Wednesday 8th January 2025

Woke around 0845. Got up and made tea...took one to Aki who was still in bed. Porridged. Did some work at the laptop. Broke to put some lunch together. Aki cycled off to a site meeting on the Haringey Ladder. I worked at the computer. Phoned mum…she seemed to have much recovered after yesterday’s inconveniences. Dad cooking a chicken tikka for dinner tonight! I cooked a chicken chasseur…very tasty. Ate with mashed potato and carrots. Cheese and biscuits for afters. Rehearsed the Robbie Burns song before bath and bed...

Tuesday 7th January 2025

Alarm at 0730. Got up and made tea. Put together a packed lunch to take on the road with me. Porridged. Headed for Sawbridgeworth to do some knocking on doors…required to get into 50 units between now and end of month. It was sleeting rather heavily when I set off, but soon cleared up. A bit cold out, though. Stopped in Manor House for petrol, and a coffee. Managed to get into 7 units before breaking for lunch. Parked up at Pishiobury Park to eat my packed lunch. Got into 3 more early afternoon…had finished in Sawbridgeworth by 1500…too late to head on to Bishops Stortford. Turned for home. Got into at 1615. Did some work at the laptop. Kath rang to say mum not well…she has had a bad reaction to some prescribed indigestion medication…Kath keeping an eye on her between shifts. Warmed up a chick pea curry that had been languishing in the freezer. Ate with rice, and naan.

Monday 6th January 2025

Woke around 0930. Got up and made tea. Got back into bed and read some Dickens before rising for porridge. Did some prep work ahead of inspections in East Herts this week...weather permitting! Lunch. Ambled down to the Central Library after lunch to return a book on Aki's behalf, then wandered up to Waitrose to get some bits and pieces. Popped into the stationer's on Holloway Road to get a ream of paper...which now costs twice what it did last year! Thankfully, Savills will be paying for it! Did a little more work at my laptop before dinner. Aki cooked salmon, Japanese style. Nowt on telly. I rehearsed Aki on guitar for the Burns Night song, and recorded it, sending the result over to the WhatsApp Group so the rest of the band can try and play along. See what happens with that! Early bath and bed...

Sunday 5th January 2025

Woke around 0900...felt very cosy underneath our two duvets. Made tea and got back into bed. Got up to breakfast on toast and cheese, and lime marmalade. Read some Dickens before venturing out into the weather. Last night's snow had been washed away by the ensuing rain. Walked over to Waitrose and did a hefty shop. Carried our loads back home. Lunched on a Coronation chicken sandwich I'd bought at Davidson's on Darras the other day, which had proved surplus to requirements at lunchtime yesterday. Listened to some music before prepping dinner...made an aubergine parmigiana lasagne. It was tasty enough but didn’t make quite enough sauce. Watched “Lanuna: A Yak in the Classroom”, a rather charming tale of a teacher posted to a remote school in the Himalaya. Caught Liverpool v Man Utd on MOTD2 before bath and bed…

Saturday 4th January 2025

Alarm at 0800. Got up and made tea, then did some to-ing and fro-ing with luggage ahead of packing the car. Aki came down and made porridge, and we ate at the dining table with mum and dad, before Kath surfaced. I ventured outside to defrost the car before reversing it up the driveway, then packing our stuff. Said our farewells and drove gingerly down an icy High View. Stopped for coffee at Wetherby Services, and for our packed lunch in the car park at Tibshelf Services. M1 was busy, but kept moving. Got home around 1630 and unpacked the car. FaceTimed Kath to say we'd arrived safely ahead of the snowstorm. Aki put together a simple meal...dal with spinach and rice, followed by cheese and biscuits. Watched "All of Us Strangers", an intriguing film about traumatic childhood memories, starring Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal. By the time the bath was running, it was snowing heavily outside.

Friday 3rd January 2025

Woke around 0815. Got up and brought tea back to bed. Eventually descended for porridge. Aki arranged for a prescription to be sent to Boots on Darras Hall, so we drove down. Popped into Davidson's to get takeaway coffees. When we returned to the car, we discovered the door fob didn't work. We had to walk back to High View bearing our coffees. I picked up the spare car key and walked back down to Darras...managed to get the car door open, but it wouldn't lock! It would appear that either both batteries had gone at the same time, or there's something amiss with the on-board computer system. I drove up to Western Way Garage, but it was shut. Drove back to High View for lunch while we planned what to do next. Aki found a handy YouTube clip showing how to access the lithium battery in the fob...dad found a couple of spares, and hey presto we were back in working order! I celebrated by driving down to Waitrose to do a final shop. Returned to High View to get the ragu on the hob. Once that was cooking, I made some meringues with the left over egg whites, to plonk on top of the chocolate orange pudd. Worked a treat. Watched a bit of telly before opting for a relatively early night...plunging temperatures tonight, and the threat of heavy snow tomorrow afternoon, so we need to get a reasonably early start for London.

Thursday 2nd January 2025

Woke around 0945. Hauled ourselves out of bed and descended for tea, and porridge. Jim and Emma surfaced, having spent the night in their van on the driveway. They abluted, then departed for Killingworth. Aki prepared a small Japanese New Year lunch. I managed to cut a finger whilst trying to chop the lobster up! Couldn't play guitar...had planned to record my version of "Now Westlin' Winds"...it'll have to wait. Kath back in time to join us for lunch. Prepped tonight's dessert...a chocolate orange pannetone bread pudding! Dad took mum down to the GP for a check up. Came back reporting that she had passed her blood test with flying colours, but had failed utterly with the cognitive tests the doctor put to her. Dad came back shaking his head, though they were able to laugh it all off! 

The doctor is calling mum in for further tests at some point in the not too distant future. Really need to get that LPA sorted out! Warmed up the lamb stew for dinner, adding some vegetables, and some dumplings. Sadly, I could only find plain flour...what I thought would be self-raising turned out to be granulated sugar! I added some baking powder, but I guess it's old enough to have lost it's potency! The pudding made up for it though. Watched an entertaining documentary about Roger Moore, narrated by Steve Coogan doing a passable impersonation of the great man. Read some Dickens when everyone had retired for the night...though not before catching Kate Layden's memorable turn in one of the opening scenes of "The Full Monty"...the film came out shortly before we worked together on "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at Stoke.