Easter weekend

Well it’s the first day back at work after the long Easter weekend. We had a really good four-day weekend. We managed to keep ourselves pretty busy, so it seems like it was a long break, which is just what we needed.

We put the house on the market last week. We didn’t expect that we would have viewings right away, due to the holiday and lots of people being away, so we planned to have a big spring clean on Friday. Turns out we had a viewing right away, on Thursday, so we got the house pretty tidy in a super-fast whirlwind cleaning session after work on Thursday before the viewers came by. Then Friday we had the massive cleaning session. As we were cleaning away (and looking pretty dirty and sweaty from it), we got a knock on the door from a couple who thought they had an appointment to view. We had two viewings scheduled for Saturday but none for Friday. John asked them if they could come back in ½ and hour, as had stuff everywhere (being that we were in the middle of our cleaning session) and were not presentable ourselves. So they agreed and we rushed like mad to get everything straightened up, including ourselves. And we put off lunch and waited and waited… and of course they never came back. I think they must have felt badly that we weren’t expecting them and decided not to bother us again, which is nice in theory but I suppose they didn’t consider how we rushed everything and were waiting around for them for ages. Oh well!

Friday night we went out to dinner with Scott, Gemma, Helen, and Wyn. We had a nice meal and went out for some drinks afterwards. It was so great to catch up with all of them as we hadn’t really seen each other in a while. Helen and Wyn had been in Scotland helping Wyn’s uncle deliver lambs. They had some very sweet stories to tell from that trip! They do it every year and always really enjoy it. And of course it gives the rest of us more mounting arguments against Wyn. He’s Welsh and it’s commonly known in England that the Welsh are sheep shaggers.

Saturday we had two viewings so we made ourselves scarce for the day. We started with lunch at Wagamama (Japanese noodle place). John had been craving it for a while so he was a very happy bunny. Then we went to a historic manor house that’s only a few minutes away from where we live, called The Vyne. It’s a national trust property, so quite nicely kept up. It’s one of those things that is right on your doorstep so you don’t think to go there for some reason. Anyway, we walked around the house and then took a walk around the grounds. It was a nice, relaxing visit.

In the evening we just had some snacks and watched Hitch. I had been craving popcorn for a few days, which is very normal for me, but we had none in the house for a while! The cravings were getting worse and worse as the days went on. I finally had some stocked up by Saturday so made some for the movie. I had been looking forward (and talking about it) all day. John kept trying to steal handfuls once I had made it and I had to make a lot of effort to keep him away from it! I told him I would make him some of his own, but he was only happy if he was stealing it from me. I’m afraid to say that on that particular night I was unable to share my popcorn with my beloved husband, as the cravings were just too great and I was just enjoying it too much to be charitable. I mean it had been quite a few days since the last time I had eaten any! But I made some more on Sunday and we shared it then.

Sunday we went to John’s mom’s for Easter. It was just the three of us as Michelle was with her boyfriend’s family. Madeline made lovely cottage pie for us, and we watched The Terminal. John spent the whole day trying to get her wireless broadband to work, and unfortunately wasn’t successful.

Monday we had tickets to see Arctic Monkeys in Bournemouth. We decided to make a day out of it and went to Corfe Castle around noon. We had a nice cream tea in the area village first, then made our way up to the castle. It’s actually ruins now, but it was really cool to walk around them. Unfortunately I hadn’t dressed warmly enough and it was quite exposed, so I was very cold throughout the visit.

After the castle we went to Swanage, which is a little seaside town. We walked along by the beach, then sat down for a while and watched a few dogs playing in the water. We were tempted to get some seaside fish and chips (apparently seaside is the best place to get fish and chips) but we just weren’t hungry enough because of the cream tea.

From there we went to Bournemouth. We spent ages driving around trying to find our hotel. Eventually we found it and got checked in. We walked into town and had some dinner at Pizza Express. The show was a little while later. It was good. Arctic Monkeys are quite new and only have one album’s worth of material which is quite fast and short anyway, so it wasn’t the longest performance I’ve seen. They had two opening acts. My friend Laura from work was there and she and her friend stood with us during the show, then the four of us went to a bar afterwards.

I had actually booked today as holiday, since we stayed in Bournemouth last night. But John hadn’t booked it off in the end, and he needed to be at work today for a workshop. So we left early so he could get to work for 9. I was going to go in then as well, but I felt hungover and tired so I only made it for a ½ day in the afternoon. I spent a couple of hours in the morning resting and watched an episode of 6 Feet Under. John couldn’t come and get me at lunch so I had to take a taxi into work! Being down to one car hasn’t been too big of a problem, but it’s not ideal to have to pay £7 to get to work! I guess I need to learn the bus schedule or something, although I don’t think there is a direct one to work from where I live.