The Grove

Fiona came to fetch Xena for a walk this morning and then she was taking her home with her afterwards as Xena is staying with her while we are away this weekend. The videos she has sent me showed Xena having such a fun time with the other Viszlas on the walk. She is funny - she avoids smaller dogs, but yesterday she engaged play with the scariest looking Doberman, one who had the ears clipped and tail docked so it must be imported as it’s illegal in Europe. 

I spent the morning getting sorted, laundry etc and packing for the weekend. This weekend every staff member and in the company and their partner has been invited for a 2 night stay at The Grove as a thank you for all their hard work and as a morale booster after Covid. I am very impressed how well the staff are treated in this company. Tonight there will be a 2 minute silence for the queen before the formal dinner, followed by some light entertainment, but tomorrow morning there will be guest speakers and an awards ceremony. There will also be feedback from the charity initiatives the company is involved in and their mentoring scheme. The rest of the weekend involves sport and fun activities. 

I have previously mentioned that the house diagonally opposite ours was sold to a developer about 2 years ago and is now abandoned and derelict while the developer takes his time to start this next project. A few months ago a water bill arrived at our house addressed to Tommy, for this house. Tommy had the inconvenience of getting the water company to accept that he was not the owner of the property. Today an electricity bill addressed to Tommy arrived at our house for this same house, totalling £8100! We are beginning to suspect that Tommy has been subject to some kind of identity fraud. Gavin spent nearly an hour on the phone with a very helpful employee at EDF energy explaining the situation. They are investigating and we hope the charges get reversed, as Tommy clearly won’t be paying that and we are worried it could end up with all sorts of horrible consequences. 

We left home at about 3pm to drive the one hour to the hotel, but there was an accident on the M25 motorway so we sat with engines turned off on the motorway. As the joke goes, the M25 is the largest car park in England. The traffic was horrible and it took us about 1 hour 45 minutes to get there. We have now arrived and it is a beautiful hotel, as can be seen from this photo. I have just had time to upload my blip before doing downstairs for drinks before supper.