As the autumn term continues it’s always good to have nice weekend plans. The past two weekends have been lovely, the first a very rare weekend alone at home, I’m thinking it’s probably my first in around 25 years!!! And this weekend has been spent at my parents celebrating my dad’s 80th birthday.

I was looking forward to a weekend at home alone as the boys went to visit my Father in Law on Friday afternoon. It was the perfect opportunity to fit in some little things for me, this included dinner with friends on Friday night, some parkrun tourism on Saturday morning with my parkrun buddy and popping to a neighbouring town to see an art show. I also ended up at a local animal sanctuary doing a risk assessment for work on Sunday so my weekend was full, but joyful.

On Friday night the pub menu was superb and with good food and a brilliant live band along with the excellent company, it was the best way to start a weekend. It was such a good night I didn’t get to bed til 1am and had a 6am alarm call the next morning. I ended up awake at 5.30am and not wanting to sleep in I decided to get up and get ready for the parkrun. My friend and I had penciled in this weekend to visit the Frogmary Green Farm parkrun as we knew it was a trail run, both needed it for a few parkrun challenges and felt it was better to do it now than in poorer conditions in the winter. Unexpectedly, during the week we learnt that it was unfortunately the last parkrun at the venue but it made for a very good morning, a huge crowd, gorgeous sunshine and a lovely atmosphere tinged with a little sadness. It was probably the furthest I’ve travelled exclusively for a parkrun but the chats on the drive made the time pass so quickly. The art show I went to in the afternoon was exhibiting a former colleague’s work and it only showcased her immense talent. I did need a little power nap when I finally got home as it had been a very packed 24 hours before watching the 1st Strictly of the year. I can’t decide my favourite yet and look forward to my Strictly and Bake Off tv viewing over the next few months. I am loving Nigella Lawson on the Bake Off, she always will be the domestic goddess and comes across so well. I was delighted to see Iced Gems as one of the baking challenges, I’m partial to a little bag of Iced Gems, a childhood favourite.

I have been busy prepping for this 80th birthday weekend over the past few weeks with lots of personalised content. We had balloons, decorations and cake, however I was so pleased with the 80th birthday temporary tattoos I ordered they were lots of fun! I sorted a joint present for my parents as it’s my mum’s 75th in a few weeks too and we have tickets for them and us to go and see Paddington the musical in London in July. I chose July as it’s not in the football season and can also be a good time to meet for everyone’s summer birthdays. That will be another planning project but I may leave that to post Christmas. Originally the plan for this weekend had been to go out for a nice meal on Saturday night, but half of the family had a lingering cough / cold / flu type bug so we decided to get a take away and just settle down watching the England football and then Strictly. This simple idea was perfect, it all felt lovely and cosy and I didn’t feel we missed out. My daughter and I had baked a cake in the morning and I loved the personal touches of the day. This weekend also gave me a time to go through some old family photos and get copies. I loved looking at our lives in the different decades, the furnishings and clothes, the 70s were definitely a vibe and I loved the colours and patterns in this decade.

Apart from the special weekends the weekdays have got the routines and flow of a new school year and all seems to be going smoothly so far.