Campaign for the traditional Stag night

In these days of struggling to make ends meet, do you dread being invited to a friend’s wedding?

Now it’s bad enough trying to squeeze into the suit you last wore for your Grandma’s funeral 3 years ago only to find that it’s mysteriously ‘shrunk’ over that time and to wear those trousers over any prolonged period would cause irreparable damage to the genital area! With reluctance you concede that you have no alternative but to fork out for a new suit. The next dilemma is whether to tell the wife about the invitation, in the full knowledge that she will want a new dress plus matching accessories for the ‘big day’. The pound signs are already giving your brain a bashing! All this to attend the wedding of a ‘friend’ who you rarely see nowadays but feel obliged to attend as they came to your wedding 5 years ago when you were much closer.

After having reluctantly accepted after the wife has told you that you have no alternative, you now dread the next step, ‘The Stag and Hen nights’. In my day this involved a few mates gathering at the local, or perhaps a pub crawl around town followed by a curry, before being sick and then tying the groom to a lamp post naked. All good harmless fun without costing the earth. You can’t do this nowadays, every pending bride and groom feel massively under pressure to outdo their friends with a more outrageous, and expensive, event. No longer just a night out, at the very minimum an overnight stay in UK or for the more adventurous a few days in Benidorm or even worse, Vegas for the lads. The more cultured Hen’s may find Benidorm too vulgar and opt for an even more expensive hotel Spa break. There they can pay extortionate amounts to lie around in fluffy white gowns drinking overpriced cheap Prosecco and get liberally covered in mud by an overly made up ‘orange’ person in a white tunic, sporting massive false nails and eyelashes.

You try to think of every reason under the sun not to attend but unfortunately you can’t predict that you will have Covid that far ahead! Even worse when you find out the date, you lie and make the excuse that it’s your Mother’s 70th birthday and you simply cannot miss the family party. Only for the groom to state that the date is not yet set in stone and they will work around the dates to make sure that you are available! 

Reluctantly you ‘gratefully’ agree to attend even though you are already a couple of hundred down on new outfits. You are added to the stag ‘WhatsApp’ group and wait with impending dread, the details!  Oh great, firstly we are not going abroad, but then things start to go downhill. You are spending 3 nights in a city hundreds of miles away, but ‘fortunately’ they have organised a great hotel deal and it’s only going to cost you £70 a night to share a room with 3 others, all of whom you don’t know. They have also sorted a ‘group saver’ rail ticket which will only set you back another £50. 

Next comes the dreaded ‘events’, these are a must for any self respecting Stag or Hen night these days. No you can’t just sit in the pub for a few hours. You look at the most original thing that you can all do without thought to the preference of those attending. What about White Water Rafting, or Zorbing in a big plastic ball down a very steep hill. These alone will not be enough, that is only for one day, there will also need to be a couple of other perhaps less energetic ‘events’ such a bowling, crazy golf or a darts bar. You are gleefully informed of the events you are going to attend which, as a confirmed couch potato, fill you with a sense of panic, This panic is only outdone by the cost, yet another very reasonable £150. 

You are now adding up the total cost which, with a weekend of food and booze, is now approaching a grand. Having done your sums you think it will be a struggle but with a bit of overtime you may just be able to afford it. Only for things to get worse, the Bride insists that your wife ‘simply must’ come with the girls on their Hen weekend to Benidorm. Luckily they say they are looking to do this ‘on the cheap’. But up front she will need the obligatory ‘Hen’s on tour Beni22’ T-shirt and the matching Pink Cowboy hat which must be worn just to give the general public a clue that they are on a Hen weekend. With flights, cheap hotel and booze you should get away with around £500.

What with the travel to the wedding, hotel accommodation for the night and overpriced drinks at the swank hotel reception you are now looking at the best part of £2k, and it’s not even your wedding!!

I know that I’m a grumpy old git but I am happy to lead the campaign for ‘non event’ traditional local Stag  and Hen nights. Just think about it guys, for the bride and groom, they could use the money saved to supply a few more vol au vents and bottles of cheap fizz at the reception. The guests will be more than happy, they may even be able to get outfits from Next rather than Primark! And even more important, your local will be more than thankful for your business! 

Coronavirus diary of a moaner Week 18 The last post

Last week was quite political with plenty to rant about. Hopefully this week will be a bit lighter.

Fri 24th July - up early and back to my ‘job’, our first guests have been staying at our place in Owermoigne for a week so it's down there to make sure everything is ok and help out with anything that needs doing. I was down there before 9.30 even after stopping off at Tesco in Shaftesbury on the way down to get a few things for my mother. The guests had left before I arrived and they had not left it in too bad condition. The grass hadn't grown much so that saved me a job. I rushed through a few things and said to my housekeeper, Becki, that I needed to get away early as my mother was having scaffolding put up at her house for a chimney repair and I needed to make sure that was going ok.

I left just before 11 and went into Dorchester to see my mother, the scaffolders had turned up just after 8am and had nearly finished by the time I got there. They had done a good job and left before 12. My builder, Wayne, is starting on Monday to do the repair.

Again I was in a hurry to get back as our ‘mystery delivery’ that I mentioned on last week’s blog was supposed to be delivered between 1-2pm. I left around 12.30 and got home at 2pm. The box had arrived a bit earlier so Josh and I carried it out eagerly to the Shed for installation. Just imagine the excitement and anticipation we were experiencing. We had found online a new handpump for cask ales with a connection to ‘bag in box’. As you know we have a weekly delivery of bag in box and although good, the extra oomph it will get from passing through the pump will make it just like having a pint at the pub. It was supposed to be very easy to put together and should be working within 5-10 mins. They were right, it was very easy and we decided the first thing was to run some cleaning solution through the pipes. This is where things stated to go wrong, there was no suction and we could hear that air was being sucked in when we pulled the pump. When Josh tried to tighten the bottom pipe connection, the whole bottom section of the pump fell off. We put it back together but still the same. Then Josh found that when the bottom fell off, a circular washer with a transparent interior had also fallen out into the box we had underneath. So assuming that this was the problem we again put it all back together, finally we were able to get the cleaning solution to be pulled through the lines, however where the bottom had fallen off it was leaking badly. Despite our efforts in tightening this up and moving around the washer etc it still leaked. So, next step was to contact the manufacturer, the website front page stated they were only open until 12.30 on Friday but when going into their FAQs and installation issues it stated that they were open until 17.00 Mon-Fri and also they had a live chat facility  which was available until midnight 7 days a week! I rang and there was only the opportunity to leave a message, which I did. There was no link to a chat facility but there was an online contact form which I completed. I also sent them a message via their messenger service. All with no response, I also put a comment on Twitter that I was not impressed. Finally at 7pm I had a reply on messenger saying that they closed at 12.30 on Friday but sent me a link to a video telling us how to put it together. I replied that we were fully aware of how to put it together as we had viewed a video before making our purchase and also re-confirming that the bottom had ‘fallen off’. I also suggested in no uncertain terms that they amend their FAQs to update their opening times and delete reference to their chat facility. He replied stating that he would contact me on Monday. We had spent the best part of the afternoon messing about with this, our 20 ltrs of bag in box was delivered about 4.45pm, so it was just back to the usual pour. We hadn't told Grunters about our purchase and was hoping to surprise her with a decent pint on her return from work but all this had ‘p****d on our fireworks’ from a great height. Still we just carried on as normal and had a few pints!

Sat 25th July - Raf rang yesterday and asked if we would gave Willow for the day as they were off getting Indy mated again. They dropped her off around 9am, she was as good as gold throughout the morning and enjoyed her egg and soldiers and grated cheese which she particularly liked. We then took her for a walk with Albie across the fields to Giles Wood and also down the canal a bit in search of ducks. Unfortunately today there were no ducks in sight and with the steady but fairly light rain we made our way back to the car. She was well tired by the time we got back but had walked all the way but had slowed down considerably. She fell asleep in the car on the way home so Anna carried her in and plonked her down on the settee for an hour or so snooze. Me and  Josh retired to the Shed in the afternoon, Grunters had gone out to visit her friends. I had caught sight in the morning on Facebook of a Yorkshire Cocktail, in this instance it was a pint of Carling with a straw in but also having a mini pork pie attached to the rim. I obviously copied this in to Grunters as it would be her idea of heaven but I also suggested a pint of Stealth. When she got back from her visiting Josh asked if she wanted a pint, which obviously she agreed to! She went in to sort herself out when he suggested that I nip indoors to get a mini pork pie out of the fridge to make her a Yorkshire Cocktail. She was obviously highly delighted when she came back out to the Shed to see the pint of Covert with a pork pie on the rim with a straw. She moaned but within a minute I managed to get a picture of her stuffing down the pie!!! 

Sun 26th July - Why have we got a homosexual dog with a foot fetish? Albie will not leave me alone, he keeps licking my feet and strangely my watch? I have washed my feet, arms, wrist and watch many times but it still sends him into ‘hump mode’. Nobody else in the house is having problems but Alb has taken a fancy to me for some reason and will not leave me alone. I even googled this morning whether dogs liked the smell of coconut as we had coconut smelling shower gel and hand wash. Nothing there to say that dogs were particularly attracted to it and also yesterday I had put on loads on hand gel on both my hands and feet in the hope of putting him off but it still didn't put him off! He is a great dog but it can get a bit wearing when he constantly tries to hump you!!

We made a nice ham, spinach and ricotta Lasagne before football started, then watched the mighty Saints come back from 1 down to win 3-1 and overtake Everton into 11th place for the season. I am going to have £20 on Saints finishing in the top 8 next season. It would be a much better bet than Spurs winning any form of trophy!

Announced yesterday that anyone visiting Spain have to self isolate for 14 days, we had planned going out in September but luckily we haven't booked the flights yet. Spain have a much more rigorous COVID regime than we have and have  to wear masks everywhere, many of the outbreaks there are regionalised and can be sorted locally just like Leicester and other Northern areas in this country, but for some obscure reason the Government have decided to shut down the whole of Spain to us all!

After football we had the Lasagne, it was very good!

Mon 27th July - took Albie out for his daily walk to Giles Wood, it was raining steadily but fairly 

lightly. He was a pain in the arse, running off after other dogs and going off to ‘meet’ other people. He spent most of the walk on his lead but because of the rain the ground is very slippery and getting quite muddy. If he pulled on the lead it felt like you were going to slip arse over head. Tomorrow his walk will be pavement based!

Back for lunch, still not heard anything from Pint365 about our beer pump although he said we would speak Monday, so I messaged them and got the response that they would call me shortly. About half an hour later he rang, offering either a whole new unit and for us to package up and send back to old one, or more quickly, a replacement cylinder unit which would take 5-10 minutes to fit. I opted for the replacement part which he was going to send out immediately. We will see how good this is and whether it completely sorts the issue.

We use quite a bit of greaseproof/baking paper, usually to line baking trays to stop anything sticking. Normally we get the cheap supermarket stuff but when we last ran out we couldn't find any in the supermarket. When we were in Dorset a couple of weeks ago we saw some Bacofoil non-stick baking paper in The Range so bought some, strangely enough when Josh was shopping that week he saw some exactly the same so bought it without knowing that we already had some. We have been using it for the last week or so, it is definitely worth the small extra cost, it tears off well and is very non stick, much better than the supermarket own brands.

Had another ‘standard reply’ from Michelle Donelan, this time in respect of her voting for Clause 17 which gives government to power to sell off the NHS and to agree trade deals without having agreement of parliament. Her reply was patronising effectively stating that I did not understand what Clause 17 was attempting to do and how committed she was to the NHS and ensuring that it was not sold off. What happens remains to be seen, I will retain her response for future reference if anything does happen. 

Had a message to say that our replacement part for the beer pump will be delivered tomorrow, hopefully it will work this time, fingers crossed!

Tues 28th July - one whining dog this morning, he seems to have a burst of energy and senses that its a nice day, he is very restless, I think he will need a good run out today. Took him to our usual run at Giles Wood, despite him being a pain in the arse this morning he was very good on our walk. Hopefully it will tire him out for the rest of the day!

Our new cylinder for the beer pump arrived, it only took us about 10 mins to replace and now it works perfectly first time around. We were well happy with it and Grunters was able to use it for local brewery week on Craft Beer hour. 

Anna took Albie out for a walk in the evening as well which seemed to settle him down better.

My mother is finally having her chimney repaired, Wayne couldn't start yesterday due to the rain 

but made a start today, thank goodness for that it will stop her going on about it!

Wed 29th July - Albie us being good again this morning, he was also reasonably well behaved on his morning walk at Giles Wood.

Josh decided to do the shopping a day early this week as it's supposed to be hot tomorrow and he didn't fancy wandering around in a mask in that heat, he is also planning to go in to see granny and grandad.

Boris and co have put Visitors returning from all of Spain on 14 days quarantine, although there are spikes in parts of Spain the majority us as good or better than UK, especially the Canaries and Balearics. I think they should consider targeting certain areas for action. I can't help thinking that the government ( Dominic Cummings), are trying to line up other countries to take the fall in the event of another spike in the UK!

Decided to vacuum the Shed, clean the windows inside and out and spray and clean all the stools and tables.

I was on the phone to my mother when Wayne, my builder, called on our landline to check whether it was ok to replace my mothers’ shower unit. Her electric shower had packed up but she didn't want to tell me as I would say to rip out her bath and replace it with a walk in shower. I have been telling her to do that for ages as she is 91 and finds it increasingly difficult to climb in and out of the bath to have a shower, but will she listen!!! Exasperated I told him to go ahead and just replace the unit. She then told me that it had broken only yesterday, I don't believe her, especially when she then said she had previously asked her neighbour if he could replace it! 

Thurs 30th July - a hot day, took Alb for his usual walk to Giles Wood and out by the canal. Had a short snooze on the sofa early afternoon then sat outside for a beer, it was so hot I had to come indoors. Josh made a form of chilli with biltong for dinner which we ate outside as it was still warm out. We sat there until about 9pm having a few drinks outside. 

Back down to Owermoigne tomorrow for the next changeover.

After all these weeks I think that this will be my last ranting blog. It has got me through lockdown giving me the opportunity to get things off my chest. I hope that it has given you some sort of entertainment over the last 4 months or so! I will continue to do a few ad hoc blogs when something annoys me! Thanks for taking the time to read them.

Coronavirus diary of a moaner Week 17

Another week in partial lockdown, my last weeks post was going to be the last but Matti and Nath both reckon I should carry on, I will carry on for now by semi popular demand.

Fri 17th July - spent first part of the morning packing up the car with the masses of stuff that Anna made me take down to Owermoigne last week. Showed our housekeeper, Becki, where Anna had now stowed everything and then got out of her way while she carried on with the cleaning etc. 

Following my being in trouble for not taking Anna out yesterday and going to the pub instead, I thought we would make a few detours on the way home. We went out toward Corfe Castle and Swanage. We had an ice cream in a parking lot which had a great viewpoint overlooking the whole of Poole Harbour, Brownsea Island, Studland and onto Bournemouth. We sat there in the car like a couple of old pensioners. Then we drove down to Swanage, Anna had packed a small picnic with bits of leftovers we had in the fridge so we found a 1 hour free parking slot right by the beach and took our blanket down for a beach picnic.

Returned back home somewhere around 4pm ready for a few Friday night Shed pints. Sat outside for a while, Nath and Matti turned up. Josh made some cracking lamb kebabs, we retired to the Shed when it started getting cooler and stayed in there all evening.

Sat 18th July - writing this day on Sunday night, nearly forgot what I did yesterday, which wasn't an awful lot. Usual afternoon of watching football and we had invited Dave and Steph round for pizza night. We had a pleasant evening of beer, pizza and more football on the TV. Arsenal caused the surprise by beating City in the semi final of the FA Cup. 

Sun 19th July - sausage sandwich breakfast after a bit of a lie in. Saints were playing Bournemouth today, a lose for Bournemouth would more than likely see them go down. We watched the game which ended up 2-0 to Saints, in injury time Bournemouth had a goal ruled out by VAR for offside and then we scored a second through Che Adams’ second goal of the season. After that we had a ‘double header of watching Bath City lose in their play off game on the laptop whilst at the same time watching Spurs v Leicester on the TV. A quick break from football to collect dinner at the end from the kitchen before going back out to the Shed to eat and watch Chelsea beat Man Utd in the other cup semi final.

Mon 20th July - Raf rang Josh to ask if we would have Albie, Indy has come into season and obviously this is getting Albie into ‘hump’ mode. He dropped him off and when Alb decided to start whining I went out to cut the grass. I am looking to walk a minimum of five thousand steps per day or thirty five thousand over a week so having Alb will help reach this goal more easily. After cutting the grass I was already half way to my daily target and then we took him out for a walk over the fields at the back of Bowerhill and throughout Giles Wood by the canal. By the time we got back I was over my daily target by more than a thousand. 

Tues 21st July - The Russian Report is supposed to be finally published today. It obviously won't make good reading for the Tories as otherwise they would gave released it far sooner, it should have been released prior to the last election!

 Albie was a bit of a pain in the arse last night, he didn't sleep well and had to be let out a couple of times. This morning he is snuggled up fast asleep and is reluctant to move!

See that our Wonderful MP has yet again brown nosed to Boris and toed the party line by voting against clause 17 which effectively would have protected the NHS from any form of control from outside the UK. How can Tory MP’s clap and praise the NHS then vote to sell them down the river.   A survey confirmed that 75% of British public did not support those voting against this and want to keep the NHS British, it also means that parliament has no say in any future trade deals giving Boris and his cronies carte blanche to agree whatever they wish to benefit themselves and their rich donors. This will give parliament less control over decisions over trade than they had with the EU.  I have sent yet another email to her to explain her actions and also to remind her that I want a reply to my email of 10th July!

The Russian report effectively confirms that there was evidence of Russian interference in the Scottish referendum which the government were aware of but they ‘actively failed’ to investigate this further in respect of the Brexit referendum and subsequent elections. And we wonder why they didn't want to publish this before the last general election? To investigate Russian involvement would have required the direction of the Home Secretary, guess who that was at the time, yes Boris! Fraud is rife throughout the whole Tory party!

Albie had two good walks today, one through the woods at Giles Wood and later a pavement walk around the estate.

Beer order has gone in for this week, 10ltrs Covert and 10ltrs Locked In with Azacca hops.

Wed 22nd July - Michelle Donelan emailed me back about Dominic Cummings. I had asked for a breakdown in the numbers from the 1500 emails that she said she had from her constituents to confirm how many were in favour and how any against his actions. She did the usual politicians reply to a question by not directly answering it. She just said that she could not make personal views expressed by her constituents public but from the emails she received the 2 strongest were one for and one against. I will write back as I did not ask for personal views, I just asked for the numbers for and the numbers against from the 1500.

With regard the corrupt handing of contracts to contacts of Dominic Cummings and Michael Gove she just waffled on about Government transparency and how all contracts were made in the public domain. She says that Coronavirus related contracts which do not have to go to tender have been issued in full accordance with the law. If this is the case perhaps she can explain how a PPE contract worth £108m was awarded to a pest control company Pestfix, based in Sussex, with assets of £19,000 and a staff of 16. Also how another £108m PPE contract was handed to a wholesaler of sweets, Clandeboye Agencies Ltd, who had no previous experience of manufacturing PPE. She mentioned a contract issued to Randox Laboratories Ltd being in the public contracts register but my specific question to her was around the issue of contracts to associates of Gove and Cummings. I had not queried Randox Laboratories but as she brought it up i looked into it, it is obviously another case of ‘jobs for the boys’, it was a £133m contract issued to undertake testing, this is fine however they employ Owen Paterson, a former Tory cabinet minister as a consultant. 

A contract of £840,000 was issued to a small policy and research company Public First whose owners have links to Cummings and Gove, the contract was issued without going out to tender under the guise of the Coronavirus need to be urgently commissioned. However they were first commissioned on 3rd March although no contract was put in place until 5th June! When the contract was finally issued it was backdated until 3rd March and £253,000 was paid out for Brexit related projects, absolutely nothing to do with COVID and not subject to the ‘emergency’ Covid contracts thus should have been put out to public tender!

I am asking her to justify this and also to supply me with the amount of PPE that has been produced by these 2 companies, that has been passed as suitable for use within the NHS.

On a lighter note I took Albie out for a walk to Giles Wood again, it was a very hot day and poor Alb was knackered for the rest of the afternoon. 

Did a few jobs with Josh in the Shed, strengthened the bar top which was ‘sagging’ somewhat. Had a sort round of a few bits of wood in the garage and found where the mice had previously made a nest in the corner. I think they are long gone as I had a trap out for a few weeks without catching one, the nest is now swept up and in the bin.

Thurs 23rd July - not only do we have Albie today but Inca is also being dropped off as they are out all day getting Indy mated as she is now in season. Also it's my turn to go shopping today, although masks aren't compulsory until tomorrow I may give it a go with my mask today. Shopping at Lidl successfully done, about 70% of people today had masks on, including me, I have no real issue around wearing one but why now? Why wasn't this brought in as mandatory months ago?

Albie is being a real pain in the arse with Inca, he just will not leave her alone. We think it's that Inca has been with Indy, and with Indy being in season he probably smells her on Inca. There was no way I was taking them both out for a walk on my own today, so Anna came with me and we ended up with having both of them on leads as Albie could not behave himself! 

I am more than a day over my minimum number of steps this week after 4 days, I deliberately set it low at 5000 per day, it makes you feel a lot better when you over achieve.

I had a bit of good news this afternoon, Josh and I had made an online purchase on Tuesday which was due to be delivered next Monday but I had a text from Parcelforce to say it is coming tomorrow. What is it you may ask? Well you will have to wait in anticipation until next week when I will reveal what it was and how effective it has been!

Sorry this week has been a bit more political again but there has been plenty for me to rant about whereby not much has been happening at home.

Coronavirus diary of a moaner Week 16

Well after the latest lockdown restrictions it's now holiday week in our house in Owermoigne.

Fri 10th July - packed up the car while Anna just emptied every cupboard, fridge and freezer to take down with us!

Reasonable drive down but there was quite a lot of holiday traffic about, numerous caravans and motorhomes the nearer we got to Dorset. As e weather is supposed to be quite good this week they are obviously out in force!

Met Raf and Jade down at the house as they had been staying last week, we looked after the 3 dogs while they took Willow and Orla down to Ringstead beach. Jade’s dad, Chris stayed down for a few nights last week, he mentioned to Raf that the earthing spike next to the electricity telegraph pole shouldn't be sticking out like it was. Chris has only just retired from SSE so was in the know. It has been like that for the last 3 years and I had a plastic ‘bucket’ over the top of it to make sure kids did not fall on it and injure themselves. So around 5pm I went onto SSE chat facility to report it, they chatted straight back and I told them I would be around for the next week if they wanted to send out an engineer. She then asked if I would be in this evening and said an engineer would turn up, I had another message later to say he would be there by 7.30, he turned up more or less dead on time and was shortly afterwards joined by another engineer. They sorted out the spike and put in some new trunking on the pole and left around 9pm. From reporting to job done in 4 hours, I was well impressed.

Michelle Donelan finally sent her response to my Dominic Cummings email. She said that she had 1500 such emails both for and against his actions. The response was obviously exactly the same that she had sent to the other 1499. It read something like an official Tory statement whereby she didn't necessarily agree that he had acted in an appropriate manner. She went on about them being sick and his sick child and how now we ought to put it behind us and concentrate on attacking the virus. I obviously had to respond and rather than messing about my whole reply was as follows:

Michelle,

Thank you for your response although I am sure that it’s the same one you sent to the other 1499 that emailed you.

You state that you had concerns, many of which you shared yourself. Also that you had emails from those opposing his actions and others staunchly in favour. Can I request the estimated breakdown of those for and against, given that national polls from voters of all sides, confirmed that around  two thirds thought that he should be sacked!

As an intelligent and educated person I am convinced that you did not for one minute believe the majority of what he was saying! You say that you appreciate that he said he could have handled this better but at no time did he show any regret for his actions or apologise.

If you had concerns and the majority of your constituents and indeed the country thought that he should be sacked, why didn’t you have the courage to join over 60 of your fellow MP’s calling for his resignation?

Every time you toe the party line, you may be concerned about possibly losing your job but your constituents would have far more respect for you if you stuck up for your principles and the wishes of the majority of your voters!

Whilst on the subject of Mr Cummings, can you explain why contracts are being handed out to his and Mr Gove’s friends without being put out to tender? Please have the courage to take this forward publicly to ensure that there is no evidence whatsoever of corruption or the old boys network!

I await your response.

Sat 11th July - as it looked like being a nice day we thought we would do a few jobs around the house, Dorset will be like a car park this weekend full of holidaymakers and day trippers. We thought we would try to get out and about during the week.

I had the exciting job of re-grouting the 2 en-suite floors and Anna did a bit of paint touching up that needed doing. It took far longer than we originally planned then I decided to change over the tv in the bedroom. After Becki our housekeeper called in for chat and a cup of tea it was time for a quick shower then pop out to the Range and Tesco to pick U.K. a few bits.

Got back for a couple of beers in the garden before the sun went down then cooked dinner, watched a bit of football then a documentary about Live Aid, you forget that it was 35 years ago. I remember that I had just moved from Parkstone to Gloucester the day before and made sure the tv was set up, got some beer in, and sat amongst boxes all day watching Live Aid instead of unpacking!

Sun 12th July - after a little lie in we decided that we’d better go to see my mother for a socially distanced chat in her garden. We did pick up my ‘half moon’ of cheese that my niece had left with her yesterday. My niece and her husband have a dairy farm where the cows are constantly outside, even for milking from mobile milking parlours. Their milk is used by the local cheese factory who also make them a mature cheddar ‘Open Air Dairy’, a very tasty cheese at a good price for the family connection. After nearly two hours of that I was in the mood for a pint, we had not been to a pub since they re-opened. 

Thought we would give the Convivial Rabbit a go, they are doing  table booking and have cut their capacity by half, even though it wasn't exactly big in the first place. There are now 5 tables inside and a few outside. We tried ringing to book a table but it went to message, so given that it was Sunday afternoon we just turned up. It was very quiet and the social distancing was very well observed. The only problem was the beer selection, as they are so small they usually put on 4-5 casks per week on a Wednesday when they open and carry on until they sell out. They also do home deliveries from these few casks. They can't afford to put more on and potentially see it go to waste. Luckily they had Bristol Beer Co Milk Stout still available as well as a good selection of cans and bottles. We only had a couple but it was good to revisit a pub.

Back to the White House and we sat in the warm sunshine for a couple of hours even having dinner ‘al fresco’. Went back in to watch a bit of football and have a bit of a snore. Booked tickets for Abbotsbury Sub Tropical gardens tomorrow.

Monday 13th July - left at just gone 10 to get to Abbotsbury for our 11am check in time. I was just about to walk out of the door when Anna noticed my slight ‘shorts malfunction’. There was a big hole right round the pocket, if looks like I must have caught the pocket on something and ripped a big hole. I hadn't noticed despite the draught that must have been creeping around my nether regions. Unfortunately beyond repair I had to quickly put on another pair of shorts for my day out. However luckily this was not as bad as my first ‘shorts malfunction’ a couple of years ago. I was with Josh and he had popped into Co-op for work and I was waiting outside before venturing to the Convivial Rabbit for a pint. As Josh puts it, when he came out of Co-op I was stood with my back to him staring at the wall! He quickly noticed that my shorts were ripped from top to bottom right down the back and I was proudly displaying my boxers. Again I had not noticed the extra draught around my nether regions! Josh gleefully pointed out my predicament, at which time I scurried back to the car holding the 2 halves of my shorts together at the back. Josh was duly dispensed to M&S to buy me a new pair, luckily it didn't happen now as M&S have shut down and I can't think of any other men's clothes shops in Dorchester, so I could have been wandering around in charity shop cast offs!

The Abbotsbury subtropical gardens are definitely worth a visit, they don't let many in at the moment and they have employed a one way system throughout. For the fit and able, there is a challenging walk uphill to a viewing point with fantastic views over Chesil Beach to Lyme Bay to the right and the Fleet and Portland to the left. Unfortunately the cafe at the end was closed but we spent a good 1.5 hours walking round, a coffee at the end would have just about rounded off the morning.

Then off to Weymouth, we had a nice walk along the seafront, there were a lot of people on the beach but social distancing seemed to be very well observed. Then wandered round by the quayside, they have pedestrianised a stretch of it which has enabled several pubs to bring tables out further onto the road. Many of the pubs seemed to be doing good business with the majority of outdoor tables taken.

We stopped off at Weyfish on the quayside, they sell fresh fish brought in on the local boats. We bought a couple of good sized Hake fillets for dinner later and could not resist a pot of cockles with vinegar and pepper to eat on the harbour wall.

Back to Dorchester to pick up a bathroom extractor fan from Screwfix which is being fitted tomorrow and a stop off at Lidl just to get a few bits to go with our Hake.

Saints v Man Utd on tv later at 8pm so we need to get dinner over and dine with by then.

Watched football, good overall fame by the Saints, after going 1-0 up we were a bit sloppy to let them get back into the game at 2-1. But our heads never went down and this was proved by a last minute equaliser from Obafemi. We have now only lost to Arsenal since returning from lockdown and taking 4 points from the 2 games against the Manchester teams was well beyond our expectations.

Announced this evening that face masks will be compulsory in all shops from 24th July, why if they think that they will help and are necessary are they waiting and not bringing this in straight away! Some of the decisions made by this government are totally baffling!

Tuesday 14th July - decided to take a trip West to Lyme Regis. I seem to remember last going there when Josh was in a pushchair so we must be talking at least 27 years ago. It was a pleasant walk right along the seafront to the Cobb and back. It was fairly busy but probably not as busy as you would expect on a normal July day. Stopped off at a new St Austell pub on the seafront, they were very good with their social distancing and everything table service. It was good to have a nice fresh pint of Tribute sitting on the terrace overlooking the sea.

I messaged my old mate, Toe Foot, to see if he was in as his house is pretty much on the way back. He rents an old cottage right out in the wilds of Dorset, it is quiet and peaceful surrounded by fields and woodland. His cottage is the nearest neighbour to my niece’s farm which us still about a mile away from him. Had a couple of beers with him.

Back to Owermoigne as my builder, Wayne was coming round to fit my new extractor fan in the ensuite as the other had packed up. While waiting for Wayne we started to get stuck into the list of jobs that Anna had made. 

It was getting on for 8pm by the time Wayne left after successfully installing the new fan, so then cooked dinner of Ribeye steak and chips. Just before serving Anna knocked a glass of red wine all over the table with luckily only a few splashes over me.

Wednesday 15th July - going round to my mate Chutts’ for a cup of tea this afternoon, he has been shielding for over a year as he had a Stem Cell transplant for Lymphoma in May 19 and had to more or less isolate for a year and then this was followed by COVID-19. Luckily the transplant worked and he is feeling much better. Fingers crossed that he continues to improve and can get out and about at last. I would like to use this platform to encourage everyone to sign up as a potential Stem Cell donor to potentially help to save someone’s life, please visit https://www.dkms.org.uk/en/register-now , Anna and Josh have signed up but unfortunately I was too old as they will only register those under 55. My mate had stems cells donated by a German donor who was the closest match and he will be forever grateful to that person.

More jobs this morning, finishing off a bit more grouting, black polishing the BBQ, laminating COVID-19 risk assessment notices and sorting out and binning much of the visitor information pack, although it's in a plastic folder which I will spray and clean weekly as it also contains information on how to work the appliances etc.

Spent nearly 3 hours catching up with Chutts and his wife Jac, I have known him pretty much all of my life as he was a close neighbour.

Thurs 16th July - last full day in Owermoigne, we have our first guests since lockdown arriving tomorrow so better get fully prepared for that. It will be good to start getting an income from the place again! 

I took the Henry vacuum cleaner round the house, pulling out all furniture to clean under and behind. Anna used the Karcher floor cleaner to clean all hard surface floors including the bathrooms and kitchen. Many other tidying jobs were sorted and our list was finally ticked off. I was in trouble for organising a couple of pints with Toe at the Convivial Rabbit as Anna wanted to go out for lunch following all our work. I did point out that it was gone 2pm by the time we were anywhere near finished and we still had to have a shower before going out. Never mind, in the dog house yet again!

Had a few pints with Toe then popped to Waitrose to pick up stuff for our welcome pack for tomorrow’s visitors and a pie and some veg for our dinner. Saints on TV again, playing Brighton, we were awful in the first half and 1-0 down at half time. Came back into the game second half and totally dominated, with an equaliser from Danny Ings. Overall we looked tired, not really surprising as we played in Manchester on Monday night and didn't arrive back in Southampton until 2am.

Well back home tomorrow, it has probably not been as much of a holiday as we hoped given all the jobs we have done around the house. It was good to catch up with a couple of old mates though. Back to normal semi-lockdown next week!

Coronavirus diary of a moaner Week 15

Lockdown easing, pubs opening, we can go on holiday at home and abroad, is some sort of normality returning or are we going to have another spike?  It remains to be seen!

Fri 3rd July - last night Michelle Donelan our MP put on Facebook that she was going to have an online surgery for key workers. Obviously I wasn't going to be allowed to attend but I used the opportunity to highlight to her that I had sent 4 emails to her without the courtesy of one reply! A couple of others also joined in then with similar experiences. 

Friday again, looking forward to my Stealth Brew Co delivery later to enjoy a few pints over the weekend, I have tried to cut down to not drink during the week as in the early days of lockdown it was too easy to have a few in the afternoon sat in the garden in the nice weather!

I was just about to write my moan that we hadn't received our refund from Virgin Atlantic, I checked my credit card online and lo and behold it was there this morning!! It only took 4 months to get it back but at least we now have it!

Had our usual Friday ‘ploughmans’, Grunters did her usual rush back for lunch, think she could give Usain Bolt a run for his money as soon as the clock strikes 1pm!

Had instructions to sort out my shoes that were supposedly ‘all over the place’. I just rammed as many as I could in the shoe cupboard and quickly tidied around the rest, hopefully that will keep her happy for 5 minutes! Also had instructions to clean the mirrors in the hall and dining room, I was moaned at for the initial smears so had to revisit with a bit of kitchen roll to clean to a sparkle.

Russ popped round for a couple of cups of tea and a chat in the afternoon.

Beer delivery from Dan, 10ltrs of Doublecrosser v3, 5ltrs of Key lime spy & 5ltrs of Locked In. Watched Oxford v Pompey then Fleetwood v Wycombe while having a few beers.

Sat 4th July - had Josh’s spicy twist on a sausage muffin with egg for breakfast, very nice I must say! A dull looking day ahead, at least it's not supposed to rain! 

Nigel Farage is the target of my latest rant, apart from being a complete knob, he has today put a picture of himself on social media sat in the pub boasting that he was the first customer in at 12. The only problem being that 14 days ago he was in the States being a Trump puppet, and anybody returning from the States has to quarantine for 14 days on return. Apparently the earliest he could have got  back was 13 days ago! Knowing him though he probably knew what he was doing and just wanted to stir thing up and get himself more free publicity. The only way he can gain any interest whatsoever is by being controversial!

Josh has found that Iceland do quite large bags of cheese savouries for £1 a bag. This is much to Grunters delight.  She had the grace of Rod Stewart picking balls from a bag in the FA Cup draw.

We had ‘russian roulette’ dinner, it was a very nice turkey meatball recipe with Grunters homemade focaccia bread. All tasted great however unfortunately Grunters mislaid the band tying up her hair, it was a toss up whether it would reappear in the bread or meatballs! Fortunately nobody came across it!

I had the fortune of catching Grunters photographing half a pint of beer on the garden table, but not an empty can in sight this time. Obviously I had to take a few pictures of this spectacle and just happened to post one on Twitter. Luckily this was quickly spotted by Nath and Matti who joined in with appropriate comments of encouragement. At this time I was facing threats of death or castration from Grunters trying to force me to remove the photo. She had then co-opted her sidekick, Anna, and in a 2 pronged attack they made me remove it. Luckily Matti had copied it and was able to post a replacement. Funnily enough just before I took the photo we were talking about wedding photography and Grunters said that she wouldn't want ‘posed’ photos and would like ‘natural’ photos of people acting normally. Well her idea of natural is to do your hair and makeup, put on your best clothes then act ‘naturally’. I just thought that it was a pleasant, natural, non posed relaxed weekend photo! 

Sun 5th July - starting off a bit more sunny but very windy. Preparing for Saints v Man City later, Josh has donned his lucky shirt already but I think we will need a bit of divine intervention to win this one! Looks like we have got football on much of the day, a perfect Sunday! 

Grunters elastic hair band has reappeared, Josh found it on the floor in the kitchen even though it had been searched yesterday. I did tell Grunters that I had found it in between my teeth yesterday and threw it on the floor this morning as I didn't want to hurt her feelings that it had landed in the dinner!

Watched a couple of games in the Shed before the mighty Saints. We had dinner between games that Josh and Sophie had prepared earlier of pork belly and chorizo stew. My lack of optimism was unfounded with a great first goal of the season from Che Adams and a mighty defensive display to keep City out and win 1-0. It was almighty tense watching the rest of the game after we scored! 

Grunters decided to take more pictures of empty cans, this time in my olive tree, unfortunately Josh confiscated my phone so I couldn't record this strange event, I did try to get hold of Anna’s phone but Josh confiscated that as well! I was only trying to take yet another ‘natural’ picture!

Mon 6th July - loads of assigned jobs lined up this week. First of all is for me and Josh to tidy out the mess that is his side of the garage. It contains mostly his work marketing material which has been just thrown in there in a haphazard manner. Did a good job over a couple of hours, we now have 2 full wheelie bins full of recycling, cardboard, plastic etc. Much more room to manoeuvre now!

After lunch I decided to cut the grass, it has been growing like mad this last couple of weeks as we have a spell of rain followed by sunshine, bring on constant sun and totally dry grass.

Jerk chicken kebabs, rice and peas and a mango salad for dinner, very fresh and healthy.

My mother has had a leak in the lead around her chimney and it also needs repointing, I arranged for Wayne, the builder who did a lot of my work in Owermoigne to start on it in April but obviously we had to cancel because of the virus. We rearranged for him to start again today after my mother had been going on about it. He text me last night to say that he was ill and couldn't start, he said today at he thinks it's bad hayfever but I told him he’d better self isolate as symptoms are similar and also try to get a test done, especially as my mother is shielding. So that means my mother is going to constantly go on about it again every time I ring her! Joy of joys!

Oh what joy it was to see Pompey lose on penalties after extra time to Oxford and leave them languishing in Div 1, hopefully it will keep those Skates quiet for a while, especially sweet after our win yesterday!

Tues 7th July - we had planned to re-felt the small Shed roof tomorrow but the weather has changed, it is now supposed to rain tomorrow so we will have a go at it today. It is Sophie’s Dad’s birthday tomorrow and Josh kindly suggested that I might want to make him a cake! So I end up making 2 lemon drizzle cakes this morning, one for his birthday and one for us. 

Shed successfully re-felted, that's 3 done now, including the one on Owermoigne last week.

I had a response from Michelle Donelan, unfortunately it was just a ‘standard’ response to my query about why she had voted against NHS weekly testing, she has still not responded to my original email of 23rd May regarding Dominic Cummings, I replied reminding her of this for now the 5th attempt.  Also her ‘standard’ response just accused Labour of raising this motion as a political stunt, hence their vote against. I have replied to her that the latest figures suggest that only 22% of those tested positive had reported symptoms at the time of their test, with health and social care workers being more likely to test positive. Surely this demonstrates the need for all NHS and care workers to be testers weekly. I used my 91 year old mother as an example, she has been shielding to the best of her ability but has a nurse call in to do her warfarin test. That nurse could have the virus without her knowledge and be the one to pass it on to my mother at the potential cost of her life. Weekly testing would obviously cut down the likelihood of this happening and should this happen to hundreds or thousands more then Michelle Donelan and her colleagues would have it on their conscience just because they wish to play political games.

Following this I had another reply but not addressing my point raised about NHS testing. No, she said that she always replies to her emails but has been delayed if late due to volumes and dealing with more urgent replies to those shielding! She said that if I was referring to my email regarding Dominic Cummings of 23rd May apparently she had replied on 3rd June and that I should check my junk mail and if not received to contact her to request another copy. I had recently been through my outstanding junk and it wasn't in there and it wasn't in my inbox. I therefore confirmed this with her and requested a copy. Also if she had replied on 3rd June why didn't she respond to tell me this when I sent her reminders on 11th June and 26th June???

Wed 8th July - Just a few little jobs today, mainly to prepare things to take down to Owermoigne at the weekend. I took the tv off the conservatory wall, we never use it and it's better and more modern than the one in the spare room down there. Also I have written out a COVID risk assessment to email to guests coming to stay plus printed off some to leave down there.

Kier Starmer had a go at Boris during PM questions about their latest ludicrous decision to start charging NHS workers to park again. Boris obviously refused to back down but how can he clap them, heap them with praise for saving his life then turn his back on them by making them pay for parking to go to work to save lives! There are petitions going around and hopefully these will result in yet another Tory U-turn.

Thurs 9th July - drizzly overcast day, not a lot going on but sorted out some stuff to take down to Dorset tomorrow. The mighty Saints are on TV later against Everton, can we make it 3 wins in a row? 

Still not received the copy of my Dominic Cummings reply from Michelle Donelan which she said that she originally sent 3rd June and also no response to my reply to her following her standard NHS testing letter.

Hung on before posting my blog to see what the football result was, we were all over them in the first half and JWP missed a penalty but then Danny Ings scored yet another. A bit of a lapse in concentration let Everton back in just before half time. The second half was more even and to be honest I would have taken a draw before the game but overall I think we were the better team.

Had a good chilli pasta bake then watched Villa v Man Utd, there was no way that the Utd first goal should have been a penalty, if anything it was a foul against Villa and a potential sending off. How VAR could concur with that decision I do not know! However I agree with Roy Keane’s assessment at half time when he said that he had no sympathy for Villa, they did themselves no favours. I even gave up watching the game in the Shed 20 minutes before the end of the game to finish off this blog!

Well next week should be a bit different as I’m on holiday in Dorset, it may be the last blog next week, we will see!

Coronavirus diary of moaner Week 14

Well here we go with Week 14 of lockdown with the pubs opening and our holiday cottage being able to open from week 15 on 4th July.

Fri 26th June - you will recall that I posted my blog early yesterday as I wanted to watch the ‘mighty’ Saints and have a few beers. Well I had a few beers but the Saints certainly weren't ‘mighty’! Why is it we can't play at home? I was reading today that we are bottom of the league on our home form but 6th in the league on our away form!

I have sent yet another email to our wonderful local MP Michelle Donelan, this time prompted by the fact that she was one of the 300+ Tory MP’s that voted against the front line NHS and carers having weekly Coronavirus tests. How can she hypocritically clap them and tell the world how wonderful she thinks they all are then ‘stab them in the back’ by voting against an additional layer of protection for them. Whilst writing about this I have also asked why she has not had the courtesy to reply to my Dominic Cummings email of 23rd May and my subsequent chase up mails of 28th May and 11th June! Whatever your political views you would expect that your MP would have the courtesy to respond to their constituents.

Had a bit of time to check out the Visit Britain website to complete the ‘Good to Go’ COVID-19 certification then printed the certificated to display in Dorset.

Asked Russ and Deb & Steph and Dave around for Friday evening drinks, poor old Dave was working nights so couldn't attend but we still had a few for him.

Sat 27th June - down to Owermoigne for a few days to prepare for opening. Went to The Range in Dorchester to get some exterior wood paint and roof felt clout nails. They never had any decent paint for what we needed and the 20mm roof felt nails were too long, I wanted 12/13mm. So then a trip to B&Q in Weymouth. It was busy but fairly well organised. We managed to find the paint we required but they had sold out of clout nails! Typical. Back to Owermoigne to sit in the sunshine for an hour with a couple of beers before the football and heated up left over curry which we’d had in the week.

Sun 28th June - set alarm for 8am, we were looking to get the whole of the underside of the veranda plus the upright posts painted in one day. Having started just after 9, between us we managed to get the whole lot done by around 2pm. In desperate need of a shower and covered in paint as usual, I cleaned up and we needed to get to Tesco before they shut at 4pm to get a few bits for dinner. We bought my mother some flowers and had previously got her some ice cream tubs from the farm shop so dropped round to socially distance chat and pass them over. She still can't get her head around shielding, she has made a hairdresser appointment for next week at home. Both my sister and I have told her she can't do this until August as she is shielding but she insists on carrying on!

Couldn't hang around much as it was back to Owermoigne to watch Saints play Watford. We were by far the better side winning 3-1 with a brace from Danny Ings and a superb free kick from James Ward Prowse. Yet another away win, one day we will win at home!

Anna decided she would make dinner of chicken in a cheese and mushroom sauce, this is the first meal she has cooked for ages, as usually Josh does the cooking with my help. Unfortunately after taking a pan out of the oven with her oven glove and putting it on the hob she then proceeded to move it but forgot to put the glove back on! She burnt her hand quite badly and spent the rest of the evening clutching cold cans of drink from the fridge. She soldiered on with making the rest of the meal which was very good. 

Proceeded to watch more football in the evening with Man City v Newcastle in the FA Cup, a

comfortable win for City. After which we watched a bit of old Glastonbury line up with Niall Rogers and Chic, Amy Winehouse and David Bowie, some fantastic old nostalgia.

Mon 29th June - another busy day lined up. I cut the grass first thing then I cut down all of the overhanging bushes which were growing over the neighbours fence and over the top of my shed. The Shed had been leaking and needed re-felting for some time but the bushes had to be cut down first. We filled 4 large garden waste bags with the different clippings and then I decided to go to the local ‘Aladdin’s cave’ hardware store in Wool to get my clout nails. They had them whereas I couldn't get any in the national chains in the locality..

I then decided upon return to tackle the Shed re-roof. I was a bit apprehensive that the roof may not take my weight but it must have been built well as I am still here! I was covered in black sand from the roofing felt, it sticks to you and was hell of a job to wash off.

I was totally knackered after doing this lot so had a quick snooze followed by a nice meal and tv for the evening.

Anna has blisters now on her hand from her pan burn, not that she mentions it!!

Tues 30th June - a rainy day so couldn’t do anything else outside. We decided to go back home later after Anna finished work at 5pm. Spent the morning just tidying up, putting away the winter duvets and replacing with lower tog summer quilts, stored out a few more bits and pieces ready for Raf & Jade’s visit next week. 

As I didn't have much to do in the afternoon while waiting for Anna to finish, I had a couple of hours snooze on the sofa! Woke about 4pm in time to load up the car with 5 bags of garden waste, my hedge trimmer and our luggage etc.

Left at about 5.10pm and stopped off for fuel at Shaftesbury but still managed to get home in less than 1.5 hours. I proceeded to jam as much of the garden waste we had brought back into our green bin as they are due to collect on Thursday. I couldn't manage to get one bag in and as it was raining I thought I’d leave that until tomorrow.

Josh had made a great Lasagne which went down very well.

Wed 1st July - while we were in Dorset, Anna realised that our driving licences had expired after checking, this was following a warning on the Martin Lewis TV show which said that many had expired without any notification. We are supposed to be sent a reminder but neither of us received one. Due to the virus it did confirm that they would grant an extension to certain expiry dates, including ours. I arranged for the replacements online as I don't think the Spanish car hire companies will accept our word that we have an extension if we hadn't renewed by the time we next go out, probably in September.

I have been attempting since our Ryanair flights were cancelled in March to get a refund, there were 2 different bookings totalling over £170. As we are looking to go in September we thought that we would do them a favour by rebooking the new flights using these funds. What a nightmare that is, trying to sort it out online is a nightmare, you wait for ages to talk online to an agent when eventually they just connect you to an ‘automated’ Q&A! 

I also sent a reminder to Virgin Atlantic CEO as they had originally promised our refund by last Friday but then sent an email to confirm that it would be delayed by another week. They thus have promised to pay up by this Friday, 3rd July, I just thought I would give them a gentle reminder of this, do I think that we will get this on time? No chance!

I managed to cram the extra bag of garden waste into our Green bin for collection tomorrow.

An evening of football followed, looks like Norwich are definitely down and Bournemouth do not look to have any confidence. I think that West Ham will just about stay up.

Thurs 2nd July - another week goes by without hearing from Michelle Donelan, our hard working MP!

One more day left for Virgin Atlantic to keep their promise to pay up, obviously no response to my email yesterday.

It's a horrible rainy day and guess who’s turn it is to do the weekly shop! 

Yet again another case of the Boris’ friends and family doing their own thing in ignoring government advice. His father Stanley has ignored Foreign Office advice which states that you should only fly abroad for essential travel. Also Greece are not letting in anyone from the U.K. at the moment so to get around this he flew into Greece via Bulgaria. Was it essential travel? Was it my arse! He reckons he is COVID-19 proofing his villa in advance of the holiday season! Yes i’m sure you will be donning your marigolds Stanley to clean down the house! This comes just after news came out  that he has applied for a French passport! Again another case of the chosen few doing exactly what they want to do and another rule for the downtrodden ‘plebs’.

I went off to Lidl for our weekly shop, it was not very busy today, the old people won't go out in the rain! No major disasters today, I managed to get a large trolley and everything fit in it without problem!

Josh discovered that Grunters opticians are going to start taking online bookings from next Monday, great! That’s me booking in for a sight test then as I now get it free being over 60! I will then proceed to try on most of the glasses in the shop then take a picture so that I can get similar ones in Specsavers for half the price! Grunters is so looking forward to me coming in! 

We had a Ghanaian spicy ‘soup’ for dinner, it was fairly spicy and more like a stew than a soup with chicken thighs, sweet potato and white cabbage.

As we are moving out of lockdown perhaps this should be my last weekly diary blog! Nath reckons that I will have more to rant about with the more things we are allowed to do. Josh said I should carry on for a couple of weeks to do my ‘holiday blog’ from our planned week in Dorset from 10th.