I was looking forward to getting back into my normal routine this week. I like going away, as it's good to step out of your normal routine, but it's also nice to fall back into it.
On Monday morning, I was looking forward to returning to shopping out of town. I know it could be argued to be a waste of petrol, but it is the one day each week that I use the car. The shops that I go to are much bigger and easier to negotiate, and I can always get everything I need in one visit, which suits me perfectly. I also like the change of scenery of travelling to a different part of Greater London. I've visited this area to shop on and off for over 25 years now and never really tire of it. There's always some new shop opening or bargains to find.
Today's shop was pretty straightforward. I did go to my favourite charity shop whilst there and I did buy a few things, which was probably a bit naughty, but I seem to be keeping within budget this month. (Photographs to follow in the Monthly Clothing Purchase post).
Anyway, I didn't have any vouchers to use this week for the first time in a while, so I spent over £100 on groceries and household items, which is a little more than I expected, but not an unusually high amount. We are now pretty well stocked though, so even if prices do go up in the near future, we might not feel it straight away.
Tuesday, was a pretty normal day, Zumba in the morning, a bit of work on a couple of sewing projects, a nap and a bit of reading in the afternoon before supper. OH and I started watching Slow Horses with Gary Oldman on Apple TV tonight. It was good and we watched 3 episodes in one evening. There are 5 series to watch, so it should keep us entertained for a while.
On Wednesday, I woke up to a pretty grey day. I didn't need to go anywhere, so I decided to have a day at home working on some sewing projects. I started with cutting and sewing the cushion cover tops for the outdoor cushions. I decided to keep them pretty simple in terms of design and will be using some of the denim fabric that I bought from a charity shop last month for the backs. I just needed to buy some zips and then I could sew them together.
I then decided to do some work on a quilt that I'm making for the shed using lots of scraps. I finished the quilt top over Easter and then sandwiched it using some fabric from my stash and a quilt I previously made, but don't use as the fabrics don't match our current decor. At least this way it will get used and the original quilt will always be there underneath.
I did, however, find it tricky to quilt the rows due to the thickness of the layers. I had to unpick one row twice, due to unsightly puckers and uneven stitching, at which point I gave up for the day. I'll go back to it and do a few rows at a time until it is done.
After supper, OH and I went over to the allotment so he could plant out some climbing beans. Everything that is already in is growing well. There's not much room left for tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, courgettes and kohl rabi that we still have to plant out. We'll make room though. I watered the plot, whilst OH did the transplanting. I need to do a bit of weeding on my next visit.
On Thursday, I was back at the gym for Aerobics as usual. In the afternoon, I decided to tackle the ironing basket, which had filled up. I wanted to do it before the weather got hot and ironing became unbearable. I then watched a bit of TV for the rest of the afternoon.
We watched another couple of episodes of Spook series SlowHorses in the evening, which is very good.
Friday, I was able to have a lie in and read a chapter of each of my two current books. I then got up and showered and ready to go out for the afternoon. I decided to take myself off on the bus to a local high street outside of our borough, that has a proper old fashioned street market and lots of fabric shops. I used to go a lot and have bought a lot of fabric there in the past, but fabric wasn't my reason for going on this occasion and thankfully, I didn't buy any, as I have more than enough already.
What I went for were some zips for my outdoor cushion covers and I managed to get a couple for £1 each. I could only get black ones, as the stall I went to didn't have them in navy, but they'll be fine.
I wandered up and down the market for an hour or two, checking out the stalls and a few shops on the high street. I stuck to buying just things that we needed, nothing exciting; bin liners, cleaning wipes, bun cases, incense sticks and a few food bits that we had run out of. It made a change going somewhere different to shop, but I didn't spend a lot of money.
I made the mistake of getting on the wrong bus going home and it took me a very long way around, due to the route and a diversion on it. I was on the bus for more than an hour, which was a bit annoying as an alternative bus would have taken 30 minutes, so I was glad when I finally got home.
Later, I decided to make some homemade popcorn. I hadn't made any since LB was probably at school and we had a jar that had been in the cupboard for years and needed using. I cooked some up and put some salt and vinegar on them. It was so tasty. In spite of probably being well out of date, they tasted fine. I made each of us a bag to eat whilst watching TV later in the evening.
I then went down a rabbit hole on Pinterest seeking out different flavours to put on popcorn. I think I'm going to start making it regularly, as a low calorie snack and try out lots of different flavourings.
It was a very slow start to the weekend on Saturday. I'd had a bad back for a couple of days, which was a bit debilitating. It rarely happens, but something happened this week and it made moving around a bit difficult. Anyway, I stayed in bed reading a chapter of each book again (this takes at least an hour) and then eventually got up, shuffled around getting ready and had a late breakfast. I had a few bills to pay online, so I did this over breakfast and then did a couple of household chores.
We were having OH's friend's dog to stay for the afternoon. He arrived around 2pm. A bit later, I was putting something in the dishwasher, when I must have twisted round and felt excruciating pain in my back. it was so bad it winded me and really took me offguard. I then found it difficult to move at all. Eventually the pain receded a bit and I could walk a little, but I still felt very panicked, as I couldn't even walk up the stairs without feeling a lot of pain. OH ended up messaging a neighbour who is an osteopath and she kindly came around, asked me some questions, asked me to make some specific movements to assess what the problem was. She was actually amazing and really helped reassure me that it was probably a deep muscular issue on one side that should resolve itself over a few days. This also allowed me to focus on moving the other side of my body and I found I could actually move up and down the stairs, which helped to calm my fears.
The remainder of the weekend was mostly spent in bed or trying to move around and remain as pain free as possible and thankfully my movement is getting better slowly, but I think it may take a while before I'm properly up and about. Such is life, but it's horrible not to be able to move freely. I'll just have to take it one day at a time, take painkillers and use hot water bottles to control the discomfort.
Not a great end to the week, but s__t happens, as they say, and it could have been a whole lot worse,
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