Project 52 2023 week 37

First full week back at work after summer, and it’s really turned autumnal. We’ve had foggy mornings, cooler weather, with the occasional warmth in the afternoon. The blankets and slippers are back out. Here’s our week 37 for Project 52.

Sunday was a fairly quiet one. It was still hot and humid, but we did at least get a couple of minutes heavy rain and a rumble of thunder mid afternoon. It was still warm after but not as humid. We’d decided we’d have a bbq for tea, so it was lucky the rain stopped. N did his bbq cooking, and it was very tasty. I had a nightmare with N’s mobile bus ticket I bought as for some reason it wouldn’t let me email it to him. So I’d had to buy a second one.

On Monday it was a frantic morning. We had no idea if the bus was coming into the village with the emergency road closure. Even though I’d warned them on Twitter that it was closed, I couldn’t speak to them until customer service opened at 8 which was too late for his 7.30 bus. So I took N to the village before ours. I drove through the road closure which was very tight, around a school bus that had come right down the hill to the closure sign before they knew it was shut. Cars could just about get through until they fully closed it to work there. My nephew’s bus had come round the diversion into the village, but N’s bus didn’t know (he didn’t bother to tell them!), so drove right down the hill to it. Thames Water didn’t think to put the closure signs at the top of the hill outside the village – stupid people. It had to reverse back out – luckily there’s a (very tight angled) road it could just about reverse into.  

I managed to phone customer services to get a refund, and also let them know about the road closure. They had no idea, but said they’d speak to that route person and phone me back when they could confirm routes. Of couse there was no phone call back.

On the return journey, I met the bus driver at our junction (our side they’ve given nearly a mile warning of the closure!). So took the kids off the bus and drove them into the village, while the bus driver went back out the way he’d come as the diversion wouldn’t be the best for buses. I can’t believe that even though the morning bus driver had rung it through to the depot when he had to divert, and with my call to customer services to let them know, that by mid afternoon, they’d still not told their drivers. Sigh.

Tuesday I had the palaver of finally managing to return a second item from Amazon. It annoys me that we do one order, but then end up with different methods for different items if you return them. I printed out one label which could then be taken to the post office. But the second item could only have print in either post office or Evri, or collection which is annoying as it means I need to stay in. Our village post offices round here don’t have label printing so that’s not an option. And I’d already tried to drop it off at 3 different Evris, and none of them had their printers working. So I had to resort to a Royal Mail collection. It was fine, but what a faff – 3 days of effort and a lot of driving round before that. Just let me have a label to print and drop off.

On Wednesday finally the road was open again by the afternoon. Not much else other than work, and then N had football training. They’re focusing a lot on fitness this year, with longer training sessions but N’s really enjoying it.

Thursday I was at the theatre again. This time to see Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells for the 50th anniversary tour. I was the one of the youngest in the audience by a long way. We listened to it in GCSE music class, hence my interest.  It was a really good show, and I’ve found my new favourite seating area in that theatre.

On Friday, short day at work. Got quite a few bits ticked off my list to do. Next thing I need to sort out is my maturing ISA. I hate sorting out banking, especially when like this one I want to split it into 2 different ISAs. Group tennis wasn’t the best. The coach is now a very junior one, he’s broken his foot currently, and the boys run rings around him. We’ll have to see how it goes over the weeks to make sure they are actually getting enough tennis played. The floodlights are already needed for their sessions now.

Saturday morning was another football match. It was away at a town’s football club, a very nice set up, although the kids were gutted because they’d waited until after their match for food, and there was no bacon or sausage baps left after their match. Their opponents had some really tall kids. Their goalie was so tall he could reach the cross bar. The first half they did well to keep within reach, and overall had some unlucky crossbar and post hits, plus 2 very good on target saves by their goalie. So a loss, but not too bad a result against who we suspect are one of the top teams in the league.

In the evening we decided to go down to the local outdoor bar for their last night of the summer. It was definitely chillier, but was nice to catch up with lots of people we’ve not seen most of the summer.

New posts this week:

• The Riverside Museum Glasgow
• Ferry trip to Isle of Bute
• Queen of the Loch Marston’s Inn
• Visiting Loch Lomond Shores