Normal life in The Midlands

Brian, Brian, Jackie and John with The Wrekin hill behind

It’s all been more of the same really. We are still waiting for the man to come and start the patio. We know things happen, and his dad has had a fall, but just tell us you are not coming without us waiting in and nagging! The kitchen fitter came today to have a look round, at 10.00 not the original 9.00 and we are still waiting for the quote for new windows! There does seem to be a recurring theme here!

Our back garden may not have altered very much yet, but when it does next doors cute little cat Luna is going to miss it. She loves hiding in that bush and prowling through the undergrowth, but all that is going, to be replaced by a nice patio (we hope!) She may not speak to us again!

We’ve been out walking with John and Brian (see Relive video of the walk: click here). This week we got the train to New Street (as usual, where the day starts with a breakfast at Grand Central Kitchen, a really good cafe) and then on to Wellington near Telford so we could walk up an over the Wrekin, so we could all finally say we’ve “spent all day going round the Wrekin” one of those Midlands phrases that no one quite understands. Trying to keep up with John was an issue, he was going uphill very fast. I told him this could be a problem as he’s going away on Saturday on a walking fortnight. He could really be ‘John no mates’ if he goes at that pace!

Jackie and John negotiating a steep downhill bit on the Wrekin

We’ve been to the Wednesday tea dance, and Saturday Argentine tango. There are other dances around, but these two seem to work for us. Brian enjoyed the last tango lesson much better than the first couple so that’s good and we both really like the atmosphere at the Wednesday dance.

Nearing the summit

It’s been a fairly ‘walky’ week, Sunday was such a lovely day, we had to take advantage. It was also my birthday so didn’t want to spend all of it in the garden or anything like that! (Here's another Relive video: click here) Then the Wrekin on Tuesday and yesterday we were out with Denise and Paul though this was a little more sedate as Brian was having a look at some electrics which seemed to miraculously just work. We also didn’t want to go anywhere muddy after the ridiculous amounts of rain we had on Wednesday. It was mostly about seeing them, catching up and eating and drinking, but we like that! (Yet another Relive video: click here)

We ran to get past John and reach the trig point first but all arrived together. Brian, however was having none of it so there he is bringing up the rear

Monday was a curry with the Monday Club boys and two of three wives (Old Moseley Arms for drinks followed by curry at Diwans). Brian is currently out for a run with Mark which hopefully won’t kill him, even if Mark doesn’t get out of breath (nice little run along Tardebigge canal lock flight: click here for Relive video)

Summit photo

Other domesticated things like taking my phone in to be sent off which meant getting everything transferred to a standby phone. Collecting Alex from Halesowen, and catching up with her and Rob. Making the final decisions on the kitchen involved going round in lots of circles but it’s finally been ordered. Pottering in the garden. Tax returns. All those normal things that we haven’t had to do for such a long time. Just wait till we start on the decorating when I really will be talking about watching paint dry!

Nice view from here. For those that don't know, the Wrekin is a small hill (407m) in Shropshire that stands on its own amongst fairly flat land. It's a remnant of an ancient volcanic plug that resisted erosion to stand prominently in the countryside. Its name gave rise to the saying 'All around the Wrekin' which is only known and used in The Midlands and is used when someone is taking a very long roundabout route to get somewhere rather than the most direct route. It applies when someone is travelling (in a car, walking or cycling) and is also used if someone is being asked to do a job or task whereby the instructions are confusing, long or contain needless additional tasks. 'You're leading me all round the Wrekin'. As a child it was a fairly commonly used phase, even though I had no idea what the Wrekin was. I didn't even know how to spell Wrekin. It was some years later that I learnt it was a hill but I have no idea why the phrase exists. It was my first ascent up there and I was very pleased to be able to say finally that John and Brian were leading us all round the Wrekin!

The were rocks near the summit so Brian and I had to scramble over them

John managed to snap a photo of a deer with his super zoom lens

I decided to take a photo of Brian taking a photo of the deer as I only had my phone camera with me. The deer are just visible in this photo if you care to zoom in

Sunday birthday walk with Jackie and what a day it was, blue skies and  warm all day. Here we are passing the canal side Crown in Alvechurch, one of five village pubs. We're heading out over those hills

Heading towards Barnt Green

A Jay crosses our path on the way to the Lickey Hills

Enjoying an ice cream at the Lickey Hills Visitor Centre

View from the top of Birmingham. The building just below us is on the site of the old Austin Morris, later Rover car factory at Longbridge, The three white towers in the left distance is the Queen Elizabeth hospital and the high buildings are in the city centre 

Down from the hills and in Cofton we came across a bit of history. Those tracks are all that's left of an old tram line that connected Cofton and the Lickey Hills to Rubery. This used to be the turning circle at the terminus for the trams

We went past Cofton reservoir, over the fields and over the railway connecting Alvechurch with Birmingham. It was a very pleasant 9 mile walk through countryside 

Diwan curry with old friends. LtoR: Mark (who I went running with today), Jackie, Martina, Tim, Fiona and Bill

Out for  a walk chat and pub dinner with Brian's sister Denise and Paul

Time at home in The Midlands

Always difficult to know what photo to start a blog with, so I chose this one that I took on one of our walks with Brian and John

How has time gone by so quickly? I know I always say this when we get home, but this time it’s crazy, and Brian is on a mission. ‘Do’ downstairs!

We tried to make the best of the Bank Holiday sales last week, so, we’ve picked, ordered and had delivered, 2 new two seater sofas. They arrived yesterday morning, giving us just enough time to get the old ones out the front of the house, though it did involve taking a saw to one of them! 

I know, boring to most people, but we're excited! Our new electric reclining sofas and, through the window out front you can see the old sofas stacked up ready for council refuse collection on Wednesday

We were very pleased they arrived when they did as Fiona and James came over yesterday to have a look at the house and have a look at my ‘pack’ for Kenya. This is really to give them some idea of clothes for safari, basically ‘muddy’ and ugly and practical! We had invited them for kurzi lamb at the local Indian. This is a set meal, that has to be ordered at least 24 hours in advance to allow them to marinade and then slow cook the whole shoulder of lamb. The meal starts with poppadoms, a mixed kebab starter which I tried to persuade the couples to share, but would they listen? Then the lamb with vegetable curry, special fried rice and naan. Pineapple and banana fritters and coffee. All for £72! Amazing value in itself, but if Brian and I don’t get three dinners from the leftovers I’ll be amazed. It might even be more! Having looked through my case we went to both the Crown and Weighbridge for a drink with the gentle amble along the canal between, before returning to the house to collect more alcohol to take with us. We took our time over eating and drinking so it was dark by the time we left. We took the opportunity of the lovely conditions to go and try and see the aurora borealis that had wowed the whole of the country the previous night. Sadly it was a bit cloudy so we were out of luck, but at least we tried. Back to the house for more chat and drink, thoroughly enjoyable then, but not so much today!

Kurzi lamb in the New Dilshad with Fiona and James - delicious!

We’ve got a skip arriving on Thursday for gardening work to start to give us a patio which will make the garden much more useable. (It would have been lovely to be able to sit out this morning, in comfort). We are also having lawn put down over some of the garden which may sound odd for people who hate gardening and want low maintenance, but with a robot lawnmower it actually seems like the lowest maintenance option! The top section of the garden is staying pretty much as is so some cleaning of the slate chippings has been going on, along with giving Geraldine the giraffe her own wildflower bed.

Camera in night vision hoping to get some photos of the aurora borealis following the excellent display the previous evening. As you can see, it just didn't happen!

The ‘big’ thing though is a new kitchen we’ve had designs from 3 companies which has taken much time as they have to come and measure, then you go and look at units, work surface, handles, etc and their design. There isn’t too much that can be done with the space really, but it can be made more space efficient. The big decision is gas or induction hob. I’d rather have gas, but this is much harder with the regulations and will involve a unit sticking out into the dining area by 300mm whereas induction is much easier to build around. Then do we squeeze the washing machine, and freezer in to the pantry which will free up space to put a downstairs toilet in the utility room? Decisions decisions, which have to be made before the bank holiday offers run out!

The proposal from one of the kitchen companies to fit out our small kitchen

The couple came from Spalding (a fair drive, so we knew they were serious) to look at Ted on whom they were very keen. A week later they came back to take him away, so that was easy. It was a bit sad, no doubt, but we are also slightly relieved as we no longer have to worry about him deteriorating while not being used. This has also provided us with the money to do all these works on the house, so a win win really.

It has to be better than our existing arrangement though

Brian has been to the hospital a couple of times for routine checks, and to the doctors a couple of times about his ear. He’s on another set of antibiotics and ear sprays so hopefully this will finally clear it up. He’s only worn one hearing aid since we got back from our trip which is irritating for both of us!

Big Ted having been sold and about to be driven away by his new owners

We’ve had to have new tyres on the front of the car, which involved a second visit to get the track rod end fixed. We’ve sat with a nice young man trying to fix my phone which kept restarting, all on its own. I think it might be ok, but need to wait a little longer before I really believe it. We’ve been to the tea dance and to Argentine tango and to the village play. We thoroughly enjoyed the play, and the opportunity to catch up with Helen and Richard who came up from Epsom to see it and John. We had a trip to the Indian with them beforehand and sat with them in the village hall.

There he goes. Bye bye Ted, we've had a great time with you, but its time for pastures anew and many more adventures

We’ve walked with John and Brian as they finished off the Black Country ale trail. Another good outing involving beer and a 12.5 mile walk from Rugeley to Stafford. It did seem hard on the feet and we could probably all have done with it being a little shorter, but at least we didn’t feel so bad about drinking the few pints! See our Relive video with photos (that unfortunately included the train journey at the end as I forgot to stop it! Click here

Out on our 12.5 mile walk followed by a few beers with John and Brian

So apart from John and Brian, Helen and Richard and Fiona and James, we’ve also caught up with Helen and Ian with a couple of pints and a curry in Stirchley. With Rob and Alex to see progress on their house and to give Rob all our best before his second knee op. Denise and Paul came over for coffee and cake, Abi came over for lunch and to give her advice on the garden. She and I stayed out while Brian took virtually everything out of his newly filled outside cupboard under the stairs in order to run a cable in to the lounge to power the reclining function of one of the sofas. It was great to miss him chiselling out the wall! We’ve caught up with Jan and Paul to compare notes on the Sri Lanka and Maldives trip as they had done it last year, and last, but not least been to a party in Kenilworth to celebrate birthdays for Terry and Sue. It was lovely to see them obviously, but also meant Brian could catch up with their son Phil who took over the business from him when he retired.

…..And breathe!

My business colleague Terry and his wife Sue at Terry's 80th birthday party

Terry's youngest son Phil and partner Jill at the party. Phil is now running the company Terry and I started back in 1989, Terry retired in 2007 and Brian went in 2012 leaving Phil to take the reins. Good to catch up with Phil, see how the company is going and discuss engineering things!

Terry's eldest son Tim playing the keyboard and singing at the  party. He's always been an accomplished musician, now musical director at the Spa Centre in Leamington Spa. Great to catch up with him too, even though I've never practiced the piano  following his lessons years ago. There's still time for me to learn though!

There's Terry dancing with Jill to Tim's music

I did a Parkrun at Arrow Valley, Redditch the other Saturday, the first one I've done for a while. I've done quite a few 5km runs along the canal in our village but not official Parkruns. This is at the start with everyone geared up for their run. I did OK, slower than in the past, but I came in just under 30minutes, so could have been worse

The skip arrives on Thursday and our man starts on sorting this lot out. First job, its all concrete under that path and gravel so that has to be bashed up and removed then dug out. Proposal is to have all this bit as a patio with grass beyond. Be interesting to see how it turns out - watch this space! 

A final picture of Charles, Jackie's nephew, who has just gone to Sandhurst for army officer training. Doesn't he look smart! Good luck Charles