Charlotte’s Birthday weekend starting

Busy day at work and got things done

Charlotte’s birthday this weekend so quite full on in preparation for that.

Lewis came down and had left work early so arrived about 6.30pm – he’s looking well and healthy and is clearly keen on his girlfriend Emily so that’s really nice for him and pleasing from our point of view that he’s happy and healthy.

Mum also came round for dinner tonight – I think it’s going to end up being a weekly event now because that’s the last 3-4 weeks we’ve done this. I think she looks forward to it as it’s getting her out of the house and getting company.

Had a few drinks and watched some TV – Lewis and I stayed up a bit late then he fell asleep by midnight so I gave up and went to bed. Will see how drinking this weekend goes – hopefully it will be sane and not mad!

Also my birthday present arrived..a set of golf clubs I’d won on eBay. They’re clearly cheap ones but I hope they’ll do as a beginners set – we’ll see soon enough when I get down the driving range!

Oh dear – Tash hungover!

Bit of a restless night, up and down getting drinks of water and hoping the hangover wouldn’t kick in. I felt a bit rough in the morning – that was x3 pints of Moretti, but Tash was really ill and throwing up in the toilet.

A real shame and something we need to look at avoiding, it doesn’t make for a decent weekend and is a lot day. So everything we would have liked to have done in the morning went a bit pear-shaped as she was still being sick at 3.00pm.

Anyway, we had a booking for swimming at 9.15am and went to that but were only in the pool for about 20 mins and then back to the Manor for breakfast but she had none and went back to bed – what a shame and a waste.

Breakfast was nice – we then checked out, dumped the bags and wandered around the course. It’s a competition course and has hosted the Ryder Cup before, the greens looked punishing, they were incredibly hard.

I’ve been looking at getting some golf clubs so had a bit of extra interest watching players techniques, I think I’ll find it hard going!

Anyway, got in the car and drove home without incident and unpacked at home, and then made our way over to Sue’s for dinner

But that wasn’t before we met a girl that Jack is interested in and has been seeing for a couple of months – Afnan Sadani – she came down and chatted in the garden with us. Studying law at Manchester and is a very pretty girl. Articulate and friendly as well so it was nice to meet her.

Sue’s was nice, not much going on there other than I participated in and won an auction on some golf clubs on eBay – delighted about that and now need to practise like made so I can get on the course at some point!

Came home and watched the end of the Dennis Nilsen drama we’d watched which was enjoyable and then off to bed for an early night

A really nice weekend and the visit to the Manor was really enjoyable but I think it’s highlighted an issue with drinking that we need to be aware of, it’s causing us a lot of lost time, and money and isn’t so good.

Celtic Manor Resort

Got sorted in the morning in readiness for the day and picnic etc. Dropped Tash at Yoga and then dropped Bess at Mum’s. Mum was really looking forward to having her, Bess looked a bit sad when I dropped her off and left – but I know she’ll have a great time

Had a call with a Property Broker with Jack and that was interesting then went and picked Tash up and we went off for our weekend away

Just south of Bristol we went to a beach called Ladye Beach which was pebbly but popular – was quite nice to have our picnic and a snooze and just relax for a few hours

Went to the Manor and it was what you expected it to be, very oldle worlde. They’re hot on covid19 but it was fine

Nice room overlooking one of the holes (16th?) and we relaxed with music and some drink. Had an early dinner booked at Pad which was a Thai restaurant for 6.45pm.

The meal wasn’t the best – the Thai Red Curry was far too hot and I swapped with Tash (it was hers) and I couldn’t finish it. The couple next to us heard us giving feedback and turned and talked to us. They were a couple from Cardiff, Steve and Michelle, nice enough but we couldn’t get away from them and ended up sat in the bar with them for the rest of the night and got very drunk indeed.

Eventually gave up the evening (they wanted us to stay longer) and staggered to bed and crashed out. Wasn’t what we really wanted or envisaged for a relaxing night away. Never mind, they were really nice and it was an interesting night.

Earlier in the night we found out Jack had won his match for Didcot 4-1 and he’d scored a goal we could see on Twitter so that was pleasing and he was buzzing about it

A very nice day all told

Normal type of day–nothing too interesting

Okay day today – got work done

Met Jason in the morning up the road and it was a decent chat with him – he was a bit concerned about my well-being so it was appreciated that he took the time to get in touch

He’s given me a project to consider working on which I will take up – SharePoint Knowledge bank

Back home I got more work done and it was productive.

Finished and had dinner when Tash was home – Charlotte was about for a bit which was nice and then she was off to Miles’s house for the evening

Tash and I watched x2 episodes of Game of Thrones and then to bed, I read for an hour and enjoying my book

Last (?) chance to visit Bournemouth

Had a bit of a heavy head in the morning but nothing major!

Went downstairs and found that most of the people from last night had stayed the night in one room or another.

Tash and I got our things together then went and picked up Zoe and drove down to Bournemouth for the day. Sue let Tash down (yet again) so that was a shame and I felt sorry for Tash. She just wants to spend some time with her and she gets her hopes up and then gets kicked in the teeth every single time.

No problem parking at Branksome Chine and got a place on the beach and I then just crashed out – my hangover kicked in and was trying to better me but I fought it off!

That’s all we did, just sat listening to music or sleeping or reading books – very relaxed.

About 5.00pm we left and came home – came through the scenic route (Salisbury) because of traffic congestion outside of Bournemouth – took over 2 hours but it was fine and without incident.

Charlotte and her friends were all still there and watching Harry Potter in the front room and had bought Pizza from Dominoes which we had one which was nice!

That was it really, we tidied up a bit and I did some more work on the shower which I hope has finished it, but I don’t think it will have done - but were knackered and went to bed – bit more reading and crashed out about 10.00pm

A nice weekend

Charlotte’s 24th Birthday Party

On Monday there is a new enforced restriction of only 6 people allowed to meet up – so Charlotte very cleverly brought forward her Birthday party plans to today instead of in a fortnight’s time. Tash went out to Yoga in the morning and then she and Charlotte went to town for birthday shopping and then Bicester for Katie’s baby shower, so I was left to my own devices which was nice.

Got loads of jobs sorted to make the bar and garden etc all look good ahead of the party this evening. Then worked on trying to mend the leaking with the shower and then went out to collect Mum and go to Didcot for Jack’s FA Cup match.

They played Wootton Bassett and they were a tough side. Jack was left back and the winger got past him nearly all the time – Didcot looked very shaky and lacking ability and confidence. After a close game they ended up losing 2-1 and getting knocked out of the cup. I got a bit frustrated so need to reign that in, pissed off watching it though and think this is going to be a very long and quite painful season. Jack wasn’t pleased but he’s got to prove himself and improve on his defending and positioning to avoid being replaced.

We didn’t stay after the game and I dropped Mum home straight after and went back to ours. A few people were there already and gradually they all turned up – only about 10 people I think but it was enough and it was really enjoyable. Tash and I stayed involved the whole time and after the BBQ food we went inside the bar and had the usual sort of evening of drinking, singing and dancing so it was good fun.

A couple of scares when Freddie was behind the bar and knocked everything flying – a few broken glasses!

We left them to it around midnight (I think) and went off to bed – a nice end to the day

I was quite drunk if the truth be told!

Friday Night Dinner

Busy with work – used the afternoon to really focus on my website and got that in a good position by the end of the day.

Mum arrived about 5.00pm for dinner so I stopped working and went inside. Had a few beers and opened the red wine as well as I got the taste for it and to wind down.

Nice dinner and evening, Charlotte and Miles both there and Jack so it was enjoyable. Mum stayed until about 9.00pm and then we started to watch some TV but no one was really interested so they went to bed – I didn’t want to so stayed up and watched a couple of films and gave up around 1.30am

Not drunk but a bit silly to stay up like that – not sure why I did it.

I am finding that I am drinking a lot more now in a bid to forget about problems and work – sticking my head in the sand really which isn’t good

Hopefully I will get myself out of this cycle sometime soon.

Struggling

Really struggling with motivation and will-power. I am wasting so much time lately on un-productive items – browsing internet etc

I am also doing too much work for no pay in the hope of keeping customers on-board. I am not generating new income which is not good.

I know I need to get into the Inventory side of things but just finding it a really bind and can’t get my head around doing it

I’m hoping typing this up will make a difference and help me move forward – putting my thoughts down in writing and getting them out there

We’ll see!

Drinks in John & Pauline’s new garden

Busy day at work – getting through things. Not much else to report

Nice dinner that Tash made and I popped out to get some beers for later

Went down to John and Pauline’s at 6.45pm and as it was nice we stayed out in their refurnished garden. Lovely new patio and set up – done a great job over the lockdown period. They were (rightly) proud to show it off

Had a number of beers and probably stayed a little later than necessary for a school night but it was a really nice evening and good to catch up with them

Sadly there is a change to the lockdown rules and they’re being tightened again meaning we have to go back to only allowing gatherings of 6 people maximum – which is a bugger for Charlotte’s planned party for her birthday. A real shame as she was looking forward to that and this will only make her mood worse as she had a really bad day at work yesterday and is feeling under the weather, so she’s not a happy bunny!

Sue’s Birthday Garden Party

I worked on the beer bottle top table in the morning and poured on the resin, it was hard work! There were still some gaps at the side and I spent an hour or more lying on the floor with black tape trying to seal all the holes and dripping resin. Made me very nervous and anxious as I didn’t want it to drain.

After about an hour or so it seems to stop and looking at the resin itself it looked okay as far as I could tell in terms of clearness – we’ll see.

That took the whole morning and we then went to Sue’s for her birthday celebration garden party – Charlotte and Miles drove us over there and it was nice enough afternoon.

Tash got very drunk but the rest of the family were steady and seemed to have places to go to and left around 6.30pm (ish). We stayed and then made our way to town to get the bus and Tash was getting more and more lairy and loud, it was probably a mistake to go to another pub and then also to find Emily. But we did and had a drink with her as well.

Got the bus fine at 9.15pm and Zoe was great and picked us up from 5 Mile Drive and got us home

Nice enough day and evening but the family are all a bit odd. Everyone wanted to be elsewhere so we were alone and also Sue apparently is tempted to buy a puppy – madness!

Giving Blood and Golf practise!

Decent day today – loads of work with Raintree in the morning and then cycled to the JR to give blood

No problems this time and done and dusted within 5 minutes! Very quick.

Cycled home through town so did 13 miles in the end – decent start

Loads more work and then after dinner Jack, Charlotte and I went to Binsey Lane and got onto the golf driving range. Had to wait as it was full but got 100 balls and it was fun

Jack and I were okay this time and using the driver was exciting – Charlotte was less “accomplished” it has to be said…but it was nice to spend some time together and will have to do it again.

Back home and watched some TV – James May in Japan again and it was so cool seeing him in Hiroshima and visiting the island we did.

A nice day all told