A very full week

 Goodness last week was a full week.

Temperatures continue to sour. We are now officially in a drought, though strangely everywhere around us has a hose pipe ban, but we still do not.

It's lucky actually - you'll recall that earlier this year we spent a lot of money getting our garden remodelled and some horrible bamboo removed. All the bushes we put in where the bamboo was are beginning to die. I can only assume because the bamboo took all the goodness out of the soil.

I'm feeding them daily and making sure they stay watered, but I don't think they are going to recover this year. I'll continue feeding over the winter and fingers crossed next spring they will pick up again.

Because it's been so hot I've been taking the dog out for a walk first thing. This week's picture was taken at about 06.30am, the day already extremely hot and the grasses looking very brown. I'm not sure what the shadow is in the picture. It's either me taking the shot, an elongated shadow of my dog - or a grim!!!!

It was a very long week last week. Essentially I was getting up at 5.00, taking dog out at 06:00 then coming back in and starting work. Also not sleeping at all well because of the heat. I woke up on Wednesday morning thinking it was Saturday. 

Son had sleepover Thursday night at friends. I went to pick him up on the Friday and my satnav took me on a magical mystery tour. A journey that should have been 45 minutes took an extra half an hour. I'm not sure why my satnav is so obsessed with single width roads. I spend my life wincing as other cards squeeze past me.

Then we had a joyful Friday night as he took his over tiredness out on us.

We're supposed to be off to Italy later this year. I'm getting twitchy. I can't get hold of the hotel to check our booking and this also means I've been unable to arrange transfers from the airport. I'm desperate to cancel, but husband still wants to go. 

I'm such a coward about this sort of thing, you'd never believe I used to work in the travel industry. Today I'm going to pick up the phone and try to call them. This should be fun - up until now it's been emails and google translate. I'm praying somebody speaks English.

Saturday was full of chores - as per usual. Though had a lovely walk with dog down at seafront early on Saturday morning. It's so strange where I am this year - for the first time ever it's turned into a tourist hotspot. It's strange walking around somewhere with loads of families eating ice-creams and things at 07:00 whilst you're continuing with your daily life.

I know when I lived in the less rural part of my area there were loads of tourists, but these tended to be stag do's and hen night's and similar and because it was much more urbanised it didn't feel quite so odd.

Obviously those people in Devon/Cornwall etc. are so used to this they probably don't even think about it.

Sunday was really exciting because I met up with my old team for the first time since COVID. Basically we all worked together and then one day we were sent to work from home, then we went on furlough - fast forward 3 years I've got a new job outside of company, another team member has a new job at the company I used to work for and the third member of team is still essentially in the old team, but it's all changed.

I can't believe 3 years has gone by. What was lovely was it was really easy and we carried on as if we'd met the day before. Though lots of catching up to do.

We met by the pond and then walked along the seafront as far as saltdean. Then wandered back to the terraces in Rottingdean where the VOX Beatles were playing. Sadly it started off as a Shadows tribute band (never really got the Cliff Richard thing), so we weren't too interested and wandered down to beach.

Husband turned up after son had been picked up to go on yet another sleep over and we watched him paddle boarding. There was one hilarious chap out on a board. Husband had been chatting to him down on the beach the day before. He was visiting on holiday and was confident he'd be brilliant on the paddle board because in his youth he'd been skateboarding.

Anyway watching him paddle boarding was one of the highlights of my weekend. I rarely see anybody as ungainly as me. He ended up sort of crouching on the board - in the same sort of position as a lady does when they need to go for a wee behind a tree. 

We then wandered back up towards the terraces only to discover that the Vox Beatles had been on for some time and had almost finished their set. It was lovely to watch lots of people (by then somewhat tiddly) grooving and having lots of fun dancing and laughing in the sunshine.

So strange to think that such a short time ago everybody was keeping away from each other. Especially in the area I live in where the demographic is closer to 100 than 10. So much joy on people's faces.

I was sad to say goodbye to my friends, but we'll aim to catch up again soon. 

Woke up this morning and freaked out. I went to shut son's bedroom door so dog didn't wake him up and his bed was empty. I went white and then suddenly remembered he was having another sleepover. The idea of this one sounded exciting. Pool party, then outside film to watch then camping.

Sent message to son after my early morning dog walk:

Me. Hi how are you

Son: Fine

Me: Did you sleep outside last night

Son: Yes

Me: Was it fabulous

Son: NO

I look foward to hearing more about it all later when he gets home.

Mother of child sent a photo of them all eating breakfast outside this morning. Their back garden is like a municipal park!!!! I always wonder what son's friends think when they come to our house as they all live in these enormous houses with wilderness gardens.

Though one of his friends that lives in a massive pile always says he loves coming to our house because we keep it so messy!!!!!

I chose to take that as a compliment.