Saturday started in the usual fashion with Jon getting up first, making tea and bringing it back to bed where we lay and read for a while. After he went downstairs I stripped and changed the bed, fed the houseplants that had been soaking in the bath overnight, loaded the washing machine and pegged the laundry on the line 15 minutes later.
After our sausage sandwiches, we started on our gardening to-do list. Jon mowed the lawn whilst I cut back the spent blooms on the Yukka, gave the pot plants an organic feed and planted out some more seedlings.
Tea was a salad accompanied by a bottle of beer. As we'd finished The Serpent the previous evening, we started to catch up with Scandi cop drama, Beck on the BBC i-Player. Needless to say, copious amounts of rum were consumed.
On Sunday morning, nerves for tonight's match already a-jangling, I went downstairs, mopped the kitchen and brought mugs of tea back to bed, reading until just gone 8.30am. We had toast for breakfast, I painted my nails in Barry M's Salt Lake then, unable to concentrate on Andrew Marr, wandered around the garden and did some deadheading.
We drove down to the charity shop taking with us a bag filled with vintage gear I'd culled from the Kinky Shed as well as a few paperbacks and some kitchenalia surplus to requirements. The morning's soundtrack included Jai Ho! and I happily sang and jigged along the aisles whilst browsing the rails.
Give and you shall receive! The chazza shop gods appreciated our donation and we were rewarded with a few gems. Here's what we found: A rather fabulous 1960s Tissavel, France fake fur coat; a pretty ramie and cotton embroidered chartreuse blouse (check out those sleeves); A genuine Panama hat from Pachacuti (currently listed on their website for £145); A heap of books and an early 1970s cotton pinafore dress from Peter Robinson's Top Shop.
Until 1974 Topshop was a concession in posh, long-defunct department store Peter Robinson. I remember Mum and I caught the bus over to Birmingham to shop in TopShop the day it opened. She bought me a pink cotton boiler suit which I wore to death.
It was midday by the time we got back home and, after an excitable chat about the match with Ray from over the road it was time for our noodles.
After I'd changed into my gardening gear I set about planting my 50p haul. Meanwhile, Jon got to grips with the garden arch we'd also bought from Wilko. Our National Trust visits never fail to inspire and, after the marvellous entrances to each themed garden room at Biddulph Grange, I thought an archway would be a good way of replicating them.
Needless to say, I've tied one of our Empress of India nasturtiums to this one. I'm obsessed with them!
Right, I'm off to have a shower and get changed into my lucky red bikini. We've got the beers in, Jon's making a Madras and Tony's joining us for the match
Come on, England!!!!!