There was a little calm before the storms today - bright and breezy which made our morning dip not too bad.  I know readers are probably getting bored of this now but a challenge is a challenge and a personal challenge like this cannot be taken too lightly - I am normally the biggest wimp going when it comes to the pool but I am determined to keep going.  Psychologically it is easier to get into the pool when the sun is shining although I am guessing that technically the water will seem warmer if it is cool and grey outside. Tomorrow night/Sunday morning the clocks change and this tends to herald a real difference in the weather.  Our neighbours Angela and Philip have come over from the UK - I am guessing they are hoping for some sunshine but if the weather forecast is correct then I feel they are going to be disappointed initially.  I would so love to know if the heating system they have installed for their pool is making any difference - it is some sort of mat affair which sits on their roof - the only trouble is that would mean engaging them in conversation and I haven't got time for that!

We managed to get down to Pickleball today with Diana - as we feared the news on the car was expensive and due to Anthony needing parts from Peugeot it will not be fixed until early next week.  Bloody cars - it's so hard to know whether we should keep it and keep shelling out when something major goes wrong or chop it in for a car of unknown pedigree - both The Pug and Kenny have started to have things go wrong lately.  So that means tightening of belts as this was an unexpected bill.

John did not play badminton so we managed to get back to Droushia earlier than we would normally on a Friday - the sun was still shining and so we decided to catch the last of it up on the roof terrace with a drink to drown our sorrows.

The recent rain has begun to feed the garden and we have a little colour coming back into it.  This flowering climber is a Podrania (I think) and flowers now for quite some time and it a welcome addition to the garden at a time when there isn't much about.  I have it in a pot which is probably not the best environment as it struggled a bit in the summer and I cut it back not realising that the flowers appear on new growth not old stock.

The clockvine continues to flower although it is coming to an end now and the autumn winds will batter it to bits and John gets cross when it ends up in the pool.  I will leave it a little while longer and then I will have to cut it right down to the ground and bearing in mind it reaches right up to the roof terrace and along the railings this will produce a lot of rubbish - let's just hope the goats are about to eat it up.  Whilst on the subject of the garden the bougainvillea has survived and is just now putting on the pinky/red bracts which people mistake as flowers.

It was nice up on the roof terrace - and as we aren't due to see the sun for a couple of days it was good to make the most of it.  John was getting ready for his big Friday night in - I had curry at the ready and poppadoms and then the Mighty Blades were taking on Dirty Dirty Leeds and if the Blades managed a win they would go top of the table.

Our day went from bad to worse and necessitated a big old Gin cocktail to lighten the mood when, just minutes before the football match our internet failed.  We think it has been affected by all the rain over the last couple of days as water gets into the inspection pit at the end of our footpath.  John was apoplectic - we rang CYTA who said the fault required an engineer who would come in the next 2-3 working days however in the meantime they did some sort of tweak which gave us very slow but stable internet.  Let's just say we normally have 20mb download and we were getting .75!!!!!!!

Unbelievably good old Mobdro coped - we switched everything else off and managed to get the match up and all bar a couple of little glitches John got to watch the whole of the match without issue.  Even better the Mighty Blades won 2-1 and secured their position at the top of the table.  Ok so the quality of the picture was nowhere near as good as we normally get but John didn't care - he had his footie, he had a beer and he had had a very nice curry and SUFC were top of the Championship for this evening at least!