A long weekend and an expensive mistake

I am not much into Easter, or any other religious holidays but I do much enjoy any long weekend that comes along with such public holidays. I don't even feel bad about that. I ate my Lindt chocolate bunny in one sitting. 

I had some marking to finish and a dissertation draft to comment on but with no other work commitments and no interruptions, I did this efficiently, in much less time than during a working day. Friday was a day of rest and chores. Both much needed... the living room bay windows were covered in dog nose prints and there was at least one dog worth of hair on the sofa in the window bay. Jack loves to sit on the windowsill, making sure no rogue cats or other undesirable creatures invade his front garden. 

Annie arrived in the afternoon and I offered to take her clothes shopping because she needed a job interview suitable shirt. She has been to quite a few, applied for many more jobs but this is the first interview she has to actually attend in person. She'll have to give a presentation, so we practiced that, too. The remaining weekend was uneventful, I finished sewing a pinafore, helped a child refresh their hair colour, went on walks and to top it all off, we had a BBQ with three of four offspring and one girlfriend. Annie had to return to St. Andrews and missed the BBQ unfortunately. Still, a good turnout. The kitten is wild. She likes to sneak up on Jack when he is asleep. She zooms around the house at great speed every few hours, then collapses on a soft surface for a long nap. Never her wee basket of course. 

I noticed the first ducklings on my regular visits to Bingham’s pond. Just the one clutch so far but it is only just the beginning. It is an unusual clutch, two of the ducklings are yellow, the other three normal mallard duckling coloured. I wondered if they are albino ducklings but their eyes are black. I hope they survive into adulthood. It is a tough old life for ducklings. 

In other news, Richard and I booked a trip to Paris. We were very pleased with ourselves because we finally got our act together, compared our work diaries and booked a four night getaway to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, now already several months in the past. It was three days later while brushing my teeth that a niggling thought finally bubbled to the surface of my consciousness, and it was not a welcome one. I remembered that Annie had organised Robbie Williams tickets for that very same weekend in May for the three of us and my friend Karen. Richard had not forgotten about the gig but thought it was in late June. Maybe it is time for a non-work family calendar. Sadly, we opted for a non-refundable hotel reservation…because that cost so much less than a booking that can be cancelled up to the day before arrival. I have tried to change the dates via Booking.com but this was denied, although offered in principle. I emailed a carefully crafted French email to the hotel asking to change the dates of our booking but that was denied as well, even though they had good availability for alternative dates proposed. It is a bit surprising that the hotel is so inflexible, considering the small print does not exclude a date change. Alas, we have only ourselves to blame. We have yet to decide if we cancel the trip and loose a not inconsiderable amount of money or if we disappoint Annie and Karen and lose a slightly smaller amount of money. I'll keep you posted. 

In the meantime, I must take photographs of my two only finished wardrobe essentials of 2025 and share those with you. 

Thanks for visiting 😊