In the UK June to July

Quizzing Helen and Richard on their Uzbekistan trip whilst in John's garden, who was away! As its a 'selfie' its a mirror image of his garden and, as it drove him nuts seeing it that way round, he had to reverse it for himself. Me? I've left it as it is so it'll still drive him nuts when he sees it here!

Getting boring here, time is flying.

The downstairs loo is finished and floored, though we did have to get Tariq back for a little tweak. The cabinet is in in the kitchen and filled with my crystal and crockery. Nice to see it again after 13 years. Fitting has caused some slight scraping on the kitchen wall, but that’s the joy of this wall it can be updated at will. It’ll be like the never ending broom, it’s had 3 new handles and 2 new heads, but it’s still the same broom, it’ll be the wall I painted with mum when she moved in, though I’ve repainted half the squares!

Our lovely corner hand-made cabinet with all Jackie's glassware in it (that you can't see as it's overexposed)

Painting has continued at Abi’s, Tariq plastered and said he’d do the emulsion but he wouldn’t do the gloss, so over to Brian and I. One day for prep, much sanding, and one day for painting. All she’s got to do now is pin Tariq down and select a colour!

Now that is how to get two road bikes and two mountain bikes into a small corner of a small garden shed! Pleased to get the road bike back from Tim's its a great way to keep fit riding round our local roads. Only used it twice so far, with the temperature over 30C outside its too hot to go too far!

There’s been more walking, more drinking, and more body maintenance. We’ve caught up with Alex and Rob and Tim and Jill who cooked a great Sunday lunch when we went over to collect our road bikes that they have been storing for a few years! We met up with Helen and Richard to pick their brains about Uzbekistan which was the next trip destination, but has been pushed to next year, and to chat about housesitting when we can visit London and Hampton Court Palace which was on Brian’s request list for the summer.

Caroline (Jackie's niece) and Jackie go into Birmingham City Centre

The most excitement for this blog however is we’ve had Caroline stay for the week. We’ve had a lovely time, a challenge to cook vegetarian for a week, but it’s been great. She arrived on Saturday on the train from Milton Keynes to Birmingham, that went via Stafford! Still no idea why, but obviously led to a later than expected arrival and collection from Barnt Green. Sunday, after a leisurely start we got the train to Barnt Green and walked over the Lickey Hills. It was a longer walk than Caroline and I expected, though I have done the walk before. The only problem with this was we arrived back in Barnt Green just after the cake shops had all shut. We were rescued by Tesco selling us drinks and cake we could consume in the park so all was well. Monday the floor was being laid in the loo, so Caroline and I decided to vacate and leave Brian with the problem of whether or not to move the washing machine. We went into the Jewellery Quarter to look at progress on my ring. There wasn’t any as he hadn’t taken any of the stones out, but “give me 10 minutes”….. that was ok, so we looked at layouts and arrangements, before walking through the Quarter looking in every window, for inspiration for what Caroline should buy with her 21st birthday money from mum. Something long lasting. She didn’t see anything she wanted, but did realise some of what she didn’t want, so that’s a good start. After lunch we went to look at the library for a bit of culture (and the AC) before going to New Street to get the train home. Didn’t seem to be any Redditch trains, we’ll go to Barnt Green then (there’s a theme developing here) nope, 2 out of 3 of them seem to be cancelled. Just get on the first train going south then. Got us as far as Longbridge, Brian was in Aldi, in Redditch when this was announced. We could have got an Uber, though it didn’t take him long, and as it turns out there was a bus replacement due to the points failure just north of BG! Would appear Caroline and trains may not be a good mix!

Jackie starts to paint Geraldine the giraffe

Tuesday a gentle start again, oh to be able to sleep as long as a nearly 21 year old. Brian went for a bike ride while I painted the black bits of Geraldine the giraffe. After lunch Caroline and I started on the main body, the bronze looks good, but my yellow around the edges is a bit loud. John thought he had some gold hammerite but sadly his tin was also bronze. I’ve been and bought some gold which we haven’t had the opportunity to try yet, lots to do and then showers! Wednesday Abi brought Tariq over for the morning to look at the plumbing, not ideal just after the flooring has gone down, but hey. As it turns out it wasn’t a big job and we carefully moved the washing machine without damaging the floor. With that ticked off we could go to the cinema, using our Meerkats 2 for 1 deal. Brian and I had been the previous week and as is usual, when you go you are made aware of the new releases. We’d thought the new Jurassic World movie might be worth the big screen without realising quite how keen Caroline is on dinosaurs, so this was a definite tick. Good dinosaurs though I wasn’t overly struck with the film. We followed this with a curry, as we did last week. Eating out is all part of the cinema experience so the calories don’t count! 

Then they both have a go. Not sure about that yellow!! Neither was Jackie, so...

Thursday as the temperature had dropped we thought we’d brave Redpoint climbing centre. Brian and I used to climb there at least twice a week sometimes more, but we haven’t been at all since we gave up work 13 years ago. It was lovely to be recognised by Paula, and even better that our membership numbers of 90 and 91, and even Caroline’s of 3131 are still valid. Membership is now up to 64,000, we felt very special. We thoroughly enjoyed our trip, though Brian’s arms ache and Caroline has a good collection of bruises. So much so that we plan on climbing again on Monday before putting Caroline on the train home.

She repainted all the yellow bits to gold to go with the bronze and she does look very good

Friday was a full day out at the West Midlands Safari Park. It was busier than we expected as it was still term time, but we were there for all bar about 30 minutes of its opening time so we made best use of the day, though the long wait for lunch did mean that we missed feeding the lorikeets. We did feed the giraffe, but it appeared only one was really hungry so we had to queue for a while till he was joined by Acacia giraffe. A really good day out even if they have changed the rules so you can no longer buy food for animals on the drive or on the walk. They were getting too fat apparently!

Compare her to the real one's Caroline was feeding at the West Midlands Safari Park and its not a bad match

Saturday we went for a little meander around Redditch for a bit of shopping and a look at the music festival. It wasn't brilliant, but at least we looked. A cooler, wetter evening meant movie night, the Full Monty on Amazon, Caroline hadn't ever heard of it when we were talking earlier in the week. Despite being a little non PC we all thoroughly enjoyed it, and it made a change from the 3D jigsaw that had been doing our heads in.

I did take a lot of photos of all the animals there that I'm not going to put on here as we've seen them all in the wild, but we loved this baby rhino, who was not even 2 months old. He is so cute!

Sunday we had another go at painting Geraldine, not quite finishing, though I have now. She looks stunning. Monday another trip to the climbing wall before lunch and train home for Caroline. I hope she enjoyed it as much as we did and I think we got the balance of activities right. When Caroline and Charles used to come for the weekend we had to ensure every second was full, now she's a grown up I knew this wasn't necessary or wanted. We introduced her to the cryptic crossword which she got the hang of very quickly, she's a smart cookie. Cooking was interesting, but the main thing we all brought away was that vegan smoked salmon is surprisingly good, but NEVER try and cook with it (it melts into the sauce and then rapidly congeals into something with the consistency of playdoh!)

We also liked this one, Caroline with attitude - fabulous!

I did sadly have to send her a message on Monday evening telling her I was pleased she had gone, but this was nothing to do with her, but because I found a Noble False Widow spider in the bath. Not quite like a black widow spider, but can bite you and feel like a wasp or bee sting so certainly not pleasant. She hates spiders even more than I do so I'm pleased it wasn't her that found it in the bath!

They have built lodges in the park that you can rent. Imagine waking up to giraffes outside your window (they also have lodges in front of hippos and tigers). We have to do this sometime, its expensive, but wouldn't it be fab!

Tuesday we went for a walk with John and Brian, a walk we've done before, but enjoyable nonetheless. Thursday a walk with Denise and Paul, early before the heat got unbearable following by tea and cake in the garden for Denise's birthday.

At the climbing wall and Caroline's all roped up ready to climb that big stalactite behind. She looks confident...

Friday we went to shift everything out of Abi's bedroom for the carpet to be laid, followed by what was meant to be a light lunch. Delicious it was, light it wasn't. The evening was meant to be train into Bournville for curry with Helen and Ian, Corinne and Manu and Crystal. The curry happened, but the train didn't, points failure at Barnt Green again, so we drove in and stayed overnight. A good evening, hopefully to be repeated tonight at the Beetlestone's annual BBQ. Neon is the theme this year! Corinne is coming to stay with us on Sunday as she was afraid we wouldn't have had chance to properly catch up, and Monday we go down to Epsom. It's all go!

Up she goes, not far to go... However, she fell off at that point and came down. She did however successfully complete it after both Jackie and I did it. She wasn't going to be beaten - competitive she is! Give it a while and she'll be better than both of us

However, Jackie was the only one of us to complete this ridiculous slot climb, squirming her way up it. Caroline and I just couldn't work it out

Waiting for our connecting train at Droitwich on our Tuesday walk with John and Brian  (another Brian)

Brief stop on the lock at at Stourport on Severn at the point where the canal joins the river Severn

It's been very hot this year (33C today) and next doors Luna cat, along with most animals and us, just don't know what to do with ourselves

I must put this photo on from the West Midlands Safari Park as we drove into the dangerous animals areas. Don't go in if you drive a convertible car, we loved the drawing!

We were really close to them and they didn't seem to mind. Anyway, no more photos from there

Out for a local walk with Denise (Brian's sister) and Paul on a glorious day

Pause at Bittel reservoir followed by lunch at the Hopwood Tavern...

Followed by tea and cake at the top of our garden, where there was the only shade to get out of the hot sun

A seven legged False Widow Spider in our bath. When Jackie showed me this photo and told me it was in our bath and I had to dispose of it, I went up with trepidation armed with a fly swatter. Actually it was only 6 or 7mm across, but I duly dispatched it. She's since found a few others lurking in webs outside the house which we hope we've now got rid of

Last night out with our Sunday Tea Club. After drinks in the Attic pub in Stirchley we decamped to the Balti Bazaar for a curry followed by more drinks back at Ian and Helens before staying the night there and having a lazy morning in their garden over breakfast, Saturday newspapers and a good old chat and catch up. Good to see Corinne again (sitting next to Brian) who's back here from Australia, where she emigrated to a few years back and intermittently turns up.

Breakfast this morning on the lawn at Ian and Helens with Monty dog. We're about to get changed and go back round there to go on to the Beetlestone's annual BBQ, another busy evening....

One last photo from when Caroline was here. She might be studying Bioscience (or something like that) at Oxford University and talk about things we have zero understanding of, but there's still a child inside her who likes to climb trees!