Hare Krishna in Guildford

Hare Krishna marchers walking up the hill, singing, while we were in Guildford today.

Guildford and Haslemere

We went to Guildford yesterday to get Maria some clothes to wear next weekend.

She spent two hours looking and found nothing - except for a jacket which was the last thing she tried!

I got a new splatter guard from Lakeland - I know how to live! I also got a couple of books as I had a voucher for WH Smith to buy one get one free.

We came home via Sainsbury's in Farnham. 

On Sunday we went to "Our Lady of Lourdes" which is the church whose choir Maria has joined.

After that we had a quiet afternoon in avoiding the rain!

The last week

Boxing Day (26th December) was a quiet one, getting ready for the kids arriving on 27th.

Early morning on 27th December we went to Heathrow. I'd reserved a car at Alamo rentals. Maria dropped me off and then waited for me. As I drove out she followed me, but she was delayed at the exit barrier and a bus joined the queue behind me. As I left the car lot I saw Maria drive off towards Terminal 5, when we needed Terminal 3. I waited for 15 minutes and then went off to the airport. She returned my call as I got to the car park - she was now in the terminal arrival hall.

I got there 10 minutes later and met the kids. No sign of Maria though! They had been waiting 10 minutes. Beth went off and had her paged but then we spotted her.

We got home at about 10 am, had breakfast and then started on "Christmas dinner" preparation. We finished eating at about 4 pm after sitting down at 3.30 pm. We had desert later on though!

On 28th December Daughter No 1 and Son No 1 went off to the football with Grandad. Arsenal won (against Portsmouth). But then Grandad didn't turn up at the kebab shop where they had arranged to meet. They waited 20 minutes and then rang a family friend who they knew was at the match and put him on standby, then they rang me, then they rang Grandad's house in case he contacted his son. They then went to meet the family friend in the pub. Grandad turned up an hour later. He'd been turned back by the police and sent the wrong way, got lost and eventually went backwards and forwards looking for them before thinking to try the pub. He hadn't thought to call anyone - and he'd left his mobile at home too! They got home at 7 pm

29th December Grandad, his son Steven and daughter in law Cheri and their daughter Rebecca came for a cup of tea/coffee and to exchange gifts. After that we went to Guildford shopping (to spend gift vouchers the girls had been given). No 1 son and I went off to find a barber as he hasn't had a hair cut since we had it done on 29th August. We met the girls in Starbucks - here Caroline was able to get us staff discount off the drinks. Maria wasn't answering her phone though. She eventually called at 5 pm - her coffee was nearly cold by then and the girls had gone off shopping again. Back home Caroline and Maria watched "Mamma Mia" on DVD - I sat through it too. It was quite fun, bad plot and worse singing but if you ignore that its a bit like The Rocky Horror Show. Maria says the singing is supposed to be bad to show how it doesn't matter if you can't sing! Tom had gone over the road to see his friends and Beth went too - she stayed to watch "Superman Returns" with them!

Bankers!

We went to change the name on Maria's Halifax bank account last week, and decided to open a new account there rather than change her name on her NatWest account as well as Halifax offered to do the transfer of all the direct debits and standing orders.
Today (Saturday) we got a letter from the Halifax saying they could not do the transfer as the NatWest account was in Maria's maiden name...Great!
So Maria rang NatWest to ask what she needed to bring in. All the Halifax had asked for was the marriage certificate and her debit card. NatWest said she needed the certificate and some form of ID.
So we drove over to Guildford, which is not quite the closest NatWest, but did mean we could go to a decent bookshop as well.
Turned out they meant "photo ID" with proof of address....or they were just being difficult as she was closing the account.
Typical of them and justifies why Maria is closing the account with them. So on Monday Maria is heading into Southampton with driving licence and passport as well as marriage certificate.