. The following day (Saturday) I was at another book fair. This time it was all the way out in a tiny village called Darsham which was a good hour and twenty minutes’ drive away. I was giving another author a lift, so I picked her up just before eight and off we went, very much relying on Google Maps Lady. She gave me intricate details of how to get out of town (thanks for that), got us off the A14 where necessary, got us into the middle of butt-feck nowhere and then went silent. Whether we hit a mobile dead zone, or she had a strop or developed a case of cyber laryngitis, I don’t know, but for thirty minutes we were on our own in the middle of banjo country.

The route was still showing on the phone on my dashboard but from my angle and with the sun shining on it I couldn’t see it. Luckily, the other author could just about make out what it was saying from her position in the passenger’s seat so was calling out directions to me. We drove through a ravishingly pretty chocolate-box village when Google Maps Lady suddenly came to life and bellowed out instructions making us jump and nearly crap ourselves.

Where the f**k have you been? I shouted.

I began to feel this never-ending journey was never going to end when suddenly we were turning into the car park of a new-looking and very neat village hall. We were there. We set up our tables and greeted authors we knew from other events and introduced ourselves to authors we hadn’t yet met or perhaps only knew from social media. I was right next to the refreshments stand run by the lovely WI who were busy piling out amazing-looking cakes and savouries. Mmm, that might prove to be an issue.

It had been Dad’s birthday on the day the girls came home and of course, I’d been at work the next day, so we hadn’t yet had a chance to see him and give him our cards and presents. I’d honestly had no idea what to get him. What do you give a man in his eighties who has everything? Mum had been supremely unhelpful.

What does Dad want for his birthday?

A new car.

Right, I’ll get him one of those then.

I then had a brainwave. Dad likes going to his local pub on a Friday afternoon and catching up with all his old cronies. I spoke to my brother and Mum about getting him a bar tab. They thought it was a brilliant idea. Mum and Dad went to a village event in the pub garden Sunday afternoon, so when Mum went indoors to go to the loo, she sneakily spoke to the publican who thought it was a grand idea and agreed to do a sheet of vouchers for Dad’s favourite tipple up to the value of £50. I’d done some shopping and ordered things off Amazon for Mum, and she already owed me £55 so she paid for the tab. That reminds me, Mum, you still owe me £5. It was busy, so the publican didn’t have time to sort the vouchers then and there but said he would give them to my brother when he popped in during the week. My brother would give them to me on Thursday. We had all been invited to a big barbecue at his house on Saturday evening to celebrate Dad’s birthday.

Anyway, back to the book sale. Was it a success? Well, it was a fun day. It is always wonderful meeting other authors. It was a lovely venue. The sun, for once, was shining down out of a brilliant blue sky. Was it financially viable? No, not really. It was such a long way to go. A three-hour round trip through deepest darkest Suffolk on roads that were in such shocking condition they would rip the suspension out of your car. I sold six books. Better than some there, but still not enough to cover expenses. We had all packed up and were on the road heading for home by four. I knew Dad was collecting us all at 5.30 so I was going to be pushing it to get home, unpack the car, freshen up, and be out the door by then.

I made it home with ten minutes to spare. Tossing the car keys to the girls, I told them to unpack and lock the car whilst I shot into the bathroom to freshen up and change. I only realised when I got to the barbecue that my jeans flies were still down such was my haste to get ready.

The barbecue was awesome. My bro is a true maestro when it comes to cooking meat outdoors. He had two barbecues on the go and was moving things around, so everything was cooked at the same time. Lovely sausages, fat burgers, two racks of ribs, and chicken pieces cooked in the juices. It was all good. I was hungry so stuffed my face. My niece and her boyfriend were giving us a lift home so I could relax.

Sunday. My one day off. We had to take the fan back. Pick up a few bits and pieces that the girls wanted. We needed to call at Tesco to do yet more shopping. There was stuff that had been brought to the house that they’d now decided needed to go into storage. We were on the go pretty much all day.

Then this week I worked 8-6 on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Wednesday and Saturday were filled with chores and rushing about. I kept saying I must sit down and write my blog but suddenly it was almost midnight yesterday and there was no way it was happening. So, that’s why I am sitting here early Sunday morning with a cup of tea chatting with you now.

Next week is weird workwise. I’m working 8-6 on Monday, then my boss is moving house on Tuesday (that was another thing, I spent most of Thursday and Friday trying to rearrange all the appointments for that day) so I have Tuesday and Wednesday off. I’m then working 8-6 on Thursday and Friday, and 8-12 on Saturday. We’re opening Saturday morning because I had to move some of the patients’ appointments there as we are fully booked up now until Christmas.

It’s going to be another long and hectic week. After that, the overtime will end as my co-worker will be back from her holidays, but it’s my birthday week and it’s already crammed with diary events. Ho hum, maybe we will get the weather and the time to relax in the garden sometime, but I’m thinking it won’t be this month.

Anyway, that’s it for now. I need to go shopping for more milk and laundry detergent — we seem to be going through both at an alarming rate of knots — and then I’ve promised myself a big brunch and coffee. Chat later guys and I’m sorry this is such a short catch-up.

Oh, and the book sale this week is for Kiss & Tell. Book four in the Blackwood Family Saga is a fun and fast-paced read and features the awesome kickass Isabella Santorini as she reconnects with her first love and wonders if Nick is still the man he was or a person to fear. The link is on the books page and the eBook is only 99p until midnight next Friday, there’s also £2 off the paperback.

Take care.

Julia Blake