daytime

Sunday, 14 July 2019

14^th July 2019

Dear All,

We had a gathering of the clans yesterday to mark Kate’s brother Philip’s 60^th birthday and his daughter Natasha’s 21^st and graduation. We met at Stamford “Cosy Club” which was large and noisy and the hosts were over 30 minutes late and some of the guests (Irish!) over an hour late so it made for a long evening. Mary-Ann, Andy, Amélie and Albert came up Friday evening and Esther and Emma Saturday lunch time and all stayed last night. It was also the Over Carnival fund raising picnic yesterday with some stalls and bouncy castles etc. in addition we had been invited to a birthday party and a wedding – it never rains but it pours!

Philip, Lenin (Natasha’s boyfriend) & Natasha

Amelie & Albert at the Picnic

On Monday four of us travelled to Chelmsford to watch Essex dominate Yorkshire. The sun shone for most of the day and it was a good day out.

Essex batting

We had a company come and give us a quote for re felting the flat roof recently and we accepted the quote last week anticipating a delay while they booked a date. However on Wednesday they phoned to ask whether they could come that day as the A14 was blocked and they couldn’t get to their planned destination. We agreed so it was largely completed that day. Later I had a saga replacing our car radio. I went to Halfords in Cambridge and the first three models that I chose were not in stock, so I purchased the fourth anticipating that it would be fitted as promised in their advert, however they did not have anyone available to carry this out. I thought I could do this myself and they looked up their computer to assure me that I did not need any adaptors or extra wires. When I tried the fitting it was not straightforward, so I took it to the local garage – who told me I did need adaptors and I would have to go back to Halfords. They advised that the Huntingdon branch was more clued up than the Cambridge one so I drove there having to follow a tractor all the way from Willingham to St Ives then hitting a gridlock at St Ives. The Huntingdon branch was indeed better than Cambridge and sorted the problem albeit after a 30 minute wait

Flat roof

On Thursday our walk stated at Guilden Morden and was largely sunny and warm. Highlight was stumbling across a nest of newly hatched partridge chicks which blended in with the vegetation remarkably well.