July
After
Charlie Phelps’s dual revelations outside St Adelaide’s Convent back in July, when he declared he had purchased
the Convent and that he was in love with Toddy, it sparked an abundance of
converse about both St Adelaide’s and their personal relationships, and there
were decisions to be made.
The
first week of discussions covered the broad strokes and the only firm decision
made were that the Chapel, Cemetery and Kitchen garden had to be preserved and
that their next discussions should involve an Architect.
The Architect they chose was James Tims
who ticked a lot of boxes, he was a local man, a Christian and was a regular at
St Agatha’s.
One of their stipulations was to use local
artisans and they were pleased to find that he was of a like mind, however he
did recommend they employ the services of a Project Manager and suggested
Nicholas McGee, who, although not a local per se, he was relatively so, as he
resided in Sharpington, and they took up his endorsement.
August
Throughout the month of August James Tims
produced several preliminary plans for their perusal, some of which they
approved and some they rejected.
However, by the end of the month, they
approved the final plans of the existing building and several additional single-story
buildings.
September
At the beginning of September, he
submitted the finished plans to the council planning department and began
working on the detailed working drawings so that work could commence on the
Convent buildings, because builders Reece
Stead and Jamie
Gomm, plumbers Catherine and Keira Smith, and electricians Archie Paddick and Callum
Gallocker had already commenced work on site stripping out.
Charlie and Toddy were regular visitors to
the site once work had commenced, and by the third week of the month they
ordered the turf for Beechwood.
The weather forecast for the first half of
October was persistent rain so the target was to lay the turf by the end of
September.
So, they drafted in his niece Verity
Virtue and her boyfriend Stephen Farnsworth to help out and they worked as a well-oiled
team, Toddy laid the turfs, Verity fed her, and Stephen and Charlie did the
donkey work.
It was a large garden, and it took them
almost three days from Monday to Wednesday, and when it was done, they were all
shattered.
As a reward for their efforts, he booked
them all into the Mablethorpe Spa Hotel in Pipershaven for two days and nights.
It wasn’t the best Spa Hotel in the county,
but it was the closest and
offered, fitness classes, gym, rock sauna, infra-red sauna, aroma steam room, ice fountain, drench showers,
Jacuzzi, a Romanesque pool, Reflexology, Raki, facials, scalp massage, hand
massage, full body massage, Manicure and Pedicure, to name but a few.
“This is very
amazing” Toddy said who had never been to a spa before.
“Does it meet with
your approval?”
“Very much so” she
replied and smiled
Charlie had booked
four single rooms although he knew it was likely that Stephen and Verity would
only be using one of them, but he didn’t want to cause any embarrassment, so he
booked the extra room.
After checking
into their rooms, they met downstairs in the bar and discussed what treatments
they were going to try, and they universally said that because of their
physical endeavors for the previous three days that first and foremost they
wanted a full body massage.
Stephen and Verity
were lucky enough to go straight onto tables whereas the others had to book so
went to the aroma steam room until it was their turn.
October
After two days of unadulterated pampered
relaxation, they returned to Pepperstock Green on Saturday morning October 1st,
after stopping on the way at the Starlight Café for something deliciously
unhealthy.
The could have stayed at the Spa until lunchtime but Toddy
had an appointment with Emma Daley to have her hair done, ahead of the dinner date with
Charlie that night to celebrate her fifty fifth birthday.
Her birthday wasn’t actually until Sunday
and he would have preferred to have taken her to dinner on her birthday, but
Chloe got there first and organized a Birthday lunch at the Vicarage straight
after Church, so he was taking her to the Kissing Angel on Saturday night
instead.
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