He bought three - THREE! - pairs of shoes yesterday, and this afternoon acquired two pairs of trousers plus various nether garments, with very little prompting from me!!

*shakes head in astonishment*

At this rate, he’s not going to have much room in his suitcase to accommodate my overspill…

…to the f***wit bus driver, about 2mm off my back bumper, honking his horn at me as I waited to turn into the Home :

“Look you cranially challenged imbecile, WHEN it’s clear to turn into the car park, ie WHEN the woman currently in the way but manoeuvering her way OUT is no longer blocking the entrance, THEN I’ll turn in. Is that clear, or would you like me to draw pictures?”

Unfortunately I just sat in my car and seethed.

Phew! I knew this week was going to be busy and I was right! Work people have “suddenly” realised I’m going to be away for two and a half weeks, and I seem to have rather a lot to do…meaning next week is going to be doubly bonkers.

Aside from the work stuff, the week has been busy in other directions too - trying to get the house into a fit state to be left (it’s a woman thing), trying to sort out what I’m taking, and then what I can actually fit into a suitcase, taking Mum to hospital…

Ah yes, taking Mum to hospital. Scheduled, but as we only requested the appointment three and a bit weeks ago, I was pleasantly surprised to get a date before the holiday. It’s her knees you know, her arthritis has got substantially worse over the last few months, so it was back to Orthopaedics. The dialogue between Mum and a very Scottish lady doctor was amusing (guid ta see yoo agane Missus Mutchell / age? 74), but the outcome very encouraging. They’re going to repeat the steroid injection procedure she had a year ago, but in both knees this time, and as an outpatient, and they’re going to do it before Christmas - in fact had we not been going away, they would have done it even sooner.

Having spent much of last year berating the NHS - with good reason I grant you - it’s a refreshing change to be singing its praises. I’m also increasingly aware of how much we take it for granted; having harvested some American friends over the last year or so, I’d estimate that the treatment Mum’s having would cost hundreds, more likely thousands of dollars if we lived on t’other side of the pond and didn’t have health insurance. Yesterday cost us £3.10 in car parking, and it’ll cost about the same again in December. Food for thought.

Actually, I rarely go to the theatre, cultural philistine that I am. But there is one play that I have seen numerous times, and will willingly travel to go and see whenever I find out it’s playing.

It’s called Noises Off, and is quite simply The Funniest Play Ever. And we’re off to see it in Malvern next week (we’re away when it’s moderately more local!). This will be the tenth - I think - time I’ve seen it, and I’ll still be in hysterics!!

When a day involves a nice lie in, a mooch around town with the husband, a nice drive, lunch with friends, the most amazing dark chocolate torte & walnut ice cream, another nice drive and a spot of shopping…well, it doesn’t get much better than that!!

Grrrrr! #1
We received a rather odd looking bit of paperwork from our water company last week - marked Final Bill and advising us of a credit back to our account. Yesterday was the first chance I had to ring them to query this. Turns out that some lettings company told them there were new tennants coming into this house!!! The refund had already been made, and our monthly direct debit cancelled, so I’ve had to repay them the credit and re-set up the DD (the two didn’t cancel each other out). They can’t tell me who the lettings company is - so how do I know who else they might have given our address in error to???

Grrrrr! #2
Also happened yesterday, as I was sorting out my car insurance. Last year, on moving from company A to company B, I was advised my sort code/bank account wasn’t set up for direct debits. I tried arguing the case, after all there are several DD’s running quite happily from my account, but they weren’t having any of it, and the monthly instalments had to be taken from my debit card. I had forgotten about this, until this year, when moving to company C (why don’t these companies try to keep you any more?), only to be told exactly the same thing. I tried to argue a bit more strenuously this time, but again, to no avail. It’s a bit more of a pain this time, as my debit card expires half way through the insurance period, so I’ll have to make sure they have the new number at the appropriate time. I rang my bank, who told me the account is perfectly able to handle direct debits (I know!), so they couldn’t do anything to help. Now, it seems to be far more than just coincidence that two separate insurance companies have told me this - so my guess is it’s soemthing in the software package used across the industry (DD, you’ll know more about this?) - so I tried calling the Financial Ombudsman, but they weren’t interested. Next stop the FSA - unless anyone has any better ideas…?

I got told off at the weekend, for not blogging about where I was going for the weekend, and letting people think I wasn’t going to be there.

*wibble*

Anyway, last weekend saw the LAST autumn hospital radio conference (only one conference a year from 2009 onwards), held at the St John’s Hotel in Solihull, Birmingham.

The usual fun & games, the usual nice catch up with old friends, the usual shipping trip with Jan - but one thing really stood out for me -

- the breakfast! Wow! This hotel does seriously good breakfasts. And they’ll happily serve you a hot chocolate when you say you don’t drink tea or coffee. Which went down extremely well with the pain au chocolate that begged me to eat it after I’d finished my egg & bacon…

Meh, sod the diet, holiday’s in less than three weeks now!

If anyone’s got any ideas to pass onto Gottle to make the updated spam comments blocker thingy work (he’ll tell you the real name) please do so - it’s just taken me two and a half hours of word search and bulk deleting to get my comments to a level where they could be bulk moderated…

I’ll blog about how good conference was tomorrow!

My usual 45 minute journey home from work took me TWO AND A HALF HOURS tonight - I know one has to expect such things when a chunk of the M1 is involved, but the motorway advisory signage was PATHETIC.

The sign at J27 - placed just to late to safely exit the motorway - advised 51 minutes to the next junction. It took 7 (the usual time). The sign at J26 - placed after the, so no bloody use anyway - advised 7 minutes to J25 (where I come off). It took an hour and 40 minutes.

*seethes*

When we cleared out Mum’s flat earlier this year, we homed a desk of hers, that she’s bought with her 21st birthday present money, and was understandably loathe to see go. It’s been an incredibly useful dumping ground for all the day to day household and personal filing - out of sight, out of mind. Today, the fact that I couldn’t close the front properly, finally convinced me I had to Sort It Out.

Two hours later and I’m done and it’s looking all nice and tidy again. I really MUST try and keep up with it more!!

In other news, Chris and I drew on University Challenge at 6 answers a piece. Made us feel clever anyway!

Brunch out with Chris yesterday
Chinese out with Paul, Rob & Sarah (and Chris!) last night
Picnic breakfast this morning : scotch pancakes & pains aux chocolate

D’you think only having soup for supper tonight will go anywhere near attoning for that little lot??!!

It’s been a really nice weekend with Paul & Co rocking up for 24 hours on their way back from their cacheing week in the Lake District. Sarah in particular seemed to enjoy the feline amenities of this B&B, so much so I almost felt compelled to do a head count and bag check before they left…all present and correct, but methinks it won’t be long before the patter of paws is heard in her home