Poynton

It’s was like a military operation this morning to get up and out with the girls by 8.30am, but we made it.

We drove in both cars as we need to bring furniture back with us for mum’s room, and we’ve also got the dogs and their beds plus our overnight bags. I told Alan to head straight to mum’s while I went to drop the girls - I’d arranged with Rach to meet at the Daresbury junction on the M56 and said I’d turn left towards Daresbury laboratory. However, when I turned in there were cameras everywhere and signs saying ‘authorised vehicles only’ and ‘no stopping or parking’. Scott had already driven in and had parked up with his boot open, so I told him we couldn’t stop here and we drove to the hotel which is on the same site. There was a charge for parking of £10 per day, but in light of all the cameras I paid it, just hope there’s no come back for driving in!

The journey to mum’s then got a bit tricky as the bypass near Manchester airport was closed as were lots of other roads due to a big fire at a self storage place in Cheadle - there were about 25 fire engines there!

Anyway, we made it by 10.30, someone was supposed to be coming to pick up one of the beds at 11am and despite me messaging her before we left, and her acknowledging my message, she didn’t turn up! It was doubly annoying as it’s our bed when we stay here so we’d dismantled it all for her and tonight we reassembled it to sleep on.

We had a few people collect things, one of which was mum and dad’s solid teak headboard. I’d advertised it for £10 and if it didn’t sell I was going to take it and paint it with Frenchic paint and then sell it. Anyway the lady that came for it was going to do exactly that and was thrilled with it. I’d told her we were clearing mum’s house due to her going into a home, and she gave me £20 instead of the £10, she said it’s worth it. She even messaged me tonight to thank me for it and we had a chat about painting it as she’s never done it before, so I gave her some tips and asked her to send me a photo of it when it’s finished.

We’ve worked hard, cleared a load more stuff and tonight we walked into the village and went for a Thai meal at Tom Yam. I’d booked the table for 6pm so it wouldn’t be too busy and the sky was a lovely colour over Poynton Church. The meal was really lovely and it was nice to get out.