A Christmas Catch Up and Looking Ahead to the New Year

Apologies for disappearing from Blogland just before Christmas. I intended to post the week before Christmas, but got busy with work, packing and heading off to Yorkshire and I forgot to publish the post and wish everyone a Merry Christmas. I do hope everyone had a good one and enjoyed spending time with their loved ones.

Our Christmas in Yorkshire came to an end and we returned to London on Wednesday this week. It was not the Christmas that we had envisaged, as OH unfortunately tested positive for Covid when we got there. This really threw us a curved ball, and was a bit of a disappointment, but we just had to make the best of it. By Boxing Day, he had tested negative, so we did get to see quite a few of the family members we had planned to see, but not all, and not as much or in the circumstances that we had hoped. 

Luckily, LB and myself didn't test positive the whole time, so we were still able to get out and buy what we needed for Xmas lunch, etc. We had a nice Christmas Day and enjoyed opening our presents and watching some good movies. Our accommodation was lovely too, which helped. It was restful, but it did taint what was our first Christmas spent in Yorkshire for a number of years, which was unfortunate.

Anyway, back in London, I spent my first day on Thursday, getting settled back into my normal routine. My first priority, was to get back to the gym. I'd overeaten in a big way on a couple of days whilst we were away, but thankfully I'd not put on too much weight. I did, however, want to get back to exercising and had booked a gym session. I managed to get there by about 11am and really enjoyed the session. It felt so good to work out again.

When I got home, I made myself a big salad to try to get back to eating as I healthily as I could. To aide me in this, I later decided to do a weekly food shop, as we didn't have a lot of food in the house. I shopped at my local Lidl, as I didn't feel like going too far. I used another 10% off voucher on the Lidl plus app, that I'd earned in December. It felt good to get the house stocked with food again.

In the evening, after supper, I got my finances organised. I'd spent quite a bit of money whilst we were away, mostly on grocery shopping and a few other things, so I needed to reconcile everything. It was good to get it done and now I can look forward to a new financial month and a new financial year, hopefully one in which I get back control of my spending. 

I think that because I've been working again and earning money, my mindset has been a little spendthrift, so I need to rein my shopping urges in again and try to spend as little as possible as we head into the New Year. I don't know how much longer I'll have a job, as my current contract ends mid February, so I need to save as much as I can from now on.

I also opened up 'My Little Jar of Good Things' that happened in 2023 and read my entries for the year. It was a little activity in gratefulness that I started last year. Everytime something good happened, I would write it down on a post it note, fold it up and put it in a jar. It was good to read all the entries and remember the highlights of the year. I think I'll be doing the same exercise again this year. It's good to help you appreciate the positives in your life. I managed to fill the jar this last year, so it can't have been all bad.

Having done the above jobs, I got to thinking about the year ahead. I don't have many aims, save to continue on my weightloss/fitness journey, spend money in a more conscious fashion, generally make progress in my life and try to improve things where I can. I'm trying to just keep it real and not put unnecessary pressure on myself.

There are lots of things that we need to do around the house and garden and if any of them get done this year it will be a bonus. All the fences in the garden need replacing and I'd really love for the paths around the raised beds to be landscaped into brick paths, but I don't know if this will get done. In addition, some of the decking needs to be replaced, as it is quite old and rotting in places. OH did replace some of it a couple of years ago, but the remainder needs replacing now. If all we get done this year are these jobs, I'll be very happy, but it depends a lot on our finances and on OH doing them or us paying someone else to do them. I'll keep you posted with progress in this regard.

I'm looking forward to spending New Year in London. LB will be going back to her halls to spend Xmas Eve with her friends, so we'll be having a quiet evening at home, trying to keep the dog calm when the fireworks start. We enjoy spending New Year this way though, we're not party animals. I'm not due back at work until 3rd January, so I've got the whole of the festive period off work, which is amazing and a first for me in quite a few years. I don't quite know why that is, but I'm grateful for it. I will be doing quite a few consequetive shifts when I do start back though, so I need to enjoy the down time while I can.

I hope you all enjoy your New Year celebratins and I look forward to catching up with you all in 2024.

Starting to Feel Festive - W/E 16th December 2023

The week began with my declining a shift at work on Sunday, as I wanted to spend some time with LB whilst she was home, but as she didn't come in from the previous night's party until 5am, she slept late.

Whilst LB slept in, I finally got around to making some mince pies, which I enjoyed. I won't be eating many of them, but I did have one. I did some laundry and a few jobs about the house and then spent a few hours chatting and catching up with LB, before it was more or less time to get ready and go out to the work Xmas party.

I was a bit anxious about going, as I hardly knew anyone, but I wanted to make the effort and the evening was actually okay. We had a meal at a Shisha lounge and restaurant. The cuisine was Turkish, I think, and I really enjoyed the food. The company paid for the food and some soft drinks, which was good, so all it cost me was my homeward bus fare. I didn't drink any alcohol, mainly because I was getting the bus home and didn't want to be drunk, plus I had a busy day planned the next day. I ate far too much food though and even brought some leftover meat home for the dog. It seemed a pity for it to go to waste.

There was entertainment in the restaurant, provided by a belly dancer. She was very good. She kept getting members of our group up to dance and a few of the girls were really good sports and had a go. One in particular was very good at it. It was entertaining and a new experience for me. I left at 10pm and I was home by 10.30 pm. I was glad to get to bed after not sleeping well the night before.

On Monday, I had promised LB I would take her shopping out of town. We've both wanted to visit The Thrift Factory in Silvertown, East London for a while. It's a huge warehouse filled with second hand clothing items. We'd been meaning to go for almost a year, so it was good to finally get there. It took a bit of finding, mainly due to lots of roadworks, but once there we went in and worked our way around the rails.  

Two hours later, we emerged, completely overwhelmed and with a 2kg+ bag of clothes. I've never actually bought clothes by weight before. You don't actually get too much per kg, maybe 3 or 4 items, but it depends on what you buy. It cost me £23.20 in total, which included 3 items for LB.

I bought 5 items including a pair of black trousers to wear for work. They fit well, but just need taking up an inch or so. I bought a pair of joggers, as these are my go to when I'm hanging around at home on days off. I also bought a lightweight black dress for next summer, that I can just add a belt to. I think it was from Zara originally. My final purchases were a black t-shirt and a pair of tartan trousers. The latter probably sounds pretty horrible, but I quite like them. I used to have a pair many years ago and loved wearing them. These were a size below my normal size and do fit, but are a little snug. Once I've lost a bit more weight they'll be fine.

It was an interesting experience anyway. I haven't been thrifting with LB for a while, so it was fun. It's our favourite mother/daughter occupation.

Once we'd finished at the Thrift Factory, we went to the cafe in a large Tesco superstore for lunch. Unfortunately, the woman who served me misunderstood my order and I ended up with two lunches to eat. One was taco beans on toast, the other poached eggs on avocado toast. I ate both, as I wasn't going to waste them (they weren't huge) and as LB didn't like avocados or eggs, she couldn't help me out. In total it came to about 1000 calories, but it probably worked out for the best in the end, as I was working in the evening until 10.30pm and knew I wouldn't want to eat much when I got home after the shift, so I just had a bagel before work and that was enough. As a consequence, I kept within my calorie allowance inspite of the big lunch.

After lunch, we dropped into a couple more shops, one being a big new Cancer Research shop that has just opened on the retail park. It's the first charity shop I've ever seen on this shopping park and we were both thrilled to see it had opened. We had a good look around and I bought a couple of things in there too, including an amazing cooling mint foot gel that I used to get from Boots years ago. I think they might have stopped selling it now. I used to love it, so I will enjoy using that again, especially now I'm back working in retail.

After this, we were all shopped out and came home. I then had to get ready and go out to work. Work was okay tonight, but the store is now opening until 10pm for the next two weeks. The last hour was very quiet though, as I don't think people really realised that we were opening later. I busied myself tidying rails of clothing, which I'm happy to do all day, although it's not a section that I actually work on normally.

On Tuesday, I was booked in for my usual class. I was very happy to head there in the morning. When I got home, my aims for the day were to make a chilli for my lunch/OH's supper and then just chill before heading off to work again in the evening. I was scheduled to work 5 nights this week, which wasn't great, but that's what they are employing me for at this time of year, so I just get on with it. 

LB returned to her halls on Tuesday, just for one night, to say goodbye to her friends and to get her stuff together, ready for us to bring it and her back home for Xmas on Wednesday.  She's got shifts scheduled at her old local theatre job in the lead up to Xmas and beyond, which is good.

In the afternoon, I did a bit of sewing on my current quilt project. It feels like days since I've picked it up and I've missed how it helps to restore my sanity when things get busy. It was a miserable day weatherwise and rained for the most of the day. It was nice to stay home for once and do something I enjoy, until it was time to go to work.

On Wednesday I got a bit of a lie in and then got up and got ready to go to South London and bring LB home. The journey was a bit longer than usual due to traffic and coming back wasn't much better, so it blew out most of the day, but it was good to get LB home again. When we got back, I decided to go out and do the weekly shop, as we were running out of some items of food. It wasn't a huge shop, but should see us well into next week hopefully.

I got stuck in a traffic snarl up on the way home, which was very frustrating. When I got in, I made us all a lasagne for supper. I'll hopefully eat the last leftover portion with some salad for lunch tomorrow, before going to work. Today, was my only full day off this week, apart from Sunday last.

Thursday, I was booked into the gym, so after walking the dog, I headed there for a work out. Before doing so, I made sure to write all of our Xmas cards. I finally got them sent off today, which felt so good.

In the afternoon, I got distracted by another ASOS sample sale and purchased a few items for £3, £5 and one for £10. I'll post about them when they arrive. OH received two lovely M&S food hampers today, from a work associate, which was a nice suprise. I think they were both from the same sender. I allowed myself one of the lovely florentines that came in one of the boxes.

I had a bit of a wardrobe malfunction when I got to work later, which was very embarrassing. I'd put on a PU skirt that I've hardly ever worn, but have had for years. It was fine when I put it on, but by the time I got to work it looked like this in numerous places:

I was horrified and couldn't work a shift looking so scruffy, so I had to buy a new skirt. I opted for a sequinned number from a nice brand, which was in the clearance section. I paid about £15 for it. I won't be wearing it for work again though. I'll save it for going out in or Xmas Day/Boxing Day. Needless to say, the old skirt went in the bin.

On Friday, I'd planned to go to the last Soca class, but when I got to the gym, it wasn't on. I think I got the time wrong.  Anyway, I walked into town instead and a did a bit of shopping and then came home. I spent most of the afternoon wrapping the remaining Christmas presents I'd bought. I'm all done now, thank goodness. I'm definitely all Christmassed out this week, it's been way too busy. At least with the cards and wrapping done, I can now focus on other things in the week that is left, such as doing a bit of cleaning and finishing off the crackers. I'm hoping next week will be a little less manic and I can actually enjoy it a bit more.

Saturday, was a much calmer day, thankfully. I took the dog out in the morning, which was relaxing and helped restore my sanity. I then had the day to do as I pleased. I mainly spent the time doing some household jobs in the kitchen, getting a large bag of LB's laundry done and then I did some work on my finances, before getting ready to go to work. It felt good to get caught up on a few different things.

Work was busy, as I was doing something different from what I've been doing at work lately. I enjoyed working on the shop floor, tidying up the area I was assigned to. We all picked up our Secret Santa presents today.

OH was out when I got home, as he had gone out with some cycling friends for an Xmas drink.  It was nice to just chill and go to bed late, knowing I wasn't at work the next day.

So, it's been another busy week, but the madness will soon be over. Hope you had a good week and are enjoying the lead in to Xmas.

A Week of Catching Up W/E 11th December 2023

The week started with my working an extra shift on Sunday. I just had time to walk the dog before heading off to work. I'd picked up a click and collect order from work the night before, but had been disappointed that they'd sent the items in the wrong colour, so I returned them before starting work and bought the ones I wanted from the shop. I was able to get a staff discount, which I was very happy to receive. It saved me £5. I also bought a couple of extra things, namely some dog treats and an Xmas mug.

The shift was a very busy one. So much so, that I got a bit stressed at one point, the reason for which I can't go into, but eventually things settled down a bit. I did get a break this shift which was good. It was someone's birthday and there was a table full of donuts and chocolates in the staff room. I did have one quality street and a tangerine, but otherwise I was able to resist the temptation.

It was nice to get home by 6.30pm, eat at our normal time and then watch some TV and chill with OH.

Monday, was the first day in ages that I had a completely free day to do exactly as I pleased. It felt so good. After taking the dog for a walk, I decided that today was the day that the Xmas decorations were going to go up. OH got them out of the loft and I just got on with it. They don't look particularly amazing, but it felt really good to get this job done. 

I had a few other things to do today, there was a pile of washing to do and a stack of washing up that needed doing. I also started to make some Christmas party hats for the crackers I'm making. I downloaded a free template and cut them out of some felt I had. I also downloaded some free cracker jokes and printed them off. Both of these will be added to the crackers, along with a small gift. I still needed to make three crackers, but so far, it's been fun making them myself this year.  I will save £40 by making them and not buying some.

Later, OH was heading out to the cinema to watch a film about Napoleon.  I decided to stay home and start wrapping LB's Xmas presents.  She's coming home this weekend and I don't want her to be tempted to peep, so I wrapped them all. It's a big job done, which is good. It felt like a very productive day today, but I've still got lots of things to catch up on.

On Tuesday, I was booked into my usual class at the gym. Before setting off, I got a call asking me if I could do an extra shift at work in the evening, which I agreed to. The class was good and afterwards, I decided to walk down into the town centre. I needed to pick up a few things that I couldn't get from Lidl at the weekend.  I also dropped into Primark, to see if I could find something to wear for the work Xmas party and for Xmas day. I just wanted a sparkly top or something festive. I found a jumper in a charity shop, but it wasn't sparkly. It should be okay though.

On Wednesday, I was up early and went out with the dog.  I met OH at the allotment. He had dug it over ready for the winter. Someone on the site has arranged a manure delivery for Monday next, so it's now all ready to have the manure spread and be left to do it's own thing for the winter, which is great. 

Here's a picture taken through the fence of what it looks like:

I was determined to set aside some time to do some sewing on Wednesday and really make progress with making the Xmas crackers, so when I got back, I spent a few hours up in the sewing room. I got the crackers machine sewn, I then just needed to hand stitch the barrels and add ribbons. 

 I also made the final fairisle bauble to put on the tree:

I was so glad to get these items made, as it completes the makes I wanted to finish in time for Christmas and I can now focus on my current quilt, as and when I get any free time.

I ended up having a late lunch at 3pm, as I wanted to finish all the machine sewing. I got a call from work asking me to go in again today, but I politely declined, as I've already done two unscheduled shifts this week and I'm working three more nights towards the end of the week. I just need a bit of time to spend at home doing stuff I need to get done. 

Anyway, I spent the rest of the afternoon hand sewing the crackers. It felt good to get them finished.  I'll post a picture next week when I've finished making the hats and filling them with jokes and gifts.

I made a mistake on one of them, with regard to the direction of the fabric print, so I made the fabric into another Xmas tissue holder instead. Here it is:

I made it in a slightly different way to the previous ones, because I forgot how I had made them, so I ended up binding the ends, but it works just as well.

On Thursday, I was booked into the gym for a session, so headed there after walking the dog. It was qetting late by the time I got home and had lunch, so I got ready for work.

I messaged with LB today to find that she's been having a difficult time recently, which I wish I'd known. She's home for a night this weekend, so I'm really looking forward to seeing her. I can't wait until she's home for Xmas next week.

Work was okay. It was fairly busy, so it passed reasonably quickly. I drew the name of the person I need to buy a gift for in the Secret Santa tonight. I had no clue what I was going to buy for them, but I'll  find something. Why did I opt in? I forgot what a nightmare it is.

On Friday, I woke early and got up and ready to go out and do the weekly shop. With LB coming home this weekend, working on Saturday night and the work party on Sunday evening, it was going to be a busy couple of days, so I didn't want to have to find time for it over the weekend.

I spent way too much money, but I did buy lots of food for Xmas at very good prices. The joint for Xmas Day was half price. I couldn't decide between beef or lamb, so I bought one of each. We'll have one for Xmas and one for New Year.  They went straight into the freezer and I will thaw one out on our journey up to Yorkshire.

Friday night I was working, so it was a busy day. I was so glad to get home and just chill and watch some TV.

On Saturday morning I went to the last over 50's free gym session until late January. I'll miss these sessions over the next few weeks. I enjoyed it and was glad I went.

LB came home on Saturday afternoon. It was so lovely to see her and to chat and catch up. 

Work asked me if I could do a shift on Sunday, but I declined, as I wouldn't get to see LB if I went in. I was already working later on Saturday evening from 5pm to 10pm. It ended up being a manic shift. I was back in my original section, but it was a mess and tidying it up was hard work. We worked hard on it all night and I was very glad to leave at 10pm and go home. 

Later that night, we were invited to the same party as LB, at a neighbour's house. (She's a friend of their son) They are leaving London after many years living here. It was nice to be invited and we just went for an hour to wish them well, as OH was cycling early in the morning. 

So, it's been a busy week. I'm glad to get to the end of it if I'm honest. Time seems to speed up as Christmas approaches. I really don't know where it goes. 

Quilting Update - November 2023

I've been meaning to post this blog for weeks now, as the last month or two has been quite busy in terms of working on quilting projects, so I thought I'd do an update post to bring you up to scratch with the projects I've completed, started or am still part way through.

I've finished two quilt projects in the last two months. Probably the main one was the navy quilt I made for LB's bed. It just needed binding and I eventually got around to doing it, mainly to clear some space in the sewing room, as things were mounting up and cluttering up the space. 

I had some plain navy fabric left over, so I used some of this for the binding. I'm happy with the final outcome of this project:

The second quilt project I've finished lately, is the Xmas wreath quilt. 

After finishing the quilt top and then making some wadding from wool mix fabric samples and other odds and ends of wool fabric I had in my stash, I eventually sandwiched the whole quilt together and bound the edges. Here's a picture of the wadding I made:

Another patchwork in itself, it's not pretty, but it wasn't going to be seen and worked really well for this project. I was very happy with the weight it gave to the quilt and the fact it used up so much otherwise unused fabric.

For the backing and binding, I used an IKEA festive table cloth. It was something I bought years ago and never used as a table cloth, because it was predominantly white and would be liable to stain way too easily. I'm much happier using it for this project, and the festive foliage pattern on it fits in well with the festive foliage theme of the fabrics contained in the quilt. Another make that I'm very happy with and I will enjoy sitting watching TV under this quilt in the lead up to Xmas.

With two big quilts finished, that left just one large quilt outstanding, which I'm making to put on the bed in the sewing room. This grey quilt hasn't been worked on since I last posted about it, but my printer is working again, so I can now print off the paper pieces when I need to. Here's a picture of progress so far:

I probably won't pick this one up again until the New Year, unless I get a sudden urge to work on it, especially now I've started a new project. 

I always like to have at least a couple of things on the go, so that I can chop and change and keep my interest. The new project is a little more complicated and I've already posted a picture of the first completed block, so here is a picture of the second and third blocks that I recently made:

I've used up some hexie flowers that I'd made previously as the centres of the blocks. I hadn't actually made them into anything and probably never would, so it felt good to incorporate at least some of them into this project. I think this one will be a long, slow burn project, that will probably take at least six months if not more to finish, but that is fine with me.

The only other quilting project that I've got on the go, is a small project, that I started months ago and then put aside.  Here's a picture of it's progress so far:

I think I will probably try to finish this soon, although it's not one of my favourite projects, as it's a bit random. It just needs to be made a little bigger and then it will be big enough to make into a cushion cover. It was a useful project for using up some very small scraps of fabric that I had kicking around, but I do find the size of the pieces a little fiddly. I don't really like the cross pattern either, but sometimes you have to try things to realise that you don't like them.

Talking of small scraps, I did make a couple of other very small projects with some fabric scraps recently.  The first were these hanging wreaths made with tiny hexie shapes. I'm planning to put these on the Xmas tree this year. I didn't use festive fabric, instead choosing fabrics with pink in them, as there are quite a few pink decorations on the tree.

I also made some tree decorations with some felted fair isle sweaters that I had kept for many years. The fairisle patterns leant themselves well to bauble shaped decorations. I like how they turned out. I just used a simple bauble template that I downloaded online. I have one more to make from another piece of felted fairisle sweater, that needed a wash for further shrinkage. I'm just waiting for it to dry and I'll make the final one.

So, I've had a pretty busy time making and finishing projects this last couple of months. I hope that your are enjoying any crafting projects that you are currently working on.

A Busy Week of Cleaning, Getting Ready for Xmas and a Trip to Yorkshire W/E 2nd December 2023

This week on Sunday, I was due to work in the afternoon. It was the first time I'd been scheduled to work on a Sunday. I had plenty of time to walk the dog in the morning though, which was good. I bumped into a fellow dog walker whilst out, who had suffered a recent sudden bereavement, which was a bit of a shock and very sad. We had a good chat as we walked back home.

After having some lunch, I got ready for work. It was nice to work an afternoon shift again and get home and eat at a reasonable time. Work was very busy, but passed very quickly too. In the evening, I just chilled, did a bit of hand sewing and caught up on some YouTube after a busy weekend.

On Monday morning, I got to sleep in for a little while, as OH took the dog out. I eventually surfaced around 11am and had some breakfast, before deciding to spend the day cleaning. I worked my way down the stairs with the vacuum and the mop, dusting as I went. It was another part of the house brought up to scratch for Xmas. I also did some washing, so that I had clothes to wear for work. It was nice not to be at work and not to have to go anywhere, as I'd done the shopping on Friday. I could actually catch up on some jobs at home and do my month end financial reckoning.

On Tuesday, I was back at my usual class at the gym. I enjoyed it more, because I'd not gone last week. 

On the way to the gym, I found this little set of IKEA Moppe drawers left out on the pavement. It was missing a couple of drawers, but I'll just use the space as a shelf.  It was a bit grubby, but perfect for the sewing room, so I hoiked it to the gym with me, just in case it was taken by someone else. 

When I got home, I hoovered out the drawers. They were a bit minging, mostly dust, but I did find some nail clippings, which were a bit gross. It will be fine once it has been painted and lined with pretty paper. I'll post when I've done the upcycle.

I was working in the evening, so later I got showered and got ready to go. I made myself some chilli for lunch, which I ate with tortilla chips, so I only needed something light when I got home after 10pm.

Work was okay, but I was glad to get home, as we were going away for a few days the following day to visit family in Yorkshire.

On Wednesday, I got up and took it fairly easy in the morning before starting to get packed to head off to Yorkshire. We managed to get away for about 2.30pm. We had to make a diversion on the way up, due to traffic, but got there for around 6.30pm and stopped of at OH's parents for an hour or so before heading to our accommodation.  

On this visit, we were staying in a small apartment in the centre of Hull. It was a lovely little apartment and very well equipped, perfect for a two night stay. We just chilled the first night, as we were tired after the journey.

The next morning, Thursday, it started snowing which was a lovely surprise.  Here's a picture of the view of the street below our apartment: 

We headed back to OH's parents, as his mum was going out and OH needed to sit with his dad until she came back and then there were some jobs she needed him to help her with. I went off to do some shopping at a large B&M store locally, that I'd visited for the first time on our last trip. I managed to get most of the last few things on my list, plus I threw in a few other things for good measure. I'm about all set for Xmas now.

I picked us all up some obligatory lunch from the fish and chip shop on the way home. We stayed at OH's parents until about 5pm and then headed back to our apartment for the evening. It was nice to get back and have a light supper.  We then decided to go out and explore the old part of Hull Town Centre, close to where we were staying. We went in a couple of traditional old pubs for a drink, which was nice and then explored the nooks and crannies of the Old Town, where there are lots of little alleyways and cobbled streets. It's a lovely part of the city and well worth a visit.

On Friday morning, we had to pack up and leave our little apartment. We'd enjoyed our stay and may return to the same accommodation on a future visit as we do like it's location. We stopped off at Boyes store, (of course), on our way back to OH's parents. I managed to spend a fair amount of money in there. (I'd been paid from my new job the day before!) The store was celebrating over 100 years of trading on Hessle Road in Hull, and I was offered a free branded gift with my purchases. 

I chose a pen, as who doesn't need and use a pen. I wished the staff another 100 years of trading, as I really love this store. It's such good value for lots of things. It's a local institution.

We made one last stop before heading home later, which was the Tip Shop. LB had contacted us to tell us that she needed some crockery for a Uni project. A dinner service basically. We found her this one in the Tip Shop for £20, with lots of additional serving dishes. 

She would probably pay more than this in a charity shop in London, for all of the many pieces it contained. (Probably about 40 or 50) We brought it back to London on the back seat of the car.

The traffic coming home wasn't great, so the journey was long. We were super happy to finally get home. We've now got new neighbours on one side, as our old neighbours moved out whilst we were away. (I did say goodbye before we left). They haven't moved far, so we'll probably see them around. We haven't met the new neighbours yet, but they do have a dog, which will be interesting for our dog.

Once home on Friday evening, I jumped back on the computer after two days of not really being online, save for on my phone. It was good to catch up. I'm looking forward to just getting back to normal and enjoying the lead up to Xmas. I also opened the first day of my advent calendar.

On Saturday morning, I went along to my usual gym session which was good. Next week is the last one until January, which I wasn't expecting. I'll just have to book into the gym a few times mid week. 

I made a soup for lunch and then in the afternoon, I did a bit of sewing before heading off to do the weekly shop. By the time I'd got back and put everything away, it was time to get ready for work. I needed to pick up a Click and Collect order, so I went early. It was a present for LB's birthday, but when I opened it they'd sent the wrong colour. It was very disappointing. It's going back.

Anyway, work was okay, but it seems to drag a little doing the job I've been doing lately. I agreed to work on Sunday, as I'd been asked to do an extra shift the day we left to go to Yorkshire and I couldn't, so I thought I'd better show that I am willing to do the odd extra shift. The money is always welcome. I have a feeling it will be very busy tomorrow, so may pass a bit faster.

So, that was my week. I hope you've had a good week.