Busy!
There has been a busy...
Things had got in a bit of a muddle, and I needed to do a Grand Clear Up. It all had to be done by mid afternoon on Friday, when the guests were arriving...
Several loads of STUFF got boosted into the loft.
A pile of things on the landing, hemming in the treadle, got sorted and either put back on the shelves, carted off down the shed, or binned! A box of stuff for the charity shop got boosted into the loft as a temporary measure...
The sewing stuff in the sewing room got either put away, boosted into the loft, or, in the case of several sewing machines, Rubiked into the spaces on the landing left by clearing the pile of crapola.
That gave me space to set up the sewing room bed. AND I didn't have to shift the Monolith out! Yay!
The spare bed bedding came down from the loft and stuffed into pillowcases, duvet covers, or stretched over the mattresses. I had the sewing room Super King set up and the living room sofa.
The shopping was all completed, and PUT AWAY! This is a minor miracle, given how much food and stuff we bought, and wine, and cider and beer... The only thing I didn't get put away in either the fridge or freezer was the half baked bread, and we just left that out as it was going to be et anyway. What remained after the weekend got frozen today. Beer and cider went on the side beside the sink and fridge/freezer in the conservatory, on top of the fridge/freezer, or in the bottle bags and tucked under the cutting table.
The lovely D&G and the pooch arrived mid afternoon, baring MORE wine, beer, and cider...
The lovely gillo and sidvrar_vafudir arrived at about 9:30, and we had dinner. And nattered! A lot... And looked at the weather forecast...
And decided that as it was going to be wet, we'd skip the Sweeps on Saturday and invited ravenrigan and co round for lunch. And then got gently inebriated.
Lunch was convivial, fun, full of masses of nattering, and it was lovely to meet new people, especially a like-minded fabric sniffer! There were 11 of us all told.
The evening passed much as Friday, and on Saturday we went to The Sweeps Festival at Rochester. Well, we tried. It took several attempts! We thought, so that everyone could partake of the Beer Festival run at The Gordon Hotel, we would go by train... OK, there seemed to be one at 10:30. gillo offered to drive us down there in two car loads, restrict her drinking at lunchtime, and drive us back, on condition that we watered her well with wine in the evening. This was OK By Us! And then we saw that as there were engineering works, there would be Train Replacement Therapy between Rainham and Rochester, in the form of a bus.
So, off we go... When we get to the station, we find that all is not as advertised on the train website. Not all the buses will go to Rochester. Half of them will stop at Chatham... Not so good. gillo and I both have leg problems that make this hike (twice: there and back) on top of a lot of standing about and walking up and down following the dancing a less than wise choice. We are also a little dubious about how the dog will be on the bus... After a coffee and a debate, we decide the best course of action is to let the men go on the train/bus, redeem three of the tickets, and for us girls and the pooch to go in the car.
Oh, and the weather forecast got it wrong. Sunday was just as damp as Saturday had been!
We gurlies had no bother: Motorway to Strood, park in the Civic Center car park (um... No civic center: that was demolished several years ago!), trot across the bridge and we're there. And on Sunday, parking is free. :)
We wander up Rochester High Street, listening to music, watching dancing... gillo wants to visit the pre-loved book emporium, J wants to see the clog man, I require the po. We wander along and J I end up at the Corn Exchange, site of the best po and the clog man. On the way through the hall to the po, I am greeted with open arms and delight by the gents of Talking Elephant, who are delighted we are there, and missed us on Saturday (our usual day for visiting). I promise to return later when the men catch up.
Meanwhile, there is a call from Himself... The train duly met the bus, and once on it they are told that yes, it WILL go through to Rochester after all... On the way into Gillingham, however, they meet with Drama: blue lights, sirents, ambulances, fie rescue truck, yards of polis... There has been an Incident, and the road is closed. The bus heads back towards Rainham, and the driver gets lost.
Eventually I get another call, and we all meet up at the Talking Elephant stall, where we live up to the gents' name for us of The High Rollers, and buy about 30 CD's between us. This is our usual pattern at this event: we tend not to buy much music the rest of the year, and save up for The Sweeps.
Having cleaned them out of almost everything we wanted, we set off up the road to get beer and meet ravenrigan and co. The music in the tent with the beer in, out the back of the hotel, was good, but SO LOUD it hurt my ears, buzzed Himself's tinitus summat rotten, and annoyed the rest of the party as we couldn't hear ourselves think, never mind talk... So we went into the hotel and found a seat in the back dining/function room. Having had a good natter, dried out, and determined that the Gordon Hotel's food was all way too spicey for J (who is allergic to many spices, and especially chilli), we topped up the tankards and set off back up the street to where we'd seen an interesting stall on the way down that we thought might provide us with LUNCH.
It did. The Giggly Pig stall provided us with deliiiishuss saussageinnabun, with crozzled onions. Oh, yum! FAAAAAAR better than the Pig Roast from the pub down the road...
And the stall next door sold me a lovely Pumpernickel bread with fruit in, and a lovely pork pie (which became Lunch on Monday). Just up the walkway there was a lovely Russian lass selling home made Russian cake, so gillo and I indulged...
We continued on our way up the street, watching the dancing and listening to music in the drizzle, and wended our way eventually to the pier on the Medway, and had Cream Tea on the Edith May, a beautiful old Thames Sailing Barge. She spends her winter months being a floating tea room at her dock in Lower Halstow, and came up to Rochester for the Sweeps. The lovely old barge is charterable for days out in summer. This coming summer they are taking her barge racing! Yay!
We stayed in the Captain's Cabin, eating our tea, until they were closing up. Gillo and J and I then wandered back to the car, and ravenrigan & Co went back to their car. Our menfolk wandered back to catch their train replacement therapy bus. It was a Good Day Out.
That evening I pot roasted the lump of pig we had for dinner, and we dined. Late, I admit, but even with a pressure cooker, a full Sunday Dinner of Roast Pork in cider, stuffing, vegetables, roast potatoes and parsnips, and apple crumble with cream and custard takes a while to cook...
Monday was spent in a leisurely way, Getting Up Late (TM), listening to music, having lunch... The pork pie was really good, and the pumpernickel went extremely well with the cheeses.
gillo and hubby departed at about six in the evening. They took a sewing machine with them for fothen, my beautiful goddaughter. Himself had a minor celebration! The remainder of the party had a quiet dinner and a sleepy evening.
D&J departed this afternoon, after treating us to a nice pub lunch in a local pub. ravenrigan and I were working this morning, and after lunch, and then went and got shelves cut and got shelf brackets and put up the rest of her shelves in the sewing room. A good day.
In fact, the last four days have been very enjoyable. Next weekend will seem awfully quiet with just me, Himself and the cats: the GMNT is off on an expedition to walk the Seven Sisters (there and back, with a camp for the night, carrying everything they need with them!). I wonder how I'll manage to stay out of trouble?
I'll try and put some pix up tomorrow evening.
Things had got in a bit of a muddle, and I needed to do a Grand Clear Up. It all had to be done by mid afternoon on Friday, when the guests were arriving...
Several loads of STUFF got boosted into the loft.
A pile of things on the landing, hemming in the treadle, got sorted and either put back on the shelves, carted off down the shed, or binned! A box of stuff for the charity shop got boosted into the loft as a temporary measure...
The sewing stuff in the sewing room got either put away, boosted into the loft, or, in the case of several sewing machines, Rubiked into the spaces on the landing left by clearing the pile of crapola.
That gave me space to set up the sewing room bed. AND I didn't have to shift the Monolith out! Yay!
The spare bed bedding came down from the loft and stuffed into pillowcases, duvet covers, or stretched over the mattresses. I had the sewing room Super King set up and the living room sofa.
The shopping was all completed, and PUT AWAY! This is a minor miracle, given how much food and stuff we bought, and wine, and cider and beer... The only thing I didn't get put away in either the fridge or freezer was the half baked bread, and we just left that out as it was going to be et anyway. What remained after the weekend got frozen today. Beer and cider went on the side beside the sink and fridge/freezer in the conservatory, on top of the fridge/freezer, or in the bottle bags and tucked under the cutting table.
The lovely D&G and the pooch arrived mid afternoon, baring MORE wine, beer, and cider...
The lovely gillo and sidvrar_vafudir arrived at about 9:30, and we had dinner. And nattered! A lot... And looked at the weather forecast...
And decided that as it was going to be wet, we'd skip the Sweeps on Saturday and invited ravenrigan and co round for lunch. And then got gently inebriated.
Lunch was convivial, fun, full of masses of nattering, and it was lovely to meet new people, especially a like-minded fabric sniffer! There were 11 of us all told.
The evening passed much as Friday, and on Saturday we went to The Sweeps Festival at Rochester. Well, we tried. It took several attempts! We thought, so that everyone could partake of the Beer Festival run at The Gordon Hotel, we would go by train... OK, there seemed to be one at 10:30. gillo offered to drive us down there in two car loads, restrict her drinking at lunchtime, and drive us back, on condition that we watered her well with wine in the evening. This was OK By Us! And then we saw that as there were engineering works, there would be Train Replacement Therapy between Rainham and Rochester, in the form of a bus.
So, off we go... When we get to the station, we find that all is not as advertised on the train website. Not all the buses will go to Rochester. Half of them will stop at Chatham... Not so good. gillo and I both have leg problems that make this hike (twice: there and back) on top of a lot of standing about and walking up and down following the dancing a less than wise choice. We are also a little dubious about how the dog will be on the bus... After a coffee and a debate, we decide the best course of action is to let the men go on the train/bus, redeem three of the tickets, and for us girls and the pooch to go in the car.
Oh, and the weather forecast got it wrong. Sunday was just as damp as Saturday had been!
We gurlies had no bother: Motorway to Strood, park in the Civic Center car park (um... No civic center: that was demolished several years ago!), trot across the bridge and we're there. And on Sunday, parking is free. :)
We wander up Rochester High Street, listening to music, watching dancing... gillo wants to visit the pre-loved book emporium, J wants to see the clog man, I require the po. We wander along and J I end up at the Corn Exchange, site of the best po and the clog man. On the way through the hall to the po, I am greeted with open arms and delight by the gents of Talking Elephant, who are delighted we are there, and missed us on Saturday (our usual day for visiting). I promise to return later when the men catch up.
Meanwhile, there is a call from Himself... The train duly met the bus, and once on it they are told that yes, it WILL go through to Rochester after all... On the way into Gillingham, however, they meet with Drama: blue lights, sirents, ambulances, fie rescue truck, yards of polis... There has been an Incident, and the road is closed. The bus heads back towards Rainham, and the driver gets lost.
Eventually I get another call, and we all meet up at the Talking Elephant stall, where we live up to the gents' name for us of The High Rollers, and buy about 30 CD's between us. This is our usual pattern at this event: we tend not to buy much music the rest of the year, and save up for The Sweeps.
Having cleaned them out of almost everything we wanted, we set off up the road to get beer and meet ravenrigan and co. The music in the tent with the beer in, out the back of the hotel, was good, but SO LOUD it hurt my ears, buzzed Himself's tinitus summat rotten, and annoyed the rest of the party as we couldn't hear ourselves think, never mind talk... So we went into the hotel and found a seat in the back dining/function room. Having had a good natter, dried out, and determined that the Gordon Hotel's food was all way too spicey for J (who is allergic to many spices, and especially chilli), we topped up the tankards and set off back up the street to where we'd seen an interesting stall on the way down that we thought might provide us with LUNCH.
It did. The Giggly Pig stall provided us with deliiiishuss saussageinnabun, with crozzled onions. Oh, yum! FAAAAAAR better than the Pig Roast from the pub down the road...
And the stall next door sold me a lovely Pumpernickel bread with fruit in, and a lovely pork pie (which became Lunch on Monday). Just up the walkway there was a lovely Russian lass selling home made Russian cake, so gillo and I indulged...
We continued on our way up the street, watching the dancing and listening to music in the drizzle, and wended our way eventually to the pier on the Medway, and had Cream Tea on the Edith May, a beautiful old Thames Sailing Barge. She spends her winter months being a floating tea room at her dock in Lower Halstow, and came up to Rochester for the Sweeps. The lovely old barge is charterable for days out in summer. This coming summer they are taking her barge racing! Yay!
We stayed in the Captain's Cabin, eating our tea, until they were closing up. Gillo and J and I then wandered back to the car, and ravenrigan & Co went back to their car. Our menfolk wandered back to catch their train replacement therapy bus. It was a Good Day Out.
That evening I pot roasted the lump of pig we had for dinner, and we dined. Late, I admit, but even with a pressure cooker, a full Sunday Dinner of Roast Pork in cider, stuffing, vegetables, roast potatoes and parsnips, and apple crumble with cream and custard takes a while to cook...
Monday was spent in a leisurely way, Getting Up Late (TM), listening to music, having lunch... The pork pie was really good, and the pumpernickel went extremely well with the cheeses.
gillo and hubby departed at about six in the evening. They took a sewing machine with them for fothen, my beautiful goddaughter. Himself had a minor celebration! The remainder of the party had a quiet dinner and a sleepy evening.
D&J departed this afternoon, after treating us to a nice pub lunch in a local pub. ravenrigan and I were working this morning, and after lunch, and then went and got shelves cut and got shelf brackets and put up the rest of her shelves in the sewing room. A good day.
In fact, the last four days have been very enjoyable. Next weekend will seem awfully quiet with just me, Himself and the cats: the GMNT is off on an expedition to walk the Seven Sisters (there and back, with a camp for the night, carrying everything they need with them!). I wonder how I'll manage to stay out of trouble?
I'll try and put some pix up tomorrow evening.