This past week seemed to fly by. Granted, my friend Karen Whiteley was very ill for the entire week, but I am so glad to report that she is doing much better, and hopefully she will be able to return to work next week. Get well soon, Karen!!

We continued to have lovely weather throughout the week, and FINALLY the leak in the garage was fixed on Thursday!! Now, this leak in the garage affected my parking space (and thus any car that was parked there), as well as many others. I'd come across a letter Rowntrees Foundation had sent me on 14 January 2004 saying they would be doing repair work to remedy the situation the following week. Needless to say, that had not happened. I called them Monday and said I had photos of the damage to the cars the leak had caused, the receipts for the payments they had made to me for car washes, etc. to clean the residue off the cars when they had been damaged, and that 6+ months was long enough to wait. Therefore, if I did not see some action towards rectifying the situation, I would be taking the above to the Evening Press, the local newspaper. Surprise!! Work accomplished in 4 days, and several phone calls from them apologizing for not having rectified the situation earlier. "Must have fallen through the cracks, so terribly sorry", etc. So one thing accomplished.

The bathroom, though, is another story entirely. Now, the tiler was to come this past week and get things done, the power shower installed, etc. Would you believe that was all changed, and he will be here this coming week? Granted, I know he won't be here tomorrow, as it is a Bank Holiday; so the earliest he will be here is Tuesday. Will this project ever end? Maybe with the coming of the 2005. However, I persist in trying to get this done. We shall see.

Friday night afterwork, Paul Cain, Rachel Addison, Bruce Corrie and I all met at the Red Lion for a few. About 9 or so, Bruce and I went to my place where he left his car, and I called him a taxi. Next morning, I picked him up to get his car. At 1:51pm I was at the train station to pick up Dale and Jim Brannon, who arrived from York. Got their stuff in the car, took them to the flat, and then we walked into town. The Made in Yorkshire fest was in full swing on Parliament, and we went through the stalls there after having perused The Shambles. We heard music and continued on down Parliament to where the Poynton Community Brass Band was playing. This group was composed of high school students and sounded very good. As we stood there listening to the play "Jerusalem", "Pomp and Circumstance", etc. and seeing the crowd, ranging from young to very old, listening intently and singing along, it just seemed as though the topsy/turvy, horrible problems that our world faces were far, far away, and that we were on an island of tranquility in North Yorkshire! Ah, if only it were true! Anyway, we continued to Coney Street where we ran into Lee and Michelle Jones and had a chat, then it was on to Harkers for a drink. From there we walked to The Red Lion and sat outside and had a final pint before going home, and I fixed dinner.

Sunday morning we were up and at Bruce and Sally Corries to head up to Burton Agnes Hall, a lovely Elizabethan home on the way to Driffield. The day started lovely as we drove in tandem to the estate. However, soon the rains began, and eventually it was raining quite heavily. None of us were prepared for it, except for Dale, who had her umbrella. We scurried to the front entrance, all becoming a bit wet! We had a wonderful stroll through the home, the gardens, the grounds, etc., and by the time we left, the weather was beginning to clear. We drove back through Kirkham Abbey, stopping at the Stone Trough Inn and sitting outside on the verandah, with the sun shining on us. Ran into a friend who works at Super Save, and her party, and they had been to Scarborough where it was raining buckets, they said. Since we were too late to have lunch here, we had a drink, then decided to return to Bruce and Sally's home where we would prepare a bar-b-cue. We arrived and began preparation, as dark clouds again began to form. Before Bruce and I could get outside with the meat, it began to rain, and rain harder and harder. We did get the meat on, and left it. Bruce went back and found it ablaze!! It was all cooked through and through, at least, and we enjoyed it, along with boiled small potatoes, corn, Greek salad, sliced tomatoes in olive oil and spices, etc. We had had a wonderful day, good food, great company and conversation, and it was time to return home. We reluctantly bid Bruce and Sally goodbye and headed home.

Now, Dale and Jim are flaked out on the "metal action sofabed", I am completing this update, and then I will be heading to bed. We have a full day tomorrow!!!

Take care!

Love,