Catch up with friends

Friday, 30th April 2010

Another weekend of social whirl.  It started with a reunion with work colleagues. I know it was actually a sad occasion in that it was a leaving do for my manager and another colleague. I went all out and as they had brought me a scarf and necklace so I put them together for a more glamorous look.
It took me over an hour to get to the pub due in part that there were an increased level of caravans as we have a public holiday this weekend.
Finally arrived and everyone was pleased to see me, thankfully I had not missed much. We had a good time chatting and catching up. Stayed long enough for the presentations.
Then it took another hour to get home. Arrived around the same time as Ivan who then went out to pick up our friend from Brum, while I cooked tea.

Saturday, 1st May 2010
Woke early and readied myself for a day out. We left on time and set the sat nav. As we were on our way the plans changed and where we are meeting, but not problems we just adjusted the sat nav to the new location and carried on our way.
We arrived at Chatsworth and waited for the others to arrive. Not long later the first of our friends arrived and then we all retired for cup of tea and chat till the others arrived.

The girls went off to the house and the boys went to the farm and adventure play ground. After the audio tour of the house and a look at the Tulip festival flower displays in each room. We went on for the main event of the day - afternoon tea!
We had finger sandwiches of Ham & Mustard, Cheese & Cucumber, Smoked Salmon, Egg. This was followed by a Lemon Mousse. Then the discussion started which is first the cream or the jam for the scones, also how do you pronounce 'Scone'. We then had a chocolate brownies and a meringue. All joined by a lovely cup of loose leaf Earl Grey (named after the lover of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire).
Everyone enjoyed the conversation and the food. We then went for a wander around the shops and picked up a few choice items.
This was followed by a walk around the gardens and meeting up with the boys.
Once home we had Fish n' Chips. The only thing was that I was shattered!

Sunday, 2 May 2010

My friends partner joined us today and arrived in time for breakfast. Once ready we then went out to the archetypal Tudor black and white building. Little Moreton Hall is a National Trust property.
We had a guided tour of the ground floor and then made our way up to the long gallery at the top of the south range.
We then went home and had a lovely roast dinner.  Good conversation and a couple of drinks round the dinning room table. All in all a good weekend.

Monday, 3 May 2010
May Day Bank Holiday
A much required duvet day.

Tuesday, 4 May 2010
Another duvet day - it is surprising what you can not do when you have the time not to do it. I have managed to run down the digital box to only 18 hours remaining. During the course of today I managed to record some more operas for my dad and watch a couple of things as well.

Friends

This has been an interesting time as you can tell. It would have been a lot more awful without friends and I want to thank all those who have taking the time to write cards and send them, take time out of your day and busy schedules to visit me, even to the expense of bringing flowers, chocolates and other goodies.

The past couple of weeks I have been building up my trips out.  I have now finally got back behind the wheel of a car and went to the Trafford Centre shopping, you will be pleased to note that I was joined by another driver just in case it was too much or I could not cope with it, I have now bought a hat and will require a few more as I don't want to get bored of it or that it appears in too many photos over the summer.

I have also been to two National Trust properties.

• Quarry Bank & Styal Estate
  Here we followed various school groups round and played around ourselves with the hands on exhibits.  Very enjoyable as all National Trust properties are.  We also visited the newly opened gardens.  They were handed over to the trust in 2006 and opened in 2008, there is still work to be done but it was a wonderful spot by the water.  It will look lovely as the various flowers bloom, at the moment they are limited to the Snowdrops (those that are left), a myriad of Daffodils but not enough for Wordsworth me thinks and the odd Crocus.  There was a view of things to come with a lonely Tulip on show.

• Dunham Massey
  Our first stop at Dunham Massey was the restaurant for a light lunch.  We also went on one of the guided tours around the house.  When we mustered at the meeting point I bumped into an ex-work colleague from the paper, which was a shock.  We chatted and swapped a little gossip, as you do.  The tour was really good and informative of the family and the development of the estate.  On our way out we then saw the local inhabitants feeding.