What have you been doing today?

[Mottie]

Was working over the Olympic village this morning and on the way home, instead of jumping on the DLR at Stratford International, I walked through Westfield shopping centre to pick up a case from the Apple Store for my iPhone 15 Pro that is supposed to be delivered anytime between the 26th Oct and 2nd November. Picked up the case and out of curiosity asked them when they were getting the iPhones in stock. "We have them now" she said. They had the one I wanted with the storage I wanted in the colour I wanted so I got them to cancel my online order and I bought it there and then. They backed up my old phone and set it all up for me. They even did a trade in there and then with my old 2nd gen SE. I got £105 for it which wasn’t bad bearing in mind that the battery is shagged and a new battery was going to cost me £65. At home with it now, just finishing off the transfer from iCloud. I suppose I’ll be playing with it all afternoon now.

 

[Mottie]

Consoling Mrs Mottie. She came home a bit tearful and that started me off too. Her friends dog had to be put to sleep today due to an ongoing long-term illness. Almost 11 and a half years old. Thing is, that dog is our Susie’s sister from the same litter. It just reminded us that time marches on and that our pets usually die before we do. So sad but like our Susie, that dog couldn’t have had a better life. Just reminds us that death is a part of life. Nothing more, nothing less. When they were younger, she was a spitting image of Susie and you couldn’t tell them apart. In fact, once, for a laugh, we swapped their collars without telling mrs Mottie and her friend and it was hilarious watching them try to control 'their' dogs.

RIP Meg.

 

[Brigadier]

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The look in their eyes..............they just know you're going to eat that sausage yourself

 

[Mottie]

Came to work, ate my lunch, no students turned up, phoned the school and was told that the teacher that accompanies them is off sick and anyway, none of the students turned up to school today. Pretty much the same thing happens on every Friday before the school breaks up for holidays. Mrs Mottie told me I’d not see them today. She was right again. Oh well, I’ve been paid handsomely for it, back home and put my feet up then. Roll on the Friday before the Christmas break.

 

[crystal ball]

Another on line Tesco shop as still testing positive for Covid, realised we will not have any wine for the rugby tomorrow as Tesco will deliver on Sunday, had a look on amazon and ordered some wine delivered free tomorrow, reasonable prices too. We like to drink the wine of our opponents so Chenin Blanc on the menu

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Another on line Tesco shop as still testing positive for Covid, realised we will not have any wine for the rugby tomorrow as Tesco will deliver on Sunday, had a look on amazon and ordered some wine delivered free tomorrow, reasonable prices too. We like to drink the wine of our opponents so Chenin Blanc on the menu

Brew/ferment it yourself. My current 27L is just now, ready for bottling. It cost me £22 for the kit, plus around £2.50 for the sugar. An hour of my time to set it up, and hour to bottle it, when I have the time and inclination. 27L /750ml per bottle, call it 33 bottles at the end. $24.50/ 33 = 75p per bottle and it's as good as any wine I have bought.

 

[conny]

Saying my goodbyes to my work colleagues and friends over the past 3 years and handing in my keys, security pass etc. as I am now officially retired.

Thought I would just be popping my head around a couple of meeting room doors, as the students were off today due the teachers having a PD day, but they had other ideas. When I went in, I was told to go straight through to our office. Sits down with my boss and having a chat etc, handed over my bits & bobs and he says, "Let's go for one last coffee in the canteen".
Walks down past the performance hall and turned right into the dining area to be greeted by about 80 teachers and the deputy principal, all clapping and setting off poppers and letting balloons loose by releasing them. The chef had laid on a full English breakfast and continental breakfast for everyone and baked a couple of cakes. A very emotional time and totally unexpected.
I left with a big card, signed my everyone and all saying how much they would miss me etc, plus one or two personal pressies and a brown envelope. The nice thing was, this one contained a fair amount of cash to 'spoil myself', rather than be presented with something I may not need or want.

A very emotional, but lovely memory of a happy time in my life.

 

[Mottie]

Getting ready to go on the first shoot of the season. This time being run/organised by the young farmers. Not looking good so far - don’t even know if we'll get breakfast before we start as two of them that are organising todays shoot have been putting it about that both their mums are away on holiday! Good gawd!

 

[Brigadier]

Had a head cold, didn't sleep much at all last night, so really didn't fancy my usual Saturday morning openwater swim.

Had an errand to run instead, which turned into a hellish 50-mile roundtrip of a drive.

Roads all around my office were being dug up, unbeknownst to me, until I got stuck. 15 mins of being less than 200yds away but unable to get there, I had to go a different way, park up, and walk in instead.

Then, on way back, it seemed that the roads around dudley were running a L-driver day:they were everywhere.

Then, leaving dudley, spent a mile stuck behind a berk (no L plates, but with an old guy with an identity badge in the passenger seat, giving directions...........) doing 20mph on wide and all but empty roads, and braking for every parked car, bend, and approaching car.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Clearing some of the surplus items, from my wardrobe. There was much more to go to charity, than I expected - three bin bags rammed full.

 

[Mottie]

Getting ready to go on the first shoot of the season. This time being run/organised by the young farmers. Not looking good so far - don’t even know if we'll get breakfast before we start as two of them that are organising todays shoot have been putting it about that both their mums are away on holiday! Good gawd!

Hooray, breakfast of sausage and bacon rolls supplied. Drinks, any drink you liked throughout the day. Break for elevensies and lunch was the best I’ve had on a shoot. Home made curried turnip soup plus they had sent out for half a dozen absolutely massive party platters containing cheeses, crackers, chutneys, pickles, sandwiches, rolls, scotch eggs, quiches, pork pies, salad etc etc. The shooting was good too! Susie had a shock when she was looking in one of the pens that they rear the birds in - literally a shock as the electric fence was still on! The shoot was over three farms and we were carted around in a trailer pulled by a tractor. One farm only had partridges and boy, are they fast - they only shot two of them! At the end of the day, I came away with two brace of pheasants plus I won the sweepstake for guessing nearest to the total number of shots fired. I nearly had the double with guessing the number of birds shot and I was bang on the number….until two other downed birds were found in the woods. In all, a great day.

 

[Mottie]

Foisting! Mrs Mottie popped out to the garage today and immediately noticed the smell of the two brace of pheasants that I hung up yesterday. She said she also saw some flies. Told me to get rid of 'em sharpish - apparently we still have some frozen pheasant breasts in the freezer from earlier this year. Anyway, I tried to foist a brace onto my sister but she politely told me to **** off so I foisted a brace onto the assistant allotment manager and another brace onto my next door neighbour but one. Job done!

 

[crystal ball]

Listening to cricket NZ v India - fog stops play up in the Himalayas

 

[Brigadier]

Doing a Nosey; cleaning the oven (well, mostly just the glass door).

Bicarbonate of soda, a bit of vinegar later, and some gentle scraping with a Stanley blade.

 

[fillyboy]

Foisting! Mrs Mottie