Monday 21 August - A Lovely Lady

On Thursday I spent the whole day dressed (but only did my face in the afternoon, which seems to work with my skin). I phoned Les and Jan about fish 'n chips. That will be September. Also, I organised the chimney sweep and did some work in the garden. In the afternoon I spent a couple of hours on the landscape work, which I am quite comfortable doing. A few pictures found their way onto flickr. I ordered the electronics for the SAD lamp and my replacement Canon lens arrived.

 Pauline arrived back from her 'Grand Tour' on Thursday night and came over on Friday to unload the French wine, as well as a bottle of organic Asbach for me, which was very nice. I cooked fish 'n chips - Sea Bream, followed by blackberries from the garden.

On Saturday I continued working in the main bedroom, sorting things out, hoovering, dusting, securing from rodents etc. all of which meant emptying clothes racks and finding yet more stuff for charity shops, but since my car boot was full, I just put them aside. Later that day I dressed and had a pleasant time in the warm late sunshine, but I was feeling a bit 'rough'. Pictures are on flickr. That 'rough' feeling was still with me on Sunday - I think I probably overdid things, with a lot of memories etc. coming into play. Pauline came over and I managed to break one of this year's blackberry brandy kilner jars, which really did not help me!  Anyway, things turned out OK in the end and we had slow-cooked venison stew, preceded by a revelation.

Last year I had cooked tomatoes in olive oil as I do with a glut and also roasted a couple of Aubergines before freezing them. Wanting to continue the freezer clear out, I decided to put them in a pan and serve with the venison (even though the flavours don't really match). They were cooked in a pan on the hob from frozen and after 30 minutes, the Aubergines had lost all their water and absorbed the oil from the tomatoes. I added some Ras el Hanout and the zest of half a lemon and we had it as a starter. The spices and lemon complimented the vegetables superbly -  a new starter is born.

After Pauline left I decided not to watch any Game of Thrones (I've been watching every night since I bought the set and I still can't remember who is who) but settled down to Celebrity Masterchef of which I saw about 30 minutes before falling into a deep sleep. I struggled to get to bed sometime later.

I had already decided today to do a major shop and decided to go to Folkestone and drop the charity things in at Barbara's charity shop. I said to the manager I had gone there because a friend used to work there and he asked who. When I mentioned Barbara, he couldn't sing her praises highly enough - "Our favourite, a lovely lady, so friendly to everyone". I just about managed to say she had recently died and that the goods being deposited were on her behalf before leaving the shop with tears welling up. It was well done.

I then went to Sainsbury's and bought almost everything I could need for the coming week, including more brandy for the blackberries.

Wednesday 15th August

Some days have gone by since my last entry. I worked out that the semi-trashing of flickr was as much to do with loneliness as anything else. Usually, I am OK with being alone, but stuff just got to me. The following week was spent continuing tidying up at the house and gathering things for charity shops/the dump. The new mower sat in the garage until the weekend. In the meantime, I did do something ... I booked a cottage in the Burren for the end of May next year and let Pamela know so that I can visit her as well. In the meanwhile Lindsay and I have been planning another weekend in Suffolk and I've had contact with my sister about the weekend I see John Tams. It seems she'll be heading to Yorkshire via Kent and Norfolk, starting that weekend, so our paths will probably cross .

Pauline continues her Grand Tour and seems to be having a good time. She is back and round here on Friday, so I'll find out more then. In the meantime, Tom texted to see if he could come over, also on Friday, but he's happy to wait a week.

Doris rang this evening to find out how I was - I was really touched. Apparently, Barbara's car was only taken back today! I need to contact Jan and Les to organise the fish and chips and asked Doris if she would be interested ... there was no hesitation on her part!

Tonight my pursuit of Ireland continues as I look to see whether to spend a might on the Aran Islands.

Sunday 6th August

Life continues as a bit of a roller coaster of emotions. After writing up the last blog, I happened upon a John Tams youtube video which was at Chequer Mead, East Grinstead, back in 2010 when Barbara and I went there (we stayed overnight at the curious Tunbridge Wells Travelodge). I recognised the 'Over the Hills and Far Away' - it was his closing piece and then I caught a glimpse of what might have been B's head just as the camera zoomed out at the end - we were sitting next to the video set up. Oh, that caused some tears. Then I went onto John Tams' website and he is scheduled to appear at Chequer Mead in September. There was no decision to be made - I bought a ticket.

On Wednesday I went into work for the morning to discuss Brit's work direction with her , Emma-Jane and Mike, following an unwarranted interference from Adrian and then Rebecca, trying to turn Brit into a planner! In the afternoon I came home to work on landscape but didn't get very far so continued into the Thursday before taking a lawnmower, old stuff from B's make up parlour at Folkestone and three PCs to the dump. I also fixed up a doctor's appointment - I need to check my scalp in the next day or two.

On Friday I bought shopping for the weekend and settled in doing a little more landscape work. John Bywater's rang to say my new mower would be delivered on Monday (great price £412 instead of Amazon's £675). I also phoned the optician and arranged to go in on Tuesday late pm (4.40pm), so everything was clear to do whatever I wanted this weekend.

I spent most of Saturday dressed and taking photos. For some reason I became quite down by the evening and trashed a lot of my flickr account. Today, I've been thinking about how I feel and am more relaxed.

2 August - Make Up

Last Saturday I made up for most of the day. After about 6 hours, I was feeling uncomfortable, so cleaned up. On Sunday I made up again, but discomfort came far sooner. I was also having problems with a pink nail varnish that remained soft for too long. Overall, Sunday was a bad face day, but when Monday came around, I wanted to dress again! Knowing that some other T girls do dress without make up, I thought  ... why not? I put on lipstick and darkened my eyebrows slightly (the thicker hairs are an unwelcome straw colour) and bewigged and that was it. Pictures are on flickr.

On Tuesday evening after returning from work, I did the same again. The photos were a little snatched, but I felt comfortable, so this is something I shall continue doing if I feel my skin needs a rest.