Quite an uneventful month without holiday. We had a cheap week away last month and we have our mini cruise to look forward to next month, but nothing this month. Still not sure if we will manage to get to Vietnam this year and if I don’t do something soon it will be too late.
We had our fair share of snow last month but it decided to come back temporarily during our coldest month of February. This time it seemed to flood between the bridges up Little Linford Lane. Not sure why as it hadn’t completely thawed. I guess that we have had so much rain this year that the ground is completely saturated and anything falling out of the sky sits on the surface in certain places.
It was Georgina’s birthday on the 12th and she is 20 now. Into her third decade, a proper adult. Not sure why they chose 18 or 21 to celebrate becoming an adult, as 20 seems much more appropriate than either of them. She came back for the weekend and I took her back to Melton to see her grandparents on Sunday. Her maternal grandma had stopped over at her mums house on Saturday so I took her back on the way to Melton. However, because she had been trying to get over on the bus to meet my mum in Melton for some time, and mums legs aren't too good at the moment, we invited her to come with us to the bowls club and take her home on the way back. This was nice for Georgina as she had all her living grandparents together along with her favourite parent. A little thought for absent friends.
The snow was quite thick though and when I drove over the back way to get the post from the Manor, I couldn’t see the edges of the road. Not sure how it happened but I seemed to loose my way a little much to the surprise of the local onlookers.
On pancake day Claire went over to help her step dad’s girlfriend sort the mess she had caused in her kitchen in Suffolk. I had to stay at home and make the pancakes for Harriet. Unfortunately she didn't leave any for me so I made a hotdog for myself. Happy Birthday Georgina. It must be nice to have pancakes for your birthday.
As Claire said during the month we tried a few pubs for lunch that we hadn't been in for years. The first one was the Swan in Milton Keynes Village (Middleton). Expensive but nice.
We were invited out with Sue to the Mandarin (the one Claire calls the Oriental) in Western Favell. She had invited all her family along together and kindly invited us too as a thank you for our help while she was undergoing her operation. We had a really nice time, thank you Sue and very pleased that you are better now. Another little thought for absent friends.
The second was the Old Swan in Woughton. The last time I was in there you could go downstairs as the cellar ceiling had been taken down. It must have been converted back now. Food cheap but reasonable value. I think you have to chose your dish wisely. I noticed that they had a Milton Keynes brew on the go. We actually had a third one at The Three Trees in Bletchley but I forgot to take any pictures. I visited it for a drink with my old friend and college Dave Clarke and took Claire one Friday. Very good value for money.
I now feel that I am getting to a certain age. The first of my friends, that I feel are my age, are having their 60th Birthday. Steve Pemberton was 60 on 22 February, Happy Birthday Steve. Maddy and Eddy had arranged a party at Robinson’s in Newport Pagnell to celebrate and we were invited along. This really suited us at it was for Sunday lunch rather than in the evening. Two out of three of Maddy's sisters were in attendance, the third lives in the USA. Dom, one of Maddy’s nephews, starts his degree in London later this year as he is just doing his finals for his A levels. He is very good at maths but his love lies in music and he hopes to go to one of the two London universities that specialize in musical composition. He spotted, Steve’s guitars hanging on the wall, plugged into the amp in the conservatory, and Steve’s guitar got used how it was intended for, probably the very first time. Wow!
Maddy’s sisters did an almost dramatical performance. The one on the right, Abbey is Dom’s mum. Dom’s father is Maltese and comes from the island of Gozo.
This was after we had finished our meal and gone back to Steve’s house for afters. This instantly made the girls, and Edd, get up to the newly formed dance floor in front of Dom. Watch out for this boy, he’s good.
Before we knew it, it was Monday morning and we ended up staying the night at their house. Claire found some PJ’s and the girls looked like a pair of twins. A fantastic night but it took a man of a certain age a couple of days to recover from it. I always used to think that it was worth it, but the break even point quickly approaches.
Again, I have been working on Daphne’s estate most of this month and one of the things I though worthwhile was to write a timeline of our holidays and times that we would not have been able to visit Daphne’s and therefore sign documents. I have recovered three documents that I didn’t sign, one of which we were on holiday in Portugal with Madd’s and Steve. I can find these things out because of this blog. Claire has been keeping a blog since we went off traveling around Asia for 4 months at the end of 2006. Great! I signed the forms to become a Trustee in March 2007 upon our return so we have a complete record of where and when we were anywhere. Its very time consuming going through these books every time I want to check a date so I thought I would do the list once thoroughly which would make it easy to check dates in the future. Some documents I cant recover but its much easier to find out when accounts were opened and closed. With this new list I can check dates very easy and quickly and almost know if I was around to sign it and if its worth a special effort to recover it. It was so interesting reading back through our lives and I actually found the first meal that Claire ever cooked me; the day she started to cook. It was 14th March, the day I started back to work at Rexam after our holiday and the first day of Claire’s retirement. I took a picture of the meal she made me on 26th February 2013. It shows how far she has come in this time. Mmmmm yummy, no wonder I keep putting on weight and taking photo’s of my food. I’m in love again.
I have a good chance of starting back to work again in March at Rexam which would be handy now that we are working within walking distance of them. Not to mention needing a bit of money. Therefore I have been working most days trying to force the end of this nightmare. I have spoken to the Financial Services Authority (FSA), to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO), and the Fraud Squad. I have sent off an official complaint to the Financial Ombudsman and my solicitor and myself have selected a barrister that specialises in Trusts. I have been to MK Police station, phoned the Police because they didn't want to know and I have an officer coming around today at 8am. I will tell you how it all fares next month. Next month should be the month where all this work finally starts to come together and we make progress. Alternatively, they might say that we have no chance of recovering anything, but at least it will come to a head. We also have our mini Cruise next month so lots to look forward to.
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