David and Katherine Goodwin

This time last week, I was a bit (!) panicked about how I was going to get everything done in time for the visitors we were having this weekend (just gone) The plaster was almost dry and we were eager to paint and get some carpet in, but it was looking quite implausible that we'd get it all done in time. However, a marathon 8 hour painting stint, and a little firm talking with the man in the carpet shop (the one that claimed 12 hour fitting, which I was damned well going to get!) resulted in the desired effect (even if it also resulted in me being practically unable to use my arms for 24 hours). Anyway, we've got a stain resistant carpet in there now, and nice white walls so its looking beautiful. My brother is going to come along next time he's got some time off David and I shall assist him with the skirting boards and then the room will look perfect. We'll post pictures then. We're almost in a position to put the house on the market, but due to various factors that I'll post seperately another time, we're probably going to wait till mid summer to put it on the market to give our circumstances time to settle and our finances to stabilise.

Anyway, we had a horribly busy weekend planned, and so much could have gone wrong. Jon and Caz arrived from exeter and cardiff respectively at around 8pm and I served up far too much curry followed by far too much cheesecake and a decent amount of alcohol while we caught up, having not seen each other for a year!

Saturday involved a trip to Ikea for Caz and I, to gossip and purchase of various accessories for the newly decorated dining room while David and Jon went mountain biking in Cannock. Much fun was had by all, and I spent plenty of money!

At 5pm we headed off into birmingham in our taxi, also collecting Joe and Hannah. We met Tom and Claire (ex-collegue and his lovely girlfriend) outwide Wagamama and proceeded to all eat lots of lovely food before heading off to the Glee club. (collecting Duncan somewhere along the way after he had managed to lose part of the day and forget that he was coming today!) The comedians were quite funny (we've seen better but they weren't bad) and we had a bit of a dance afterwards before heading back to the taxi via an inviting looking kebab shop (which I manaqed to resist, just eating everyone else's food :-) )

We dragged ourselves out of bed in the morning, and sat around chatting for a bit, indulging in some dance mat capers as well as a bit of boxing with my pads and gloves. At around 2, David, Jenny, Emily and Rachel joined us for a buffet lunch. Emily was very shy of all the extra people to start with, but eventually warmed up and posed for a few photos. We distributed cards and presents for various people (it was Emily's birthday today and Jenny's last Monday as well as David's on Friday) and all the birthday people blew out candles on the large chocolate cake.

Jon and Caz headed back to Cardiff a bit later, and the Pengellys hung around for a bit longer, chatting as we always do :-)

David and I both had such a good weekend - nothing went wrong and everyone seemed to be happy! I woke up this morning pretty exhausted, but feeling very positive and enthusiastic about everything. Its good to remember that you've got friends, and even better to have a good time with lots of them and to see them enjoy themselves. Its a reminder that it really is worth the effort keeping in touch with people.

Everyone who came this weekend, thanks for making it so special for both of us!

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