What a week last week was! I know that every week has been really busy but last week took the biscuit. I hope the next two are a bit less busy but knowing me/us they will be just as full of stuff happening as the past ones have. I'm splitting this blog post up into two as the packing element deserves its own section (it was epic enough for sure) so let's try and go back to the beginning of last week and remember what happened.
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| Packing the most important things into a suitcase |
Monday... I remember Monday. It was a day in the office working away and the beginning of the last week of working with Lee (which is a great shame). I don't really remember much about the day but the evening was super memorable in that we watched a film and then I got to spend 40 minutes on the phone to my oldest friend. He reads this blog regularly which was great to know, and remembered a fair few of the words I'd taught him the last time we spoke so "Well done Wardy!", and love to Ira. Other than that there was some progress made in packing as A packed a load more of her clothes into the smaller suitcase and I gathered together the jam jars and put them into small boxes with lots of bubble wrap around them.
Tuesday was curry day. We went to the place I had the Curry Cooking Course last year, with Kirsty (who did the course with me) and his Mrs. We were there a bit early, having driven and parked near our old flat and then walked very slowly across town; slowly as A's slightly tight hamstring had got much more painful over the past few days. We were shown to a table and finally managed to get a waiter to take our drink order (the first just shrugged and walked off when we asked for a beer) and after a while we were joined by Kirsty and Viv and settled down to the serious business of working out what we wanted to order. It was quickly established that this time we wouldn't order the brains which was a shame as I wanted A to try them, but the order that we put together ended up being amazing. We had five starters which we shared, and then five mains along with rice and naan and everything we had was amazing. It was a brilliant evening. I didn't take any pictures unfortunately so you'll just have to take my word for it.
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| "Look at my bird!" |
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| The very proud chef |
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| Smoked Turkey with apples |
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| Slightly cremated carrots and parsnips |
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| Stuffing on the plates waiting for the rest |
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| The magic moment of carving |
On Wednesday was the long awaited Smoked Turkey Fest which was originally booked for New Years Day and then a few weeks after that and both times put off by a lack of smokable turkey but finally the beast was defrosted and had been brined since the night before and Lee had set it cooking so when we arrived we could smell the smoke out the front as we were getting out of the car. As per usual we were a bit early but it was nice to sit and play with Tiger (the dog) and chat to Lee as he fussed about and did the final preparations. A had provided the stuffing which was cooking away and he was putting on potatoes for roasting, with the carrots and parsnips having been in with the Turkey in the Big Green Egg for the past four hours. Cat and Ryan arrived just after Vic got home and the party was complete so he served it up and wow what a feast it was. The carrots and parsnips were slightly overdone, even for me, but under the blackening there was some really tasty vegetable. Once we had finished eating we sat and chatted for a fair while and then, exhausted, A and I headed back home and slept like babies.
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| Lovely and huge lunch |
And so suddenly it was Thursday which was Lee's last day in the office. We went to the pub at lunch and again after work which was really great; we should have gone to the pub for lunch more often really and that is now a resolution for the next couple of weeks for myself and Loz. I ordered the Gammon and Rump but the pub was out of Rump so swapped it to a Cajun Chicken and wow it was tasty. It was also huge so I wasn't sure what I'd be able to eat later in the day. The pub is getting a new menu and the serving chap let us have a preview and it does look good; no idea when it will actually be released though.
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| Slightly lighter dinner |
At 4pm sharp I gathered Lee, Loz and Ralph and we made our way back to mine; the plan was to shift the planks which were in the back of Harrison inside into the dining area so Harrison would be empty for our drive down to my parents on Friday. It took very little time indeed with all of them helping and 20 minutes later we arrived at the pub for the second time. They only stayed for one drink as everyone was driving so A and I sat down to food (I only had a baguette as I was still stuffed) and as soon as we had finished eating we headed home. We were both so shattered that it was about 8pm when we headed up to bed and I fell asleep pretty much straight away and slept right through til about 8am.
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| Back room stacked up with scaffold planks |
Friday was work from home day as always and I had brought the tablet back with me to try and connect it and work with it directly for the first time. I was able to do this which was a great feeling and then I made some good progress towards actually putting an application together to run on the device. Three have been really terribly unreliable in terms of internet for the past two or three weeks and so I was having to connect through my mobile phone which was a pain. At lunch time I took apart the table and chairs which Cjc had given us, to make it easier to pack them, and we also shifted a few things around preparatory to returning on Saturday with the kitchen from my parents.
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| Mrs White Van Driver |
Dead on 4pm we were on the road in Harrison with A having taken the wheel for the first bit towards the motorway as she hadn't driven him before. She was great, as expected, and we swapped over just before we got to the motorway as planned. From there I drove and, apart from some bad traffic near the M5 junction, we made good time and got there for dinner which was an absolutely amazing slow cooked stew with four different types of meat and loads of lovely flavour. After we had eaten it was into the garage to look at the kitchen and try to get as much of into the back of Harrison as possible. There was rather more than we had envisaged but we managed to get almost all of it in that evening, leaving only a few bits that we wanted to wrap in bubblewrap to protect them, and the sink which still had the tap attached.
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| Rather a large amount of kitchen |
I did not sleep that night; I don't know why as I wasn't aware of my mind running fast in the way it does sometimes which prevents me from dropping off, Whatever the reason it was quite frustrating and I was pretty tired the next morning when we finally got out of bed for breakfast and then to go and put the last bits in Harrison. It was a nice feeling to look in the back of him in the morning and realise that there was far less stuff than it looked in the dark the night before. It fitted in on one level very nicely with nothing able to slide as we drove so I was happy to let A drive back which meant I could have a beer with lunch.
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| The group around the tables |
We headed over to the pub about midday and this time were beaten there by my Dad's brother. It didn't take long for everyone to arrive, after we had pushed lots of tables together into a big enough grouping for all of us, and soon the volume had risen as expected; it was a very merry bunch. I snapped a few pictures before the food arrived of everyone around the table apart from my cousin who had headed up to the bar but I didn't notice he was missing til just now. Oh well.
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| Two courses, and much enjoyment from both |
I ordered the Lamb Chops for my main which were very nice, if slightly over done, and then had a super duper chocolate sundae for dessert which was epic and totally worth while. This is the same pub we had the family leaving meal at last time and it was really nice to come to the same place, after we almost booked into a different pub due to concerns with the level of service here. It was OK this time and most of our food arrived close together, even though we had all ordered and paid separately.
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| Quality family time |
One of the best things about the meal, apart from seeing my cousin who I hadn't seen for years (and is in the background of the pic of Nan with his daughter) was seeing my Nan. She's getting very close now to 95 years old and is still going strong. It was great to sit with her and have a chat about the coming year and our plans for the renovation and she said how proud she was of what we are doing. I was also pleased to help her from the pub to the car after the meal as everyone headed back to my parents for a cuppa.
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| Not much space to move at all |
We stayed about half an hour then it was into Harrison and on the road as we had things to do when we got back that day before the Big Pack started on Sunday. A drove all the way and was again perfectly fine so we're very comfortable with the journey in Harrison and swapping the driving. When we got back we straight away started unloading the kitchen and stacking things up everywhere in the house. By the time we had done this we barely had anywhere to sit and just went pretty much straight to bed.
And that is where I will leave this update as Sunday is due one all of its own. That'll arrive tomorrow, sorry for the delay.
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