19th March 2023

The day after I flew back to the UK from Morocco, the 20th of March, I had a morning appointment in Leicester for another eye injection, followed by an afternoon physiotherapy session in Harborough. Later that evening, I began to feel unwell, with a runny nose and a hacking, tickly cough. I’d picked up a bug on my travels. A COVID test the following morning brought some relief when it returned negative. I spent the next few days curled up with a hot water bottle, doing as little as possible.

The air conditioning unit in the Garden Room was serviced on the 22nd. It’s had very little use over the winter, aside from Thursday nights when I play pool with my chums and Saturdays when I watch the rugby. I think we’ll now switch to servicing it every two years, as the engineer advised that all it needed was a clean.

On the 24th, the lawn got its first cut of the year. It has been the wettest March (so far) since 1981, and while the grass has grown well, the frequent showers have made it difficult to tend. Elsewhere in the garden, signs of life are appearing: the pear tree is in blossom, and the other fruit trees have started to break bud. With the sap rising, I’ve been buying seeds and making plans for the growing season, hopefully a productive one! Between showers, I managed to sow some shallots, red onions, and broad beans. They should be fine, even if we get a few frosts.

On the 28th, I had another physiotherapy session for my left foot, this time in Kettering. On the way home, I dropped in for coffee and a chat with Charlotte and Harry.

Jamie brought Wilma on the 30th to stay in the greenhouse for ten days or so. We’re rabbit- and dog-sitting while Jamie, Ruth, and Joey head off to India for a holiday. They’re following the well-trodden tourist route known as the Golden Triangle, a must-do for first-time visitors to India. Sue and I did it many years ago and found it a fantastic experience. However, due to our own carelessness, we picked up a stomach bug that took a year of medication to clear. Lesson learned: only eat and drink in reputable hotels and restaurants, and if in doubt, don’t!

That afternoon, I collected our course of malaria tablets in preparation for our upcoming trip to Ethiopia. At £108, the forty tablets weren’t cheap, but we’ve found Atovaquone-Proguanil to have the fewest side effects and to be the easiest to take. And it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

The following afternoon, Jamie, Ruth, and Joey arrived with the dogs, Rocky and Nala. They stayed just long enough to drop them off before continuing to Heathrow to catch their 10 pm flight to New Delhi.

April Fool’s Day began quietly. After lunch, Sue left me with the dogs and drove to Sarah’s, where she was staying overnight to help look after Alice and Archie, as Lee was having a day and night out with friends.

The following morning, Sue, Sarah, Alice, and Archie drove to Tenbury Wells to visit our family friend Sheila, who had been very eager to meet the newest addition to the family. They stayed long enough for lunch before heading back to Newbold Verdon, where Sue changed cars and then returned home to Harborough, arriving before dark.

Charlotte has been very busy renovating my Welsh grandmother’s old Singer sewing machine, May Berry. It was gifted to her a few years ago by my Aunt Josie, who lives in Brymbo, North Wales. Charlotte plans to convert it into a useful table, although I’m not quite sure what she intends to do with the sewing machine itself. Later in the week, she put her newfound restoration skills to further use by refurbishing an old set of drawers.

Between taking Rocky and Nala for walks, catching up on sowing seeds in the vegetable plot, and pruning the vines and fruit trees, I’ve spent much of the past week creating a holiday video from our trip to Las Vegas and Hawaii, using the photos and video clips we took.

In the past, we would invite the whole family over for a meal and watch the video together afterwards. However, since Covid, it has become customary for me to upload it to YouTube and share the link with the family so they can watch it from the comfort of their own homes.

Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Los Angeles, Hawaii and Mexico.

For once, the weather over Easter was good, well, at least for two days. Sarah and her family spent one of them enjoying a picnic at the Aero Park, situated at the end of the runway at nearby East Midlands Airport. Watching the aircraft land and take off must have been exhausting, as they apparently spent a good deal of time lying on their backs, soaking up the rare blue sky and warm sunshine.

Naturally, the Easter Bunny arrived right on time, and Alice thoroughly enjoyed the family tradition of hunting for eggs around the house and garden.

The family gathered at Charlotte’s on Easter Sunday to enjoy a delicious lunch and a second round of egg hunting for Alice. Jamie, Ruth, and Joey were still travelling around northern India, likely enjoying spicy curries rather than a traditional joint of lamb with all the trimmings.

Sue and I had left Rocky and Nala in their cage at Willow Bank, so we were the first to leave in order to give the dogs their freedom and a much-needed run around the garden.

Jamie and his family returned home late on the 19th of March. The following evening, he came to collect Rocky and Nala and shared some of their holiday photos with us. They’d certainly had an action-packed trip, visiting all the major sights on the Golden Triangle circuit and, unlike Sue and me when we did the same route, managed to stay fit and healthy, successfully avoiding a nasty case of ‘Delhi Belly’.

Jamie, Ruth, and Nala popped back briefly the following evening to collect Wilma the rabbit from her holiday accommodation in the greenhouse.

The weather for the rest of the week was awful, cold and damp, but it didn’t stop Sue from joining a couple of rambles. I opted to stay warm inside at Willow Bank and spent my time working on the Marrakech video, which I completed after four leisurely days. It was finished just in time for a screening with the ‘guys’ during our Thursday night pool session in the Garden Room.

Marrakech Video Link.

 

On the 15th of April, the month truly lived up to its reputation for being showery, as Sue and I drove to Newbold Verdon to answer a request from Sarah to wallpaper their staircase. We arrived just after lunch, and while Sarah assisted by holding the stepladder and passing tools, Sue looked after Alice, Archie, and Mia. The job took three hours to complete and, as a testament to Sarah’s precise calculations, we used exactly the two rolls of wallpaper she had bought.

Over the weekend, Sarah and her family spent a few days in Blackpool and Liverpool. Lee had a business meeting in Liverpool on Monday and decided to take the opportunity to explore a few sights in the northwest. After enjoying some time on the beach in Blackpool, Sarah and the children took in the sights of Liverpool aboard the tourist Hoppa bus.

On the same day, I accompanied Sue to Leicester General Hospital for a full-body scan. Since breaking her wrist several years ago and being diagnosed with osteoporosis, she has had a scan every five years to monitor her condition. The results are expected in a few weeks.

The 19th of April is Jamie’s birthday, and he chose to spend the day enjoying the rides at Alton Towers Theme Park. Since deciding to part ways with Meatlink and focus full-time on currency trading and managing his increasingly successful business, fxlearning.com, he now has the autonomy and flexibility to indulge in such amusements.

Poor Harry has been suffering from a toothache, a common issue among racing greyhounds, and on Jamie’s birthday, he spent the day at the vet having six teeth removed. When Charlotte collected him that evening, he was still groggy from the operation and, with stitches in his mouth, he was clearly unimpressed. He refused to look at Charlotte for the entire car journey home.

On the same day, Sue and I finished packing for our trip to Ethiopia the following morning. Sue also managed to squeeze in an afternoon ramble in Glooston. After lunch, I drove to Desborough to drop off the seedlings I had sown the week before, for Charlotte to look after while we’re away.