Reflections on summer

It’s been a good summer. True, the weather wasn’t too great throughout most of August (although it doesn’t seem to matter what the weather is like in the summer, we still find something to grumble about! If it rains, we moan that we aren’t having much of a summer and if we had glorious sunshine throughout, we’d moan that it was too hot!) but we had some lovely weather at the beginning of the summer and I’m still keeping my fingers crossed that we’ll get a bit of an Indian summer. September looks set to be a busy month though.

Painting in progress

We’re aiming to have our new house decorated and ready to move in to by the end of September so all our free time at the moment is spent at the house getting more decorating done. Having done very little decorating before, I’m having to learn quite quickly – thank goodness Michael and his parents have both done quite a lot before otherwise work would progress at a snail’s pace. Our height difference turns out to be quite useful with painting – Michael can do the top half of the walls easily and I can do the bottom half and skirting boards.

The 16th Annual Eccentrics Dinner

This year’s Eccentrics Dinner was held halfway up a hill, just outside the entrance to an old graphite mine – a bit of a climb with our camping gear. It was a small affair this year – just five of us had been able to make it (the biggest one was the 10th dinner where there were 39 people present) but we still attracted surprised stares from the few walkers who passed by. It was a beautiful clear night – as usual I was struck by quite how many stars can be seen when there are no city lights to pollute the sky.

Black tie dining - Ecccentrics style!

Every year, Michael’s friend Fred organises a dinner around the August bank holiday – the annual Eccentrics Dinner. It started off about 15 years ago as a birthday celebration and grew from there. It’s a formal, black-tie, five-course meal and is always held in an unusual location, usually somewhere in the Lake District. We arrive, set up tents, change into formal wear and sit down for a meal. Previous locations for the meal have included the Butter Bowl, a natural crater-shaped dip in the landscape; a field (it rained heavily that year!), up a mountain and in a disused railway tunnel.

Painting and parking

Michael arrived back this evening in time to help out with some more decorating (the wallpaper in the bathroom has now been removed and the lounge ceiling has been painted so we are making progress). I took a break from decorating to go and pick him up from the airport. When I went to pay for my car parking, I noticed that the machine wasn’t accepting banknotes and so went to use another machine. Unfortunately in the time it took to put my ticket into the next machine, my parking time shifted into the next bracket which was quite annoying.

Empty batteries

I’m feeling exhausted today. After a busy evening redecorating yesterday, I didn’t get to bed until 1.30am and then was up at 5am to take Michael to the airport as he’s gone to Berlin for a couple of days. Consequently, I’ve been running on almost empty batteries all day, relying on Red Bull in an attempt to be vaguely functioning and coherent (not sure it worked terribly well). Add to that my feeling a little fragile on an emotional level and it’s not really a recipe for a fabulous day. Tomorrow will be better I’m sure, just need some sleep!

Minor disasters in decorating

Other than helping Michael to paint a bedroom in his student house, I’ve never actually done any decorating before so the prospect of redecorating a whole house is a little daunting to say the least. Still, being ready to rise to the challenge I borrowed a wallpaper steamer from the in-laws and got stripping in the bathroom (wallpaper stripping, in case further clarification is needed). All seemed to be going well until I started peeling what looked like a cardboard layer off the walls which I discovered meant I had gone too far and was stripping away the plasterboard. Oops.

And so to bed... eventually

Driving home from the new house late at night after spending an evening moving boxes and unpacking stuff in the kitchen – my bed was calling me. And then my pager went off and the prospect of imminent sleep suddenly disappeared. Off I went to attend a labour, feeling very glad I had Red Bull supplies in the car (along with the rest of my birth kit, I hasten to add!) and a few hours later welcomed a beautiful baby girl into the world. Finally, I made my way home, a very tired but happy midwife, looking forward to much-needed sleep.

Garden discoveries

I’m not much of a gardener (I managed to kill off the rosemary that was growing on the balcony last year which gives you some idea of how bad I am) but it has been quite exciting discovering what plants I have in my new garden, particularly those that are “useful” plants. We have raspberries, strawberries and currants growing in the back garden, plus there is a gooseberry bush (perhaps one day I’ll find a baby underneath it, lol!) Michael’s mum is a keen gardener so hopefully she will be able to teach me how to keep my plants alive!

Birthday surprise

It is Michael’s birthday tomorrow and I’d been wondering what to get him. One of the things he is looking forward to when we move is being able to have his bicycle back (there’s nowhere to store it in the flat) and going on cycle rides together. Eureka! I thought – and ordered a tandem. His parents brought it to our house this afternoon, all put together and ready to go – he got quite a surprise when he opened the van to see it there! We’ve had a practice ride – it took a little getting used to, but it was fun!