Another Busy Week - W/E 10th May 2025

This week started with a full day shift at work on Sunday. I was due to start at 11am and finish at 6pm. It was a super busy shift and passed really quickly, which I'm always grateful for. 

Whilst I was at work, OH was home working in the garden all day.  By the time I got home he'd made a really good start on our new brick patio. Here's a picture from upstairs in the house of his progress:

It was lovely to come home and see how far he'd got with it, but we need more bricks now before he can make any further progress and if we can't get the amount we need, we might have to redesign it a bit to make better use of the bricks we have. This might include widening one of the borders and creating planting pockets in the brickwork. We'll just have to wait and see.

I ordered a new shredder when I got home from work as after a bit of investigation as to whether the fuse had blown, we came to the conclusion that it had in fact gone kaput. I didn't opt for the cross cut, which was probably a bit short sighted, and instead went for a strip cut one, which was the cheapest one I could get and was £19. It will be fine for what I need. I intended to collect it the next day when I did the weekly shop.

On Bank Holiday Monday, OH was heading off cycling to Brighton for most of the day. I needed to do the weekly shop, as I don't have time later in the week now. I wouldn't normally ever shop on a Bank Holiday Weekend as it gets too busy, but needs must. I made sure to set off early around 9am to try to avoid most of the traffic and crowds and I was back a couple of hours later, all done. I managed to save over £10 on my shop with a 10% off voucher which was good. I picked up the shredder and used it when I got home, but it packed up on me more or less instantly. Things are just not made well these days. I don't know if I can get a refund, but I guess I need to try. Very disappointing.

Later, I got ready and went to work for the evening. It was another busy shift, but we did get away a bit earlier on this occasion.

On Tuesday, I was on my way to my usual class when I received a message to say it was cancelled, so I booked a gym session instead. It was super busy in the gym though, but I worked out for an hour and then headed home.

I was due at my sewing class later in the afternoon. It was good. We did some samples of different pockets for clothing, which was quite tricky if I'm honest and then I did a very small amount of work on my dungaree dress project, which I've decided to do whilst on the course, as the machines there can do the double stitch that you get on jeans and denim. It's quite exciting to learn how to do something totally new to me.

After the course, which takes place in a library, I took a look at some of the craft books they had to loan out and picked a couple to take out and bring home with me. There weren't too many about sewing sadly, but the two I got are about sustainable fashion which are interesting. I started reading one of them on the bus journey home.

When I got in, whilst making supper, I did one of my homework tasks for college the next day. Hopefully, I've done what the tutor required me to do.

On Wednesday morning I was up early to get ready to go into college. We were starting earlier this week, so it was a bit of a rush to get out on time. The course was interesting today, as we did some classroom work, followed by some practical work, both of which were very informative. By the time I'd finished for the day, I had a much better understanding of what was expected of me on this course and could start to work towards some of the assessments.

I did a gym session in the afternoon, which I enjoyed, trying a few new exercises for me, which was good.

When I got home, I did some work on one of the assessments for college. It's only an initial draught, but at least it's progress. I may need to make changes, but hopefully it's one less thing to do over the next few weeks.

By the time I'd done that I was tired and decided to just chill for the rest of the evening and watch Race Across the World.

OH managed to find a company today, that could possibly sell us the remaining bricks we need for the patio. They are based not too far from London too, so hopefully we will be able to see if they have a good match for the one's we're using, as the company we bought these from will only sell us another 600 bricks and we only need 100 or so. It's a bit of a setback and it might be a week or so before we get what we need to continue with the project, but at least there's hope on the horizon that we can find the right match.

On Thursday morning, I decided to go for a run, as we were heading up to Yorkshire in the afternoon, to visit family and OH's brother who is still in hospital after having suffered a severe stroke. It was good timing really, as next door's builders were starting to build the wall of their side return extension and were taking down the fence, so it suited us not to be there whilst they were doing this. 

The journey up to Yorkshire went okay, not too much traffic, but we didn't arrive until 6pm, so had something to eat and then headed out to a local hotel for a drink. We were staying at OH's mum's house for the first time in a good few years, since before OH's dad had his stroke.

On Friday, we had a busy day. OH needed to take his mum into town in the morning to the bank, so he dropped me off at Boyes for my usual mooch around.  There were a couple of things I was running low on and needed to buy and I have to admit a few other things got put in my basket. 

We met up with my sister for lunch at a local cafe, which was very nice and had a good chat and catch up with her and then we headed to the hospital to visit OH's brother. It was my first visit since his stroke, and I was pleased to see that he looked reasonably well, although he still has lots of issues that need addressing over time, if possible. We had a good chat to him, as there were no other visitors there at the time and stayed for the remainder of the afternoon visiting hours. It must be very difficult for him to adjust to his new health situation. All we can do is offer support.

We then headed back to OH's mum's for supper and spent the rest of the evening with her watching TV.

On Saturday, we were heading back to London, as I was working on Sunday and needed to get back, so it was a short visit, but we did everything we needed to in the time we had. Luckily, the journey back was good too, with no hold ups or traffic.  When we got home, we desperately needed to water the garden, as some of the lettuce seedlings were looking worse for wear. Hopefully, we won't lose too many of them. We then unpacked and headed to the allotment to water there. There were quite a few of the plotholders there today, so we had a chat to them before heading off to collect some comfrey leaves locally to make some natural fertiliser before returning home.

It was lovely to then spend a quiet evening in our own home, to chill and prepare for the week ahead after what's been another very busy week. I'm hoping that this coming week will be a little more chilled, especially now I'm starting to get used to my new slightly busier routine.

I hope you had a good week and enjoyed some sunshine.