Sunday 19th August - weekend catch up

Over half way through August already.  Where did the summer holidays go?  Simon only has one more week and then it will be back to the grindstone.

This weekend has been quite pleasant.  Simon worked a bit more on the garage extension yesterday while I worked on shifting more blogs.  In the late afternoon we decided to go for a drive as it was so nice out.  Warm and sunny but not muggy with it like today has been.

We drove out to an old airfield that Simon had seen on the local ordnance survey map. It is about 2 miles from the neighbouring village of Aslackaby.  A funny thing... I had always thought that was pronounced as it is spelt..... As-lack-a-bee. I met a villager recently and discovered that it is actually azel-bee.  Like hazel with out the H.  Weird.

Anyway, I digress.... Simon wanted to go and take a look at this airfield and have a walk around.  In the event when we found it, we couldn't go in as there were signs up saying private property, no trespassing and 24 hour surveillance.  We could however look over the gate and what we could see had us dumbfounded.  In the far distance we could see loads and loads of old vehicles. It was too far away to work out what they were.  I tried to take photo's but clearly I need a better camera.

We decided that our best bet was to drive around to the other side to see if there was a better view from there. It was quite a drive as it is a large area.  We couldn't get any nearer but we could see that there were even more vehicles than we had first thought.  We agreed to check it out online to see what we could find out.

By this time it was gone 6pm so we stopped off at the Five Bells in a neighbouring village of Edenham for drinks.  This was our first time trying out the Five Bells and it proved to be very nice.  As the evening was still in the seventies we sat outside in the garden; me with a nice big glass of the red stuff and Simon with a glass of cider.  We sat there for ages enjoying the evening warmth and chatting.  Quite in depth chatting actually about how every decision taken throughout your life brings you to the present moment.  I might blog about that.

We sat there for so long we decided to order dinner.  That was a good decision as the food was really good.  I had pan fried salmon with pan fried potatoes and crispy leeks.  Never had crispy leeks before... they were superb.  I must try to find out how they did them.  Simon had daube of beef with garlic mash and veggies.  A kind of rich casserole.  He said it was lovely. Neither of us had any room for dessert so we made our way home.

Simon went online and checked out the airfield.  It was very interesting. I shall do a separate blog for it.  I think we will go back and chance our arm for a look around.

Today we went to the Great British Craft Festival at Donnington.  It was an hour and a half drive.  When we got there we were told that it was all sold out!  Apparently this was the first time this show had been held and they had totally under estimated the numbers.  Due to health and safety restrictions they were not selling any more tickets.  We were told that yesterday they turned away thousands!

However, a very nice staff member told us that if we went and waited by the exit we could ask people coming out if we could buy their tickets from them!  The tickets were not being marked in anyway when people entered so no one would know.  I wasn't too sure about this idea but Simon was!  He said we have come all this way so we are going in.  We were lucky, we only waited about 5 minutes and 2 ladies sold us their tickets for the face price.  They got a good deal!  We actually gave ours away for nothing when we came out.

The show was good but wasn't really my thing.  It was mostly for paper crafting, card making and scrap booking.  I do all of those things but I do them on the cheap.  I don't buy all the bits and bobs.  I did make a couple of purchases, you have to, don't you?  I got a little pack of silver herat shaped beads for use on a wall hanging that I am making.  On the same stall I got 5 beads that will fit my Pandora bracelet.  They were only 30p each so not the real thing!  They are pretty though and will look nice.  The other thing that I got was a kit to make a Christmas hearts and bells decoration.  Will show you once it is done.

The Create and Craft team from the shopping channel were there and I noticed that they were going to be demonstrating the Slice Fabrique machine.  I have had my eye on that for ages so we decided to sit and watch.  It is a really brilliant bit of kit.  I nearly got one.  Probably still will get one but they are expensive and I have only just had my Sizzix Big Shot machine a week ago courtesy of a lovely hubby.  They do different things so would be complimentary to each other.  I shall think about it.

The demonstration was being broadcast live from the show and it was no less boring seeing it live than those things are if you ever watch shopping channels.  One of the presenters was Anthea Turner, she is a bit of an old has been.  She used to present various proper TV programmes, the most notable being the children's programme Blue Peter.  She is one odd woman.  Totally over the top and saying really quite odd things.  I wouldn't want to have spend long in her company.

After that we decided that we had seen all there was to see so we got a coffee and walked back to the car. We stopped on the way home in Melton Mowbray (home of the famous pork pies).  No we didn't have pork pie we had Kentucky fried chicken.  Hardly ever have that but I do enjoy it and it always brings back memories of our first visit to "Merika" in 1979.  Kentucky fried chicken had not arrived in the UK back then so it was a novelty for us and we virtually lived on it while we were travelling.

We got home about 3.30pm  by which time I had a pretty rotten headache.  I think it is due to the weather.  it is very heavy here today.  Hot, humid and muggy.  Head achy weather.  We probably need a storm to clear it.  There were a few claps of thunder but that was all.  Since then Simon has been in the garden working on the garage. I think there are 3 more half panels up.  They will have windows above them.

I have been resting upstairs.  I need to move myself shortly and get dinner under way.  I don't actually feel hungry but I am sure Simon will be.  It's roast lamb so it will be some hours yet anyway.

I shall try to get back tomorrow with a blog about the airfield.