Washed Out Weekend

Hello Everyone,

How are you on this wet and miserable Monday afternoon?  I was going to buy all my bedding plants today but I just didn`t have the heart for it so after lunch Jim and I went looking for some curtain poles for the living room. We did want wooden ones but they weren`t suitable for the type of curtains we bought.  In the end we bought metal ones which are really nice but a bit more expensive. Oh well, it`s not something you buy every day is it?

We`d spent the weekend at Jim`s sister and BIL, Sue and Steve`s and we had a lovely time apart from the foul weather. On Saturday Sue, her grandson and me went to a really nice shopping centre called Western Cross which caused me to part with more of my hard earned wages yet again...lol! Actually the only thing I bought myself was a pair of earrings that cost £2.50 and the rest was spent on Roman, no I tell a lie, I bought four curtain hooks...lol! We were out for four hours and were glad to get home and put our feet up and enjoy a cup of tea. Jim and Steve had taken Jake for a marathon walk along the sea front and the beach where he had a great time chasing Sandpipers and swimming wildly back and forth chasing the waves...lol!

In the evening we went for a meal to a place that Sue and Steve often visit. It`s an Italian restaurant called Mariotti`s and it is always, without fail, fully booked. We soon discovered why once we tasted the food, it was absolutely wonderful and so reasonably priced too. It is run by a husband who waits on tables and his wife who is the chef. She cooks all the food freshly on the premises and the desserts, well I couldn`t make up my mind which one to have but ended up with the raspberry pavlova which was.....can I say divine?! The cost of living in Kent is so much cheaper than here and I can`t wait until the time when we can move there. We`ve seen several properties that are well within our price range with quite a bit of change to spare. All of the properties would cost another £50-100,000 in this part of the country so we would be much better off financially. Jim would move tomorrow if it wasn`t for his job but he is looking around just in case something comes up as you never know what`s round the corner.

I`ve had a few requests about photos of my orchids so I`ll take some for you. Only one is in flower at the moment but I`ll show you photos of the other and point out the new growth in each one and I hope you won`t be bored...lol!  I was sorely tempted to buy another one today, a Miltonia, but I won`t pay full price for them as I prefer to raise a healthy flowering plant from a sad looking one. I might sound a bit silly to you but that`s just how I like to do things.

With the weather being so miserable we had very few customers today which made for a boring day at work with everyone looking as miserable as the weather, the staff that is, not the customers. I just hope tomorrow will be better as Tuesdays are usually busier than a Monday. This morning Jim cleaned the living room carpet with a hied steam cleaner. He told me that when he started to clean it it started to leak. He then took the leaking part back to the shop and came home and carried on. He then found that leaked too so back to the shop he went again. Back he came and started again and this time the nozzle on the end fell apart. This time he couldn`t be bothered to go back again and he fixed it the best he could and finished the job. The carpet looks fantastic and looks brand new again, despite the broken nozzle. Tomorrow I think Jim will probably put up the curtain poles and I can hang the new curtains that, incidently, arrived on Friday.

Anyway, my friends.  I`ll say goodbye for now and I hope you all have a lovely evening. Take care. :o)