August bank holiday weekend is nearly over and tomorrow I will return to work after more than a week's holiday. Steve & I enjoyed our few days away, firstly a little break and luxury in Oxford where we had a relaxing time in a hotel by the Thames. We swam in the pool, wallowed in the spa and were so completely relaxed or was it lazy that we ordered room service instead of dining in the restaurant.

Before going to Bedford we visited Jane & Barry, friends from Clophill and spent a few hours catching up and reminiscing about the days when the children were young and so were we!

It was wonderful, but exhausting to see Matthew. He is so enthused abut his job and talked and talked and talked. We took him out for dinner and after he took us to meet some of his friends. Most of Saturday was spent shopping with Matt, he may be earning, but he desperately needed some decent footwear for work. After traipsing around the shoe shops of Bedford a suitable pair of black size 13 extra wide were found. It was a pleasant surprise to find that when Steve, who had offered to buy them went to pay they had been reduced from £60 to £20.

We arrived in Sheffield early evening. At Ian's house we met his fellow house mates, Palestina, a young woman from Mexico and Vernon who is from South Africa. I understand now why Ian is happy living and working with these two wonderful people. It was lovely to talk to them both, they told of being away from their families for so long and how much they missed their

parents :(

Ian's girlfriend Katie who we have met before came out with us to eat and also for our day out on Sunday. Katie is such good company and fun, she will finish her doctorate in December, three months before Ian . Our day out was to the very impressive country house: ' Chatsworth', it was truly magnificent and the grounds were vast and diverse, we spent two hours in the gardens and saw only a fraction of them. Katie who's subject is 'plants', (although a very small specialised type, I do her an injustice by not remembering exactly the species, it could have been lichens!) was excited and enthusiastic about all the fauna. Our afternoon was ended with refreshments at a country hotel set in Baslow a pretty village in the Derbyshire dales, we had afternoon tea/coffee/ hot choc and cake. Much later & back into the hub of Sheffield we had a Vietnamese meal, we chose the restaurant because it was busy with Vietnamese customers, so we reckoned it must be good and it was.

We left at 9.00 this morning and our drive home was easy, this afternoon I have been sorting out the washing and for some reason I got the urge to bake some cakes, which I did.