Project 52 2025 week 18

This week’s become a bit calmer, and socially it’s been quite nice thanks to tennis starting again. A little bit hot weatherwise for me, and I’ve had to start (occasionally at least) remembering to water the plants I got. Oops, turned out the in laws did them for me one day. But it is hard when you don’t have an outdoor tap. Instead I just take my water bottle out and then just hope it’s enough. Here’s our week 18 for Project 52.

Sunday – just a pottering day. Trying to persuade someone to do some homework and get everything prepped for school starting! Even though it was hot, we still had a roast for dinner.

Monday – back to school after Easter. At least in the heat N’s school are sensible, allowing them to remove blazers for the next couple of days, and PE kit on Thursday when it was going to top 25C/ 

Tuesday – in Birmingham for work all day. Arrived early so bought myself a drink and sat in the sun in front of the water fountains. Nice day seeing everyone, then rush back home to get to dancing. But, I’d just missed the earlier train (hate going cross country rather than Chiltern because there’s only 1 train an hour), so mooched around, only to find mine was then a little late. Which got later before Leamington due to being stuck being a broken down train. So I was hot, bothered, and had an aching back from standing up for the hour (same on the way in).  Luckily I ended up only 40 minutes late back to Banbury, and just got across town to arrive at dancing dead on time. I didn’t have time to change my shoes, so there were a few issues with sticky soles not moving for some dances. But it was good to get there – however boiling I was by the end.

Wednesday – put in my delay compensation request to the train company. Then N had football practice in the hot sun. I’m not a sun lover at all (and got burnt on Tuesday lunchtime sitting out without any shade for too long), but it was quite nice sitting out watching them and reading, then catching up with a couple of other parents. 

Thursday – quite a hot day today. I’m glad I was working in my nice cool back room. The aga was turned off for the warm weather so I’ve got the slow cooker out. And I need to remember I have to preheat the oven and thing more in advance. No dancing because the hall was being used for the county council elections. I went to vote after tea. They’re not chatty at all down there. 

Friday – first tennis lesson back since July. It’s been a long time coming but surprisingly the boys were looking forward to being back playing (more for the social I suspect for some of them). The new coach seems to be acceptable – I think they’ll be ripping the mickey into him before long. They didn’t do any drills, just some usual knocks ups in pairs with some points challenges, some serving practice, then into some singles and doubles matches. They were all pretty rusty, but hopefully they’ll enjoy it and stick with it. Plus it was nice for me to catch up with one of the mum’s I’ve not seen since July too.

Saturday – penultimate match of the season. A visit to the livestock market didn’t materialise, so N could play. It was a trek of over an hour, but worth the visit. The first half our boys played excellently and 4-0 up. But a switch of goalie/centre forward, open goal opportunites were missed, the heads went down. The other team got a goal from an offside that was missed, and another good goal, suddenly it was getting worrying. But ours kept at it, and we saw some good football return. By the end we were 6-3 up, although with all the missed chances, it could have been 11 or 12. So the team finished a good 3rd in their league still with a match to play, and could even end up within 1 point of 2nd place. We’re not sure whether they’ll have a team next year which would be a real shame. But they’ve done so well with their application, training and fitness this last year and it’s shown. They’ve played good and decent football compared to other teams that aren’t passing the same way even those above them.

It was a late return home due to a later kick off and delay starting, plus hot weather drinks breaks at the quarters. So not much done at all other than making strawberry mousse for dessert, and getting a lot of washing done.

No new posts this week.

Things I’ve enjoyed this week:

• sitting in the sun chatting at lunchtime.
• the boys being back at tennis (and my social life increasing again).
• re-doing my Fantasy Football team from scratch. It can only get better than the last couple of months which have seen me plummet.

Things I’m grateful for this week:

• having done bolognese which means easy and quick dinner the following nights with lasagne.
• managing to find somewhere to stay in Cornwall over bank holiday weekend for a reasonable price with parking (although already dreading the traffic).
• just getting back in time for dancing (didn’t want to miss 2 days this week).