The first of June 2012

I know I have posted recently, but yesterday was a day that so much characterises our hectic lifestyle that I have to chronicle it. The early morning was pleasant. I woke around 6-6.15am and slowly came to life. Then I watched Thursday night's Good Wife episode on 4oD sitting up in bed. That series is still at that stage when writers, director, actors and all concerned are still so fascinated with it, that it just surpasses itself every time. That was very enjoyable. See Julianna Margulies, who is not only a stunner, but a fantastic actress to boot.

Then I got up to have breakfast and go to Hatvan market to shop for some food and gardening supplies. And it was then that hell started. First of all Andor rang saying that his sister agreed to his visit dates and could I buy his air ticket? I said OK, even though we were already running late. Then I got on to Wizzair's web site which had decided for some weird reason that it was not going to accept my credit card. It kept giving me an error message about it not being valid for that currency. I clicked on practically every currency I saw there, but it didn't like any of them. So I decided to pay by bank transfer. Then my bank's web site decided that my password was out of date, so I had to go through the palaver of changing that before I could pay. I still don't know whether the money had gone through, but we live in hope. We were just about to leave for the market when the phone went and John Pearson rang saying that they are going to be late as his car wouldn't start. Could I suggest a solution? What's the matter? - I said. The battery is dead. So I rang Andor again, who lives quite near John to ask if he knows of a tyre/battery place anywhere near John? He thankfully did, so I got instructions where it was, rang John back and told him. As it happens, he didn't go there, but got his handyman in to fix it, but that comes later.

Finally we departed for the market at about 10.45am, me being quite convinced there would be nothing left to buy. It was pretty close to it, but we were lucky and managed to get some really nice vegetables as most of the stall holders were packing up to go home, followed by some more plants for the garden. At Tesco's we bought some more food and 250 litres of peat and manure, as instructed by our gardener. Once we were at home I rang John and he was still waiting for his handyman to fix the battery but suggested that they would be with us by around 6pm. Then I made myself a salad for a late lunch which could carry the title: Greek salad with a twist (or two). It had all the traditional ingredients of a Greek salad (tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, onions, feta, olives) plus an Italian addition of sun dried tomatoes and my absolute salad favourite of raw cauliflower.

After lunch the planting started. It always gives me a backache, but the end result makes up for it.

Once that was finished I had to get ready for the arrival of Hilary and John, who finally did arrive about 7.15pm. We had dinner (which was cooked by Roy), had a nice long chat and went to bed at 11.15pm. Phewww! I did not need nursing to get to sleep!