More ticks on the to-do list. The skip has been filled - the receptionist at the company hadn't booked it in to be picked up, so it was as well that the delivery driver advised me to phone and check. I expect that a lot of people find that they need it over the weekend too, so she leaves it open.
The new kitchen window has been installed today. It looks lovely. The wood stain will be put on next Monday - the first coat, at least, when Scott is coming back to finish papering the bathroom. The sample tile is ready and I'll go and fetch it tomorrow, after the flooring people have been to measure the bathroom and cloakroom.
The biggest job was emptying the passage freezer, which wasn't half as bad as I expected. And I was fairly ruthless too, so there is still space in the other freezer. I'm just wondering how I'm going to get it outside and who's going to help me. But I'm a resourceful Z and I will work it out.
Zerlina and Gus came to help with the skip - I was slightly surprised to find myself cooking breakfast, when I'd rather expected we'd just have toast. But no matter. We went out for dinner last night, which was a very good idea as we were all pretty tired and hungry and, having done most of the job already, made a leisurely start this morning and were still finished by lunchtime.
This evening, another visit to Snape for a concert. They've all been lovely this year, as always. There have been a few changes - August used to be Prom season, where the front centre seats were removed so that people could sit on cushions on the floor, for very cheaply priced tickets. I suppose they finally accepted that much more money could be made for seated tickets, so it's just called Summer at Snape now and not the Proms. The atmosphere has changed though, as a result. Also, in the bar/dining area, they've gone from a system where you queued up to buy your food from a counter and then found seats at long tables, to ordering at the bar and it being brought by a waiter. This is all right, but they've also hiked the prices quite a lot. The previous system, the details of which changed fairly regularly, didn't work particularly well. Tim and I used to sit watching, saying how inefficient it was and what we'd do to improve it. Now, they've lessened the number eating and drinking by simply putting up the prices. Last week, a chicken Caesar salad and medium glass of (English, good) wine each cost £60. And the menu doesn't change from one evening to the next, it's clearly the same for the whole month. It's a good thing that we're only going twice more. I'm not sure that it'll pay off, because it's the bar takings that matter most and, if you buy a meal, you will have something to drink. Years ago, they had it right, but then new caterers came in and it was changed and never been as good since. I suppose they outsource the catering, so it doesn't matter to the venue. The other minor change is that they no longer print a programme - I've got them going back years, the whole month's concerts in one big programme. But now the small booking programme has all the concerts and which orchestra or performer is playing, but nothing about the artists or composers or details of the pieces being played. This is an odd decision for a world famous music venue.
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