Saturday 30th October 2017

So the weekend comes round but this one is unusual. Unusual as on Sunday I pack lots of clothes and head to deepest Suffolk for an unknown period of time to be near Mum when she has her operation. I have friends who for them, or their relatives similar operations have been successful. Or fatal. What am I expecting? Don't know really, to be honest. I expect her to survive the operation, but take many months to recover. Maybe two or three months before she is allowed back in her own home without substantial help from nurses, or other health care people. Or me.

We shall see.

And as it is another fine autumnal day, we have stuff planned to do in the darden as we prepare to have the boys in again for some minor work inbetween the house than the stuff they did last year. More of that in a minute.

But there is a trip to Tesco, but this time to get meals for one for Jools, as she will be staying down here, working and looking after the cats. So, not much really to buy, so we can zip round quick and be in and out in twenty minutes, and then there is the building supplier. As we have to choose a path. Or the material we want our path to be made of. And get some spay paint, to mark out the path and beds in the grass later.

Fourteen pounds for a can of spray paint! I ask you, what the actual heck? But we have no choice.

And then back home for breakfast of croissants and more coffee. At which point the gardner arrived. As I have said before, we could do the hedges and rampant vegetation, but he has the tools and at £15 an hour, would be money well spent.

So we leave him to tackle the plants beside the drive, meaning it would be wide enough for a car again, and son scrape down the side when we reverse down. Doubly important as Jools also has a hire car for as long as I'm away.

So I take the time to bake some short cakes, and instead of just guessing the size I use a pastry cutter to make 16 cakes, all golden and crispy. As Jools finished in the garden, we sit on the patio with brews and still warm cakes.

The comes the marking out of what is in our heads for the builders to follow. We mark out the centre of the path, then measure out a foot or so each side, then paint the lines. The idea is to come up with a figure eight and the comma shaped flower beds finishing the effect. We are done in an hour, and although not perfect, we hope when done it will look great.

It was always the case that cheese and wine was going to be a bad idea for lunch. Not the cheese but the wine. But we had cheese to use up, including Cornish camembert, so, with freshly open packets of crackers, we tuck in and make a dent in the small cheese mountain.

I lay on the sofa as there was football on, but the wine and warm weather mean that my eyes get heavy and soon I am zedding away, at least until nearly four. But then as Norwich don't kick off until half five, I don't miss much of any importance. Sadly, as the so-called match of the season, this far, kicked off at the same time as Reading v Norwich, the only game on the radio available was Chelski v Citeh, which in the end I follow online instead of the radio, as by that time another batch of chorizo hash was ready.

City take the lead, but then quickly concede their first goal of the month. Legs and mind are tired after seven games in 30 days, but hey. And in the second half, a well worked goal and bad marking meant that Jerome headed home unchallenged. Three more points. And that also meant watching the highlights on C5 at nine, bringing the end to a quiet day, and my last day at Chez Jelltex for some time, and the last blog maybe for some weeks.