The wanderer returns

I had such a hectic day yesterday my feet hardly touched the ground so I didn't get my usual fix of blog reading!! I'm sure you are not at all interested that I had to visit the bank to pay my credit card bill. There is no way I intend to pay interest so I clear the card each month. I'm a bit preoccupied with my finances at the moment because for some reason I cannot fathom why the amount of my pension has decreased by £78 this month. Now that may not seem much but to someone on a fixed income with constantly increasing utility bills that makes a huge difference and I didn't even realise this until I got my bank statement yesterday. I will now have to do battle with the telephone to try and get through to the correct department dealing with civil service pensions (don't you just hate all the music and pre-recorded messages, " press 1 for... 2... etc or "all our operators are busy at present we value your call and someone will be with you shortly"... this gets a bit tedious after you've heard it umpteen times and the side of your head is so hot from the radio waves your brain feels its frying). Sorry I digress- after the bank I then went for a swim and I had booked a 'waxing session' (no you don't want the details) following my swim. Anyway when I got there M said she was running 10 mins late and half an hour later she was finally ready for me (mind you the bits of the conversation about some woman's love life that I earwigged from the other room had been quite entertaining). When I finally got home I had an hour to eat a snack, shower and wash my hair and get ready to take my mother out to my brother's to have tea with an uncle and aunt we hadn't seen for four years. Thank goodness I made the cake I was taking the evening before (Somerset apple cake has become a favourite of my brother's).
After all this we still managed to arrive at my brother's house, which is about 15 miles away, just before 3pm and had a very pleasant afternoon. One of my nieces, who lives nearby, brought her two children along after school, and I had a great time playing football and pretend horse racing with them. They are such lovely children and so well behaved they are a credit to my niece. I took a few photos including this one:
We finally got home just before 7pm and my mother was looking quite pale and tired, she also had pains in her chest but she's a lot better today. Not long after we arrived home I had a phone call from embee to say he had reached the M4 and would be home in an hour and a half. When he finally arrived, along with a bag of dirty washing (nice present), he deposited this just inside the front door, promising to move it today (I'm holding you to that embee!). I can see there are a few bottles of 'bubbly' but he has also managed to find two different types of 'Creme de Framboise' which we have been trying to buy ever since Sam raved about it as a cure for hiccups. The bottle on the right is stone and is rather nice and will be added to my stone jar collection in the kitchen once it's finished.


Sam and Beccy, Uncle D and Auntie G send their love and they were very interested in hearing all the family news.