Reflecting on my week #106

* This post contains items that were gifted by Tesalate and the London Graphic Centre

Ah, what a week. Midweek I thought I’d succumbed to the lurgy that seems to be doing the rounds, and so sensibly took myself off home for a lemsip. Turns out I wasn’t, but it’s better to be safe than sorry hey? Especially when working in a small and densely populated office.

Then Friday brought a ‘streaming’ eye, peculiarly a few days after MOH, and both of our left eyes. This time though I made a tactical error of going with contact lenses and not popping my glasses into my bag. By the end of the day cue one swollen and sore eye, and that’s with the lens discarded. Salt water eye washes helped a little, but eye drops have helped more, and now my eye and eyelid are back to their normal size, there’s less streaming and it no longer feels like there’s grit in my eye either, so that’s all a positive.

It’s grim to feel under the weather though, but a trip to watch Charlton play helped. Not only was it a good game (they drew in the end) but it was good to give my eye a bit of a rest too. Before we left home I’d persuaded MOH to pop some shopping bags into his coat pockets so we could pick up supplies on the way home. I’m not sure he was convinced, but it all worked out and there was also time for an impromptu lunch out too.

Fog at the Thames Barrier
Fog on the Thames

Sunday morning he headed out on his bike, returning with these pictures of a foggy Thames and Thames Barrier. You can’t see where river meets the sky, and if it weren’t for the iconic structure I’m not sure you’d believe that it was the RiveR Thames at all.

In sunnier developments, this sand free beach towel gifted by Tesalate arrived and I’m looking forward to putting that to the test when we head off to Barbados next month - I can’t wait!

A sand-free Beach towel, gifted from Tesalate

More on that to follow, but in the meantime I’m really pleased with the design of this lightweight towel, which comes with its own storage pouch.

This week I’ve also been trying my hand at some brush lettering using some of the items sent by the London Graphic Centre, starting small before practicing some modern lettering and colour blending. While it was clear I need more practice - it’s been a while since I’ve done anything like this, but it’s something I really want to get back into. I’ve a feeling I’ve got an early example of my work upstairs somewhere, so will look that out and share if I find it.

Testing out the brush pens gifted from the London Graphic Centre
I STRUGGLED WITH THE FS MORE THAN ANYTHING - AND NOW I’M AVOIDING WORDS WITH FS!!

I STRUGGLED WITH THE FS MORE THAN ANYTHING - AND NOW I’M AVOIDING WORDS WITH FS!!

We realised that this weekend is probably going to be our last chance to get out into the garden this year - eek! And with the grass being overtaken with leaves, we knew we should. MOH is a bit of a leaf fiend, and set about sweeping up piles to ‘lawn mower’ over. By the time he finished you could see the grass again, though of course this morning more leaves (though not as many) have taken their place.

leaves in our garden - just one or two

He tackled the leaves, I wrapped up pots in bubble wrap to protect them from any frosts. The agapanthus too are covered in fleece to give them the best chance next year. Our new pots are bubble wrapped, though they were harder to lift than the more traditional round pots, so MOH’s muscles were needed. I think they were harder as being square/oblong they were less easy to rock and manoeuvre, although it could also be that I was having a particularly weak moment! Either way, our garden is all set for winter - even if I’m still in denial about the time of year.

How can it be so close to the end of November, and so close to Christmas. I’m sure each year, it comes round more quickly…