The weekend

I'm battling my second lurgy of the season ALREADY! That can't be right. Usually I only have 2 colds each winter and it's only the first week in November. This one is not as bad as the first - I feel mostly fine but have an infrequent but violent cough which really knocks me out. It also makes sleeping tricky as it's worse when I'm lying down. 6 days and counting tho...grrr...

Still, I have not let it drag me down and it has only slowed me a little bit. I took Friday off as felt very weak but ended up having a busier day than usual. I was pottering round getting the house sorted for my weekend visitor (Natalie from London), shopping, picking up the TV from the mender etc etc when I got a call from Rich - "Are you alright to pick me up from the Hallamshire?". The Hallamshire is one of the Sheffield hospitals and the nearest A&E's to us! Hmmm... "Why?" "I've drilled my finger". Apparently his drillbit broke and jumped into his finger - he was lucky as it didn't go through nail or bone and came out cleanly leaving no metal shavings. He said it didn't even hurt until the nurse started prodding at it!! So that used up half my day and left Rich with a big fat white bandaged up finger for the weekend (it wouldn't stop bleeding!) which fascinated the dogs. I think they thought it was some new form of tasty sausage as they kept on pouncing on it! Anyway, he had it re-dressed yesterday and all is well - phew!

I do like having visitors - it is nice to to have a shiny, spotless house with flowers on every surface and a fridge full of goodies. I know my house is not normally a pit or anything but you make that little bit of extra effort for friends.

Because I wasn't on top form healthwise we didn't go for the most strenuous of walks but we did have a lovely 2-3 hour tramp round the reservoir on Saturday and a nice hour out on Sunday in the glorious autumnal sunshine. The colours were spectacular and the dogs were in seventh heaven. We took in a bonfire, a meal at home (a non-SW-compliant sausage casserole with gorgeous Borworst sausages from our local butcher) and a few glasses of wine with friends on Saturday and another meal out on Sunday combined with the local Farmers' Market. You can't beat it.

Nat is such a good friend too - so caring and upbeat. She's facing a bit of an uncertain work future at the moment (the markets and all that) but doing it with such grace and calm - I really hope the worst does NOT come to pass for her. It's so nice to see Rich effortlessly fitting in with my good friends too - he doesn't try to dominate or impose his wishes on the proceedings, just lets us enjoy ourselves and as a result everyone relaxes and has a good time.

Foodwise I didn't go mad but treats WERE taken. We were ravenous after our walk on Saturday so stopped into the little cafe which has just opened in my village - cappucino and tiffin....mmmmmm.....tiffin.....drooool..... Red wine on Saturday evening...quite a lot of it! Sunday lunch was not too bad and I did not partake of the apple and blackberry crumble (go me!). But I did weaken in the face of my Farmers' Market goodies and have a couple of pieces of Tablet (well, she halved the price - it would have been rude not to....). The single slice of delicious New York style cheesecake is still in the fridge though and will be shared this evening after dancing (mmmmm....cheeeeeesecake.....)

One of the stalls at the Farmers' Market was honey based but the chap had such a good sales patter and was so engaging that we ended up buying loads of stuff. I didn't know how versatile honey could be! A jar of honey, natch; a tasty tomato, garlic and honey ketchup; pickled onions with honey and balsamic (for Rich as I can't STAND pickled onions!!); and finally mustard with honey.....hmmm, reaching the limit here. Rich and I weren't too bad though - Nat bought a couple of mini hampers for presents as well!

Nat left on Sunday afternoon for the long drive south - belly full, sleep caught up on ("It's so quiet here!") and hopefully lungs and limbs refreshed by the good country air.

I rounded off the weekend by standing in as captain for the pub quiz league match. As I mentioned before, our usual captain Dave (formerly known as "Quiz Dave" but now possibly "Dave the Bus") was knocked over by a bus and is still in hospital. Thankfully it looks as though his injuries are not as bad as first thought so he may be out by next weekend but I had to stand in for him in last night's Cup match. It was another resounding victory! We're getting quite good at this - 45-63 is a decent margin, especially without Dave who knows a hell of a lot of stuff! My captaining skills only let me down once - I picked one wrong answer when the correct one had also been suggested...but apart from that the team was firing on all cylinders....aaaah - all in all, a very satisfying weekend.