August

On Friday 3 Overbury Bowling Club held its annual open evening. The weather having remained unsettled, there were fewer visitors from outside the club this year, but those present enjoyed the usual range of stalls and refreshments on offer, and there were some fun bowling games to tempt people on to the green.

Roger having a go at one of the games ►

Meanwhile, Helen and Juliet went to the Olympics, having been successful in the draw for tickets to the Olympic dressage event. This involved Jay in an overnight stay in London in accommodation Teresa had booked many months before. On the morning of Saturday 4 they took a river boat down the river to Greenwich and thoroughly enjoyed their day out. All the arrangements worked well on the day to give them a memorable, if expensive, once in a lifetime experience.

Helen was home for a long weekend on 10-14 August, as both her and Roger’s birthday fall in this period. We celebrated with a barbecue in the garden on Saturday 11, and also made a couple of excursions with her, to Hereford and the Rissingtons.

Hereford

The Rissingtons

Roger and Helen enjoy a celebratory drink while cooking … ►

◄ … and prepare to cut the cake afterwards

Roger’s presents, carefully chosen by Teresa and the girls as always, included books, sports shirts – including one from Wimbledon, special glasses, mugs and – amazingly – some Denby ware forks, which have always been Roger’s favourite.

But probably most memorable, as Roger is the laundry master nowadays, was this decorative detergent powder tin in the shape of a washing machine complete with viewing window. No more unsightly Tesco value boxes for us!

◄ The rainbow striped detergent powder holder

Teresa had earlier entered Mumsnet’s Olympic haiku competition, and learned that she had come in an ‘achingly gut-wrenching 4th place’ (their words, not mine) with

"Great Britain takes gold!"
We've heard that much more often
than we expected.

So, just outside the medal places then, but they were obviously impressed and sent her a bottle of bubbly anyway as a consolation prize. Well done, Teresa.

With Jay still spending much of her spare time at the ice-rink, we visited Oxford most week ends to see her, combining the trips with some shopping of our own, including ordering some fabric to re-cover our dining room chairs. As the latter had been inherited from Roger’s parents, it was not before time. It was a rare excursion into DIY for us, as such tasks generally prove to be rather beyond the limit of our abilities. We struggled at first, as our first clumsy effort showed (see below), but we persevered, and were pleased in the end with the finished results.

◄ Our first try (left of picture) was very clumsy – we had improved our technique a little by the fourth chair (on the right)

The finished product ►

The bowling season raced towards its end. A fun day on August Bank Holiday followed the pattern of the summer, less than a couple of hours of play possible before the rains came down. Roger’s last league triples match followed on Tuesday 28. His team needed to win to claim runners up spot, but failed to do so.

We ended the month on a glum note: Teresa’s labyrinthine vertigo made a return visit on Tuesday 28. Though by no means as severe as on its first appearance in March, it put her out of action for a couple of days, after which she was able to get about again, keeping her stick close at hand.

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