COFFEE AT COSTA

We haven’t seen our Granddaughter, Charlotte, for several months - in fact, since the day she and her boyfriend, Jordan, made an offer on a new house, which was accepted.  She came over on that day to see us with the photographs and plans and naturally, was very excited.  All went well with the conveyancing and they moved in about a month ago, but sadly, the week after she was made redundant from her job - not the best timing!

However, she worked hard at getting another job and rang last week to tell us that she starts a new job on the 31st August, which means that instead of making a round trip to work of almost 90 miles a day, she will be working on the other side of town.  She will go into the office for four days a week and work at home on a Friday, which sounds good to me!

Charlotte said that it would be good to meet for a catch-up chat before she starts her new job, so we arranged to meet at Costa at 10 o’clock this morning.  I left early because there are lots of road works all around the town, as I said yesterday, but I sailed through and ended up getting to the café long before 10, but Charlotte soon arrived and we spent the next hour or so chatting, which was lovely.  

I suddenly thought that it would be good to use her as my Blip for today and she agreed - but of course, like most young ladies, she wanted to “vet” the photographs and told me which ones she liked and which ones could definitely go “in the bin”!  

We settled on this one and I then showed her how I could make a dark background - she did say that she can’t do that on her iPhone as it was an older model - quite something for a Grandma to have a more up-to-date iPhone model than her Granddaughter!

She did promise that as soon as the house was straight, they would invite us over - it brought back all the memories for me of when we bought our first house over 54 years ago and both Mr. HCB and I are so pleased for them.  No doubt when we do go over Mr. HCB will be able to give them some advice about their garden.   

I'm sure that Charlotte will do really well in her new job and if I could give a piece of advice to Charlotte, it would be this:

"Don't wait until everything is just right; 
     it will never be perfect. 
There will always be challenges, 
     obstacles, and less than perfect conditions. 
          So what? 
Get started NOW. 
With each step you take, 
     you will grow stronger and stronger, 
          more and more skilled, 
               more and more self-confident, 
                    and more and more successful." 
Mark Victor Hansen - and Grandma xx


P.S.  An update on my 100 Abstracts Challenge, which I was doing to raise awareness and money for the Mamie Martin Fund, which helps impoverished girls in North Malawi to obtain a good secondary school education.  Mr. HCB has now sponsored me, taking my total up to £1,117.45 - which is just AMAZING!  Thank you SO MUCH to all who kindly donated - your generosity will make such a difference.  If you didn't donate and would like to, then just follow this link: 

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/MaureenIles