Day 724

Day 724...

Hello Friday and welcome to the day after the night before.

Last night we had an absolutely fantastic time seeing White Lies play at Rock City in Nottingham. They were, as always, brilliant. We were able to secure a pitch pretty close to the front of the audience and we had an unobstructed view of the stage for the whole gig.

They had a young band called Vlure as support who knocked it out of the park. Full of energy and performed as though they were in front of a massive arena audience. Their lead singer even came into the audience to get up close and personal. It was a great way to start off the evening.

White Lies played a mixture of new and classic songs and killed every one. The atmosphere was phenomenal and the ticker tape finale during 'Bigger Than Us' was a perfect ending to a cracking show. Please indulge me while I share some photos...

And I know it was a great concert because I don't think me ears have stopped ringing since, my voice was all croaky until late morning and I can feel it in my feet and legs!!

So after the excitement of last night it was with good fortune that I had today off from work. Having worked some extra hours, and having a few more extra to work next week I have had today off in lieu. It has been a quiet day, although at times infuriating.

I've been able to help my deputy out at work with a few questions that arose over the day. I've done a few household chores. I nipped to our local Lidl to pick up a few bits and bobs, although note to self; do not visit Lidl on a Friday morning when it's relatively busy and filled with mainly older people who are more than happy to meander around the store (in their masks!!). Nope, I want to be in and out as quickly as possible grocery shopping is a 'must do' not a social occasion! 

But the ongoing saga of the day, and the thing that has been rather infuriating, has been waiting for my butchers delivery to arrive. Everything was looking rosy with an expected delivery time between 9.10am and 10.10am. By 10.20am nothing had arrived but I wasn't overly concerned so I went to Lidl hoping the delivery would arrive by the time I returned - nope!

So I jumped online and followed the delivery link only to discover that my parcel was back at DPD's depot because 'your parcel was refused, as the contact name was not recognised' - err what? No-one had been to the house so how on earth could the parcel be refused? After much searching on their website I found an online chat option...but no-one responded! So I downloaded their app and again tried the online chat only to be told that I wasn't connected to the internet when I knew that I was - argh! My next option was to contact the butchers online to see if they could do anything.

At that point in the day Simon broke for lunch and so we decided to take a walk out. It was grey and a bit blustery, but it was dry and so we took our usual route of 2.4 miles in 44 minutes. As we walked in the door my phone started to ring and it was DPD calling!! Turns out that contacting the butchers was the best thing to do as they had chased the delivery for me.

I was told by DPD that they had tried to deliver my parcel but that we had refused it because it was not in our name. Okay so where do I start with that; first it is in our name but more importantly no-one had attempted a delivery at our house. To which I was told 'but our driver said...' At that point I reiterated that we had not seen their driver but that we have a very similar address to ours in the next village and that they might want to check where exactly their driver had been! I was then told they would go away and investigate for me...nearly four hours passed by and no return phone call as I'd been promised but then there was a knock at the door and low and behold my parcel was delivered. Thank goodness for that!

This then meant the end to my day was sorting 5kg of bacon, 100 sausages, 1kg of steak mince, 1kg of chicken, burgers and a few steaks into meal sized portions for the freezer. While I did that Simon finished work for the day and took some time out to complete his zone two training on the exercise bike. 

And with all that I think it's time to stop for the day and see you all tomorrow.
xx

Day 559

Day 559...

And we have the first working day of the week for me.

My back was feeling slightly better than it did yesterday and it was definitely easier to move about, although by mid-afternoon it did require some painkillers!

My morning was spent in work and it was pretty much a standard sort of morning for me. Arriving home at lunchtime I found myself continuing on with some pre-school work which I hadn't planned on doing but was needed ahead of the activities I have planned for the remainder of the week.

When I got home Molly had taken over the kitchen as she was having a bit of a photo shoot for the items she has been creating over the past few weeks. I was a little concerned to find a poured glass of wine sat next to the kettle but discovered that it was actually a 'prop' that Molly had been using for her photography!

My afternoon seemed to disappear quite quickly but it was productive. Not only did I get a big chunk of pre-school work completed but I took delivery of my new iron and managed to get through about two thirds of my ironing pile. But, and most importantly, I was able to secure a pre-order of the new White Lies album which is due for release in February next year and at the same time, ahead of general release, I was able to buy some tickets to see them live in Nottingham in March next year. In fact the concert in Nottingham will be the first night of their tour to promote their new album 'As I Try Not to Fall Apart'. So nice to have something on the calendar, just need to keep everything crossed now that nothing gets in the way!! And with the tickets already bought for November it means we have at least two things to look forward to!

 And time to sign off and see you tomorrow.
xx

Day 544

Day 544...

Well today has been a very quiet Monday. Both Simon and I no longer work Mondays and so usually we try and make a point of doing 'something' but as we are now at day five of our bathroom re-fit we were tied to staying at home.

We were up early as our fitter wanted to make the most of the day and so there was no lie-in for us! I had two jobs for this morning, one was to get the ironing done and the other was to buy concert tickets!

Yes, actual, in person concert tickets! My favourite band White Lies very kindly emailed yesterday to say that tickets were going on sale today at 10am for an intimate, scaled back show in November at a club called Madding Crowd. Having never heard of this venue I did a quick Google expecting it to be somewhere in London and was very pleasantly surprised to find out that not only was it not London but it was somewhere that Simon and I have become quite familiar with over the last couple of years...Bournemouth.

Molly's boyfriend lives close by to Bournemouth and so when we have been gracious enough to either take Molly down to see him or to bring her home we have stayed in Bournemouth and have gotten to really like it. So when I saw that they were playing a small club there it was a no brainer, and felt like fate. So at 10am this morning I jumped onto their website and within five minutes I became the proud owner of two tickets. How excited am I?!! Cannot believe this will be our first concert since December 2019, which was also to see White Lies! 

The concert sounds like it will be more of an acoustic set as it's being promoted as an 'unplugged' performance, with them re-working songs and digging back through their archive of tracks. I think this should be a very special concert and I am very honoured and happy to be going along. Plus it felt so good to actually write something on the calendar that we can look forward to.

With tickets booked I then spent an amount of time looking for a hotel to book. We have a favourite that we like to use but unfortunately their car park does not have an electric charging point and by then we should have our new electric car and could really do with wherever we stay having one. It's a little daunting thinking about a long drive and a stay away from home with this new technology and so having a hotel with charging on site will give us peace of mind.

This afternoon I have used the time to work my way through more of our old photographs and scan them using the Photomyne app. Once scanned in on my phone I then had to go through and edit them before I could download them to my laptop. I am now working my way through them to give each photo a date, time, location and any other useful information. Today's photos were from the start of our 1993 visit to Orlando and yet again I have been thanking my past self for saving theme park maps and time schedules!

Our bathroom fitter worked late tonight and so while Simon stayed at home I took Molly over to her first kickboxing lesson of the week...well Molly drove over I was merely the passenger! Not long now till Molly has her driving test and it would be great to think that in a few weeks time she could be getting herself out and about without having to rely on the taxi service of mum and dad.

But Monday is done and I will see you tomorrow.
xx