Mid-Week Update!

I have been extremely busy for the last two days. Yesterday I signed the contract to sell the house even though the estate agent has not finished the brochure – lots of amendments and additions to be made and pictures to be taken, so house obviously won't be going on the market until they have finished this – the ball is in their court as they say. Had to fill in a ten page house questionnaire booklet whilst there too. I then visited Ringstead Nurseries to buy some plants and had a nice catch up with Adrian Needham who works there – I went to school with Adrian (Holme Primary school that was) and his family have lived in Holme for longer than I have been on this earth! Adrian asked how our mother was – he had no idea that she had died, so that was a difficult conversation.

I spent the rest of the day at the family home, checking through the rest of mother's massive book collection, which I was going to do a boot sale with eventually – decided to be more ruthless and took three huge boxes to the Norfolk Hospice Shop in Hunstanton. Swept the porch, gateway and all round the patio and steps and had a general tidy up. Cleaned the front door and the living room window. I needed a break and I was hungry. Went to the White Horse pub in the village and discovered it was closed at 4pm! I then headed to Thornham and discovered that The Lifeboat Inn was open and serving food – I have not been here for years. I ordered a Superfood Salad and a portion of chips with a J2O drink and sat in the beautiful conservatory. It brought back many memories – I used to work here as a waitress when I was aged 17, which was a summer job in between my two years at art college. I recall having to carry five big earthenware pots of mussels on a tray and how heavy they were – I remember a waitress dropping a whole tray once – I don't think she lasted long!

Superfood Salad at The Life Boat Inn, Thornham

Anyway, within 10 minutes of sitting here my order arrived and it looked divine – it was the best salad I have ever had! I can not begin to describe how tasty it was – presented in a beautiful blue dish, it was an array of colours and the chips were to die for. I couldn't work out how they had put that together in such as short space of time! There were so many different ingredients, I don't think I can even remember them all..... warm falafels, feta cheese, broccoli, mange tout, lettuce, several different types of beans, nuts including cashews, beetroot, sweet potato, red onions and lentils. Ok, so it wasn't exactly cheap, but worth every penny and I will definitely be going back again. 10/10 rating, excellent service, smiling staff and highly recommended.

I returned to the family home and continued sorting through books. Two more boxes to take to the charity shop another day. We are still left with more books after that and bric-a-brac stuff for a boot sale – but I can see it all going to a charity shop soon! I left Holme at 8.45pm and returned home shattered. Took me a while to unload the car of more books and a big plant from mother's garden.

Today, I woke up later than I had intended and had to scrap round to get out of the house for my bereavement appointment at 10am at Tapping House Hospice in Hillington. The lady who I see is one very special lady, she is so kind, so caring, so tuned in and listens – she is in fact the only person who is listening to anything I'm saying right now. No wonder so many people donate money to this amazing charity. I can't speak highly enough of all the staff I have met here over the last year.

Next mission for the day! Picked Lucy up at 11.20am and took her back to my house so that she could sit at my Mac and mark down all the 'bowings' on her music for the next concert – just to explain for those of you that don't know – bowings are marks inserted above the music notes which indicate to the player which way the bow should be played: up or down – these are marked up by the lead violinist and submitted onto the orchestra's website for all players to copy the marks down on their own music sheets. Whilst she was doing this I made us lunch, which was cheese on toast and home-made chips! Very healthy! Lucy brought a tear to my eye, when she said it was the best lunch she has ever had! Dropped Lucy back home and parked up in the town centre for my emergency dentist appointment. I have to have a very old filling replaced – appointment booked for this in mid March – something exciting to look forward to! Went to pay a parking fine in the post office (long story, best to forget about it), pay some money in the bank and some other odd errands and then returned home around 4pm. Fell asleep for a short while, still tired from yesterday. Tomorrow I'm having a day entirely for me and am going birding in the sunshine ALL day.