For some reason I didn't get in to work until 11:15 on Friday, which was a bit naughty (probably to do with needing more sleep because of being ill). Meanwhile, Argos delivered a new mattress - so when I got home we had the fun task of getting it upstairs (past the stair gate) and on to the bed.
We did at least manage to clear the sofas by Saturday morning so that my parents had somewhere to sit when they arrived. We went out to Bella Pasta for lunch and were surprised to find on getting there that it had changed its name to Bella Italia (though the receipt, and some of the crockery, still had the old name on it).
Shortly before we finished lunch I sent a text message to the number that
I rejoined my family just as they came out of Boots to finish their shopping, and we went home. My Dad apparently had a great time trying to put the rings back on the stacker faster than
We had a beef pot roast for tea, and then my parents left to make their way home.
On Sunday we didn't get up very early, but we went to a big car boot sale a few miles out of Oxford, arriving there at about noon when a lot of the traders were starting to pack up. We went home via Homebase for some compost for the front lawn, and after lunch went back out to buy a fence (which is being delivered on Thursday - not as a complete fence obviously, but in bits which we will have to build) and a front gate (although I don't really see much wrong with our existing one).
I built the shoe rack, which turned out to be rather larger than I thought it would be, and this eventually went into the hall. So now you don't have to negotiate past a big pile of shoes to get in and out of the house, but you do have to negotiate past a shoe rack (and a bookcase on the other side). At least the shoe rack is straighter and less likely to move if you bump into it.
Bank Holiday Monday was no holiday, really - there was much gardening to do. But first, we revisited the car boot sale, getting there at the slightly better hour of 10am. After we got back to the house,
I then made some more garden waste by mowing the back lawn and picking up various bits of bush which
In the evening I built the toddler swing, which is a bit bigger than the baby swing (obviously) so I'm not sure if we'll have room to use it indoors very often. It also says on `not suitable for children aged under 18 months' but I think we might ignore that bit as the seating arrangement is not that much different from the baby swing. (Neither of them has a shoulder belt which would stop him from climbing out of it, so he'll have to be watched whichever one we put him in.)
In the evening,
And on Tuesday it was back to work again.