We managed to join the Tuesday walk and breakfast in the park with John and Brian (another Brian, how confusing!).

John has been referred to by half the village as stubbornly (or stupidly) or fiercely independent, and so he is. All we have actually been allowed to do for him is put the suitcase back into the loft. He has driven the car, been shopping walked to and from the station, and pub. Had an exercise bike delivered which he constructed and has been using to rebuild his leg muscles and so on.... We have seen a fair bit of him, lunch at the pub, Sunday club, and today train to Barnt Green for the traditional Tuesday breakfast sandwich. We walked back, while he got the train back as the first bit of the walk is uphill, so he is being a bit sensible! He does however look better and better, each time we see him, which is fantastic.

Outside Warwick's in Barnt Green, the place for take-away breakfasts. Our first visit, but Tuesday breakfasts coupled with a walk is a tradition for John and Brian and often a few others, so we had to sample it. Very nice it was too!

Tuesday was Valentine’s Day, which we don’t normally pay much attention to, so when Helen had asked a while ago if we’d like to double date, as a surprise for Ian, I’d been noncommittal, not knowing our plans. Realising we would be free I messaged, only to find she’d organised to meet Manu and Crystal. We too had arranged to meet M&C on Tuesday, till I realised it was Valentine’s, so I’d put them off till Wednesday! All very confusing, but a great excuse for an impromptu ‘Tuesday’ tea club. Crystal excelled herself and we enjoyed a fabulous meal.

The table under the bird feeder is really meant for ground feeding birds, not for next doors cat to lie in wait for unsuspecting birds. She's a cute cat though

Tuesday, also, was the day the car had gone back to the garage, hopefully for the last time. They’d leant Brian a car, but we still expected it back before Friday! I went over with him to collect it, just for the ride. We got in it, the airbag light wasn’t flashing, hurrah, however, the fog lights still weren’t working! Having left with the words “in the nicest possible way, we hope to never see you again” she was quite surprised when we walked back in. What we thought was going to take ages, and be a real pain, actually was quite quick, they changed the new stalks for the old stalks, and all the old features reappeared!

On top of Burton Dassett hills on a reasonably clear day with great views

Friday was my old works Comms Balti. 15 of us met up, of whom only 2 still work for Comms, with another 3 working elsewhere for the BBC. It’s great being old and retired!

There's more than one hill so, of course, we had to walk to the top of each one

We went for a nice little walk over the Burton Dassett Hills on Sunday, returning just in time to collect mother and walk down to the village for afternoon tea. (here's our short video of the walk with more photos: click here)Very civilised on a lovely sunny Sunday. Monday we went out with Abi to the amazing Indian restaurant, the Mughal E Azam, just round the corner from her. The building is an old church, but completely blinged up inside, with lovely food, and a great atmosphere. We’ve been before, but then they stopped serving the public, just being a banqueting venue, which was very disappointing. It’s lovely that they’ve gone back to being a restaurant and we had a thoroughly good evening. We even got back to join Monday Club for an hour online, so a full evening!

Heading down off one to go up another, over there to the right

Today, up early to go to Barnt Green for breakfast, walk back, then take mum shopping, while Brian gave the hedge a haircut! Looking forward to pancakes later, yum! The only other thing of note that has happened is Brian has had just over £1000 deposited in his bank account from British Airways after our delayed flight returning from the USA just before Christmas. As the total return price was only just over £1200 we are very happy with this! Obviously we’ve already spent it on the cruise, but that’s ok!

Its a small horse (obviously) but of more note is the mainly blue sky, shadows and relative warmth for a February day in England. Spring is just around the corner!

We don't normally put photos of food on here, but this was one of the starters in the splendid Mughal e Azam restaurant and it is a little different to say the least. What we are looking at here is called Hariyali Murgh Tikka and they are pieces of chicken marinated in mint and corriander leaves with a blend of aromatic spice powders, cooked over a chargrill. It was delicious but looked a bit weird and when cut through looked a bit like an avocado, I suppose because of the marination. Interesting and nicely presented food

Another 5km Parkrun at Arrow Valley last Saturday and another average result! Ah well, at least I'm getting out there! 28min:09sec, 5th in my age category, could be worse!