It probably wasn’t the brightest idea to travel down to Maidenhead in Royal Ascot week to see our accountant, especially given that it was also a Friday. But actually, the M1 and M25 were relatively clear which was lucky. In fact, we arrived in record time and went to the garage to put air in one my tyres and grab a newspaper and a coffee. We arrived at Rashmi’s offices in Money Row Green (very aptly named) spot on the dot for our 10amm appointment. It was a little chaotic as they were redoing the electrics but Rashmi’s office seemed untouched and this is where we had our meeting.
When I say meeting, we spoke about accounts for half an hour and then about holidays for nearly an hour over coffee. Rashmi likes his holidays just as much as we do and has recently returned from a week in Canada. He’s got a wedding in Spain coming up and then a cruise booked up for later in the year. Rashmi had already filed our return so the accounts for this year end where pretty much straight forward. No doubt when he delves in after we leave, he will find something that we’ve done wrong, he usually does but he always manages to sort us out. Thank goodness for good accountants especially when they save us money and keep the Inland Revenue away from our door!
It was half eleven when we said our goodbyes, a bit too early for lunch and so we decided to see if we could check-in at our hotel. Originally I’d booked in at The Thames Rivieria in Maidenhead but after checking out TripAdvisor reviews on Friday morning, I decided to cancel and book us in at Fredrick’s Hotel Restaurant & Spa. I was glad I did but more about that in a minute. The room was ready so we were able to check right in which was a real bonus. We had talked about a walk along the Thames or a visit to Windsor castle but by this time the rain was chucking it down. The lunch seemed expensive at Fredricks; we did think about lunch at the Riverside but decided against it in the end because we’ve been before so in the end we ended up at The Hinds Head in Bray.
This turned out to be an expensive mistake. The food was okay but you had to pay for side dishes, which I thought was out of order plus the service was slow. Phil had the 3 course set menu and I had steak and chips. Okay, the steak was beautifully cooked and the triple cooked chips were okay but at 27 quid it was certainly overpriced. We’d quite forgotten how expensive this part of the world is. After lunch, we headed back to our hotel deciding just to chill out. It was still raining hard so we didn’t really have any other option. Phil did some work on his laptop but after a while I was bored so I managed to persuade him to come down to the spa with me. We put on our complimentary robes and slippers, Phil’s robe was fine but both my robe and slippers were about 10 sizes too big.
The spa was lovely, small but beautifully presented. We tried out the infinity pool, had a go on the massage seat, sweated in the steam bath and soaked our feet. Phil was the only bloke but that didn’t seem to bother him. I was just glad I didn’t have to go by myself as it wouldn’t have been the same. It was a nice way to kill a couple of hours. Friday evening was red wine and biscuits and pate which I’d brought from home. The hotel were charging £23.50 per had for a full English so we decided against it and headed for the garage after checking out. In retrospect it was an expensive day and night away but it did at least keep us both away from work.
We got back to MK at quarter to ten, just in time unpack, and dig out some tools before heading straight to the CF. Snake the plumber had promised he would go in on Friday with the key and re-plumb the pipes, move the waste and get the kitchen up to first fix. He was true to his word and when we got there we saw that he’d even taken down the sink and the worktop for us which saved us a job. It took us a good hour to get up the remainder of the sticky lino and prepare the floor for tiling. We were just about to start the tiling when we realised we didn’t have any spacers so we popped in to B&Q in Bletchley then went to The Tawny Owl at Walnut Tree for lunch even though it was a little early. Afterwards it was back to lay the floor.
Phil had got the Tiles from Wickes; they were on special offer and the last of the batch. The staff had to hunt around in the back and eventually he came away with 40 tiles which he got for 60 quid. It was touch and go whether we would have enough but we did just about. Phil didn’t have enough to go under all the units but we will try and fill in with hardboard. We finished at 4pm, loaded the kitchen sink and worktops in the Land Rover and dumped these at the Bleak Hall tip before heading home. Phil headed straight for the shower but I had to zip my car off to the camp site at Gulliver’s because J&M needed it for the evening. I got back home just in time to answer the door to Fraser who wanted his money for doing the taps and bath waste at the OB flat; then it was shower, telly and we were both in bed before half eight.
Phil is anxious to get the OB flat on the market so he got changed into his work gear and was round there at half six yesterday morning. He managed to get the bath panel back on and glue the aluminium bits that we had made. He fitted some carpet in the airing cupboard and was home by 9am. I too was up early and had my beef and red wine casserole all prepared and cooking in the slower cooker at half seven. Phil had his shower, dropped me off at the campsite to get my car and then he went to Melton to see his mum and dad, picking up G along the way.
I had intended to go to DW for a swim and a steam but I got way laid with J&M, I also needed petrol and when I got to the gym, the pool was full of kids. So I just showered and changed, popped into Asda, went home and just had enough time to do some jobs before J&M arrived on their bikes for lunch. Thankfully the weather was sunny yesterday which was good because step-dad wanted to tidy up our front garden. This was fine by me, I have many skills, but gardening is not one of them. We had lunch at 2 and very nice it was too, I shall definitely try this recipe again. The remainder of the afternoon went quickly; I loaded the dishwasher, took Marie to Lidl’s so she could get some shopping and we hadn’t long got back when Phil returned. He didn’t stay long, just in time to say hello and then he went back to the OB to finish off some bits. Poor Phil, he was awake early again this morning and even after having a day off on Friday, he is returning to work absolutely knackered. I am a little worried for him and I think he’s overdoing things. He was complaining over the weekend about swollen glands. I told him to take extra aspirin but its not good starting his radiotherapy with an already weakened immune system. I think I am going to limit him to only working one day at the weekends, at the end of the day, his health is more important than work.
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