.... is for those who might want to contact me about my diary.
Sarah's Transition Diary .. weeks
297 - 300
Day 2073. Thursday 12th August 2010.
Memory Joggers ...
More to come ...
Day 2074. Friday 13th August 2010.
Memory Joggers ...
15.47 .. We are finally on the road ..
19.35 .. We finally arrive at the Great Western Hotel, Exeter. It’s
adjacent to St David’s station. I guess once it would have been a very
grand establishment, but it is rather tired now, though “quaint” in
certain respects. Car parking outside the front door costs £7.20
for the night !!!
We book in ..
20.13 .. We are in the restaurant .. it’s all ours .. just the two of
us .. should this be seen as a warning !!
More to come ...
Day 2076. Sunday 15th August 2010.
Memory Joggers ...
11.30 .. We finally get up .. hey it’s Sunday and it is the first
morning of our “second honeymoon” ..
We head off on an exploring / memories trip .. going East from Bucks
Mills .. Heading around Westward Ho! and across the big bridge and down
into Instow. The tide is right out as we park up on the street in a 1
hour free parking bay. We can see where we were yesterday across the
estuary ..
An ice cream .. and a walk along the beach back towards the car. It’s a
lovely sandy beach, littered with many boats and bilge keel yachts that
have been grounded deliberately. This is one and only advantage
of a bilge keel boat ( that’s with two shorter keels, often
spaced apart in a “V” ) .. I’d be tempted, but I want a fin keel boat
because they do sail better over all, and give a much nicer ride in
lumpy seas.
16.50 .. Says the car park ticket machine as we park up in Ilfracombe,
right by the harbour entrance.
In a gift shop we spot some stuffed Meerkats .. I can’t resist one that
is in boxer shorts holding a heart with “I (heart) Meerkat” on it ..
it’ll actually stand up in that classic Meercat pose, this will go on
my desk at the new place when I start.
17.42 .. We leave Ilfracombe, with Jane taking us back the fast route
18.40 .. We arrive at “The Pig on the Hill”, it’s sign posted off the
Westward Ho! road just after you leave the A39. It’s an odd sort of
place ..
More to come ...
Day 2077. Monday 16th August 2010.
Memory Joggers ...
09.20.. ish .. Karen gets up and makes some tea ..
10.10 .. Up and at it ..
12.15 .. ish .. We head off to explore Westward of where we are now ..
12.40 .. OK .. this wasn’t what I had intended .. we arrive at Hartland
Point, not Hartland Quay .. and end up paying £1.50 to park up
and not see a great deal.
Well actually we did get to see at least 4 seals playing in the water
below the cliffs we are on .. seemed like two of them where being
“affectionate” .. << smiles >>. We walk up to the top of
the hill to be able to look down onto the Hartland Point light house,
which like most others is no longer manned, except in “exceptional”
weather circumstances .. when apparently they send somebody along to
keep a look out. Below to the west side is the wreck of a ship from the
1980's .. well what is left of the rusting hulk .. not a lot actually.
13.12 .. ish .. We head off for Hartland Quay .. to find something to
eat.
13.45 .. We arrive at Hartland Quay .. the lowest car park by the
museum and hotel is stuffed, but I manage to find a little place to
park Violet. We have a quick look around before heading into the hotel
to eat.
All the outside tables are occupied, but to be honest in the stiffening
breeze it’s not that warm .. so we go for a table inside ..
We arrive at Widmouth Bay, just west of Bude. As we cruise past the car
park I spot an old friend sitting in her conservatory .. Betty is the
mother of Sandra, Steve the plumber’s ex wife from a few years back ..
she’s on the phone. Karen initially thinks it’s not her. We drive into
the adjacent beach car park and I go get a ticket.
16.01.. Says the second ticket machine as I finally get my
£1 for an hours parking.
Karen and I go get a coffee at the beach side café, before going
and having a walk along the beach. Seeing the rock formations brings a
lot of memories back .. and in the distance we can see a caravan park
we stayed at a couple of times and a big pub where we used to and eat
with the kids years ago.
16.48 .. I go alone to knock on Betty’s door ..
She comes to the door and doesn’t recognise me initially .. “ Hello
Betty how are you .. you probably don’t recognise me” .. it takes a few
moments then ping .. “I know you, you’re Trevor” .. “Yes I was” I shyly
reply.
Betty walks out to the car to fetch Karen in .. so we go in and have a
cup of tea. Betty is one for doing things properly .. we are soon
sitting in front of a bone china tea service, with a plate of biscuits
on a plate with a doily.
We reminisce about old times ( 20 - 25 years or so ago ) when we used
to come down here to holiday, we stayed with her and her late husband
once, and rented a neighbours house for a week in the past
too.
17.25 .. We leave Widmouth Bay and head back to Bude
17.40 .. After doing a circuit of the town’s one way system I park up
.. right outside the shop with the tents I’d spotted earlier.
We go into the shop .. they have two different types of small tents
both in a choice of colours, both reduced from £49.95 to
£25, ideal for use as a sun shade / shelter on the beach so that
my elderly fishing umbrella that must be over 40 years old, can be
retired.
In hind site, we may have bought the wrong one .. the one we bought is
a clever design in that it’s made using two hoops, and packs flat ish
into a round bag with no dismantling at all .. the other was a more
conventional shape, and would require a little more effort putting it
up and taking it down .. but packs into a small cylinder.
When I try to get the new “tent” into the boot of the car .. tilt,
error .. it doesn’t fit .. DOH. We do like the purple and grey colour
though .. that was the main attraction to Karen.
We continue to walk the circuit of the town, popping into an ancient
bakery that was just closing for the night to buy some scones .. last
time we were here was probably 20 years ago.
18.30 .. We head for Georges via the full circuit of the town,
extending out to some of the beach car parks. Karen needs a comfort
break. In a big car park I spot a toilet block .. I go investigate for
her .. and return with a thumbs down .. I wouldn’t have wanted to go in
there 3 years ago when I could stand to take a wee .. we drive on.
19.40 .. ish .. After several stops to check out visible mobile masts
for a 3G connection, and failing, we end up at Bucks Cross. I try the
computer again and Karen calls Claire on her mobile phone. The
antivirus starts an update .. I can’t really stop it .. but I use the
time to download a BT ( Vodafone ) coverage map .. there is nothing
this side of Bideford, where clearly there is a mast. I also get the
phone number for “aunty Sheila” who lives in Wembury near Plymouth ..
who we might go and see tomorrow.
20.10 .. We are back in Georges ..
20.25 .. Dinner is served .. a pork pie ( bought in the farmers
market Saturday ) salad .. it’s really very nice, washed down with some
read wine. Dessert is a couple of scones each with strawberries, jam
and clotted cream ..
22.35 .. We are in bed ..
23.20 .. I turn the music off ..
More to come ...
Day 2078. Tuesday 17th August 2010.
Memory Joggers ...
07.30 .. The alarm goes off .. I need to get up and put the bin bag out
ready for collection ..
07.50 .. I get up to sort the rubbish and make some tea .. the rubbish
bag needs to be removed from the bin and carried down to the road ..
lovely job .. especially as somebody has filled one bin bag to virtual
over flowing .. it’s a struggle getting the bag out of the bin without
tearing it ..
08.05 .. I’m back in bed with the tea .. once consumed we snuggle down
.. and take it in turns to do the cuddling and falling to sleep ..
purrrrr .. purrrrrr .. << smiles >>.
10.10 .. Up and at it ..
11.15 .. I go and shower ..
13.12 .. We arrive at Dartington Crystal in Torrington ..
13.45 .. Having gone around the “museum” part we go and try and do the
“factory tour” .. only to be told the blowers are going for a 15 minute
break, so we go and find the loo’s and the restaurant. Our first
“Cornish Pasty” of our stay ..
14.20 .. Feeling refreshed we head back to do the “factory tour” .. we
watch the various processes being done, including a little girl having
a foot print in a sandbox being cast with in glass ..
15.00 .. ish .. We head into the Dartington Crystal shop and have a
look around .. the “slight seconds” are quite cheap .. but the fully
QC’d and engraved products are not. Karen takes a fancy to some purple
crystal wine glasses .. they are lovely .. but they are £25 a
pair.
15.35 .. We go and pay for our items .. luckily Karen has a “Spend
£50 or more and get 10% off” voucher ..so 6 wine glasses come a
little cheaper .. we also take advantage of the current special offer
.. and get two chunky crystal tumblers for £9.99 each instead of
£14.99.
15.45 .. We finally head for Plymouth to visit “auntie Shiela” .. the
traffic is hell .. and my eta of 16.30 - 17.00 is totally blown away. !!
17.42 .. We finally arrive at Shiela’s home, only an hour late or so ..
Tea and fruit loaf are chatted over. I apologise for wrecking her
evening and invite her out for dinner .. she agrees and phones
somewhere nice she knows ..
19.10 .. ish .. We head for the restaurant chosen by Shiela .. “The
Bridge” is a very modern building overlooking a large marina in
Plymouth Harbour on the east bank.
The food and atmosphere are very good, in fact it’s probably the best
food we’ve had so far down here, I had the Thai chicken kebabs ..
hmmmm .. think English chicken kebabs .. with Thai red curry sauce
poured over them .. but it was nice .. sticky toffee pudding with
clotted cream follows .. that included a date stone too .. but it was
nice.
22.20 .. ish .. We leave the restaurant, I need petrol, so Sheila
guides us to the local Morrisons, only to find none of the pumps are
accepting cards tonight, all 4 are saying use kiosk .. but it’s not
manned .. so we head off .. fortunately the next garage, a “Jet” one is
open .. 112.9 .. wow .. but it is only Jet unleaded, so I only put 22
litres in.
23.05 .. We are outside Sheila’s .. she invites us in for coffee .. we
accept.
Conversation goes to families again .. Sheila asks about Juliet, my
sister. I explain the current situation between Juliet and I and that
we haven’t seen each other or really communicated for 18 months or so.
She asks why .. so I tell her about the trigger and some of the
conversations that followed. Sheila was well aware, as a long time
family friend, part time employee of my dad at one point .. of what my
dad got up to years ago with his many “extra marital” affairs and his
clear bias towards Juliet when we were kids and teenagers. Juliet of
course accepts none of those facts.
It’s no surprise to her that dad had forced Dee to buy a house down
near Juliet and that on his death he left the bulk of his estate to
Juliet, rather than even his second wife, who surely had to put up with
a lot too from him, and had provided him with a roof over his head.
23.35 .. We finally leave Sheila’s ..
We chat on the way home, Karen says something that makes me think I’ve
been seeing too much into the recent change in the way we are .. guess
I assumed to much .. and it gets me thinking about a lot of different
things.
12.40 .. I’d been pushing the car along the country lanes and had
shaved over 20 minutes off our arrival time at Georges when Karen
indicates she’s not feeling too good .. so I slow down.
A few minutes later as we cut through a town a car pulls out behind us
and seems to be following us. In the lights of a roundabout I see it’s
a police car. It’s holding back a little .. and so do I. After about 8
miles it suddenly U turns on a junction and heads off back the other
way .. hmmm .. got no burglars and muggers to go find ?
Karen is not feeling to well at all .. so I slow right down and start
driving along the middle of the road to avoid pot holes for her
curbside, she realises what I’m doing.
01.28 .. We are home .. Karen goes up straight away ..
02.15 .. I’m in bed .. a short cuddle .. with her feeling unwell it’s
all that can happen.
02.25 .. ish .. I turn the lights off .. nightie night.
More to come ...
Day 2079. Wednesday 18th August 2010.
Memory Joggers ...
09.30 .. Karen gets up for a comfort break and makes the tea ..
Cuddles follow .. but I detect it’s cooler than the last few days ..
<< sighs >>.
10.15 .. Up and at it ..
12.50 .. I’m dressed and down stairs .. ready to go .. but we stop and
have a sandwich for lunch before we go ..
14.05 .. We arrive in windswept Instow, time to test out the new beach
protection. Having found a parking bay a little further along from the
last time, that gives us 2 hours free parking .. we have plenty of time.
14.15 .. We’ve found a nice spot on a nearly deserted beach .. I unpack
the PPP ( Purple Passion Pagoda ), it springs open uncontrollably ..
hmmm .. I wanted to try and do it slowly so I could see how it packed
up, as it came with no instructions .. “easy to erect in seconds” ..
and so it did. I use a couple of bags full of sand attached to a couple
of guys to windward .. with the PPP side on to the wind.
Well it was very cosy inside .. though with the wind rattling it loudly
passions did not get raised very much.
15.50 .. With our free time up soon I we decide to go .. gosh it’s a
lot cooler outside than in. OK Heuston, we have a problem .. how the
hell do you fold the ruddy thing up again to make it fit into the
circular holder .. we try many options .. they all fail .. I
cannot get it to fold more than in half .. looks as if it needs to go
into three, to be small enough .. but I can’t work it out. Luckily,
folded in half it just fits in behind the rear seats.
We head off to the “superstore” on the west side of Bideford.
16.15 .. We arrive at Asda’s .. well for a superstore it’s not massive,
I’d say about 1/3 of the size of the Cardiff one. The “George” section
isn’t very big, so nothing tempts Karen .. we go get some milk and a
few other goodies before heading back to Georges.
17.15 .. We stop outside the Post Office at Bucks Cross, it’s the top
of the valley to Bucks Mills .. I nip in to see if I can get some more
scones .. they only have fruit ones left .. so I buy two.
Back in Georges, we’ve bought the tent inside and I open it again .. to
try and work out a folding routine in still air conditions .. after 15
minutes we give up.
I walk down to the wall at the bottom of the valley where the path to
the beach starts .. with the little laptop to try and google some tent
instructions .. no signal .. DOH.
Time for a cup of tea.
18.50 .. We head off out .. at the top of the valley we park up outside
the post office again where I know I can get a BT GPRS signal .. Karen
phones Claire and I use the PC. I think I found the manufacturers
website .. but no instructions .. so I e-mail their help department for
some assistance.
19.30 .. We arrive at the Hoop’s Inn .. it looks a tad busy in the bar
.. we get a drink and start a tab, and some menu’s to look through.
19.45 .. I go to the bar to order our food .. only to be told they are
not taking anymore orders for 15 minutes, and then the wait for food
will be 45 minutes .. hmmm. We decide to pay for the drinks and move
on, but I book a restaurant table for tomorrow at 19.30. The not so
good news is they use the same menu upstairs. This isn’t the place it
was 28 years ago ..
Back in the car .. we decide to go back to Georges and use some of the
food up we bought in ..
20.15 .. ish .. Dinner is served .. it’s a cheese, beef and ham salad
.. dessert is a combo of scones, fruit and more cheese .. all washed
down with red and then white wine.
Post dinner we watch TV for a while and drink some more wine.
21.50 .. Karen heads to bed and I follow shortly ..
22.30 .. I’m in bed too .. passions rise ..
Some considerable time later .. nightie night.
More to come LOL ..
Day 2080. Thursday 19th August 2010.
Memory Joggers ...
09.30 .. We wake up ..
09.40 .. Post a quick cuddle I make the tea .. time to relax with each
other ..
10.45 .. Up and at it ..
12.53 .. I head to shower ..
13.25 .. Dressed and ready to go ...
13.45 .. We stop at the top of the hill .. I get a text from Susan,
Mick’s partner .. they’ve had to have one of there two dogs put down
after being run over earlier in the week .. as yet we don’t know which
one. A call to the manufacturer of our pop up tent gets a response, and
the girl I speak too finds my email from yesterday. She sends me an
e-mail immediately .. with an attachment.
13.55 .. The e-mail is in my googlemail account inbox .. is the
attachment a PDF .. no .. it’s a 2.7Mb JPG .. and I’m running on a
53kbs GPRS connection, taking me back to old fashioned dial up
modems .. it takes nearly 10 minutes to down load, but it does
reveal the secret of folding the tent .. phew !!
14.20 .. ish .. We arrive at the outlet village to do the tour .. it’s
hissing down with rain.
Well we go into most of the outlet shops just to look around .. but we
do end up laying out money in several shops .. a duvet set for our bed
at home ( purple one side, deep pink the other ), we would have bought
a second set in another shop but they didn’t have the pretty purple on
white print in king size .. DOH .. a top for me, 2 for Karen from
Cotton Traders, some CD’s and Karen bought some gifts for others.
I send a text to Sue in response to her earlier one, agreeing to meet
up tomorrow.
17.20 .. We head back to George’s via a tour of the town .. turning
right out of the outlet village complex and picking up the “old road”
from the west into Bideford. This part really hasn’t changed .. Karen
has little memory of it .. but I do.
As we are passing the Esso garage next door to Morrisons I use the
opportunity to fill the car up .. 120.9 for 97 ron “energy supreme” ..
we’ll see how Violet likes this.
18.02 .. We are back in George’s ..
19.15 .. We are later than hoped as we leave for the Hoop’s Inn .. at
the top of the valley I stop so Karen can call Claire .. as the call
goes on I start to drive on .. the phone signal holds up ..
19.30 .. We arrive at the Hoop’s Inn .. the weather is seriously
unpleasant .. Karen points out a parking space outside the front of the
building, a very short distance from the front door.
Third time lucky with wine ..
A couple of telephone calls from Mick .. he’s in a very iffy signal
area .. inside the pub isn’t good either .. we agree to meet at Bos
Castle tomorrow ..
10.15 .. ish.. We leave the Hoops Inn .. it’s seriously hissing down
outside, luckily we are literally a 5 second dash to the car .. enough
to get seriously damp in the process.
10.25 .. We arrive at George’s .. magically the rain slows right down
to allow us to escape into the place without getting too wet. Karen
heads for bed almost immediately .. I follow her up and start ripping
the new CD’s onto the laptop .. Michael Bolton’s Greatest Hits will do
for later.
10.55 .. Karen is out of the bathroom .. I go in a few minutes later.
11.25 .. I get into bed .. passions rise to a new height ..
12.30 .. Michael Bolton finished a while ago .. I get out of bed and
shut the laptop down ..
Nightie night.
More to come ...
Day 2081. Friday 20th August 2010.
Memory Joggers ...
07.30 .. We are awake .. Karen gets up for a comfort break. On her
return, initially we lay apart, but soon snuggle up and share the
cuddles till the alarm goes off ..
08.20 .. The alarm goes off .. I let it time out and snooze ..
08.30 .. Up and at it ..
10.27 .. I need to shower ..
11.15 .. I do battle with the tent .. “simples” .. as a MeerKat would
say .. when you know how .. LOL.
11.25 .. We really need to get going ..
11.35 .. With Jane programmed to guide us to Boscastle, after a
struggle .. we are on our way. Talk about Sunday drivers .. but this is
Friday .. there seems to a load of old folk dawdling along at 40 mph
where most of the “Atlantic Highway” is actually 60mph. Our 8 minutes
of lea way soon whittles away ..
12.28 .. We arrive at Boscastle and eventually find a parking space ..
it’s drizzling on and off and isn’t very pleasant. I go buy a 4 hours
parking ticket .. £3 ( buy 3 and get the 4th free ) .. <<
grimace >>.
Well yesterday’s plan with Mick hasn’t got off the ground .. there is
no Tesco or Vodafone mobile service here.
Karen and I do a quick search mission .. I check the whole length of
the car park, no sign of them or there car. We do a search through the
village and return to the car park.
13.18 .. We have given up and decided to go and find something to eat
.. as we go to cross the road, Mick and Susan come round the corner ..
from the other direction to our approach .. they wave at us and go and
find a parking space .. it takes an age for them to return, they are at
the far end of the car park.
13.35 .. We are together .. hugs all round. We decide to go eat
immediately. Apparently Susan had sent me a text about the time we
arrived explaining why they are late .. I’ll get it later.
We learn about the dog, and how it met it’s end. The dog was run over,
albeit very gently it seems, but that didn’t bring the end really. The
dog that has gone is the elder of their two, in fact she was the mother
of the other one .. they were both lovely dogs, sadly the mum had
multiple problems through old age, that meant putting it down appears
to have been immanent anyway. Either way, it’s not the best holiday
they have had.
After eating we go and walk out on the east side of the village.
There’s a sort of village museum that covers a lot of history, with a
small section about the 2006 floods and destruction. Many of the
buildings have signs on them indicating the flood levels .. it must
have been terrifying. Luckily nobody was killed, one person was
slightly injured ..
Over 130 vehicles were washed down through the harbour, many further
out to sea, over 30 have never been recovered .. a video plays all the
time showing newsreel stuff and locals own footage .. absolutely
amazing.
After the walk out to the headland, where we see a seal playing in the
harbour entrance we head back. I’m really not wearing the right shoes
for this and find the slate blocks quite slippery. Back on the level we
head across a modern replacement for a bridge that was badly damaged in
the floods .. to get some locally made ice cream.
16.15 .. Our time is nearly up .. so we head for the pottery where we
bought an item or two on a holiday with the kids 20 years or so ago ..
it hadn’t suffered too badly in the floods it seems.
Well following on from our purple shopping at Dartington Crystal .. we
get a few items to go on the table of this pottery .. all with a purple
base glaze .. a couple of chunky candle sticks, some little dishes
ideal for olives or sauces .. a mug for Robert with a blue base glaze.
As he’s managed to chip 75% of our day to day dishes, plates and mugs
over the last couple of years .. I suggest keeping the mug back till
the day he leaves home .. then chip it for him so he has something to
remember us by .. Karen giggles .. am I being cruel ..
16.48 .. We say goodbye to Mick and Susan .. and head for George’s ..
via Bude and the scenic route through Widemouth Bay ..
17.52 .. I stop at the Bucks Cross Post Office to get some scones and
cream.
18.50 .. We leave for Hartland Quay ..
19.15 .. We arrive at a very windy Hartland Quay .. we go straight into
the hotel to eat .. we get some drinks, order some food and start a tab.
Our starter of two portions of garlic bread arrives .. enormous
portions.
I go get some more drinks .. while I’m away the mains arrive. The food
( sirloin steaks ) are very basic and simple but well cooked and comes
with lots of little extra’s .. incredible value really. We decide
against desserts, so I pay the bill and we go outside.
20.40 .. I get the camera from the car .. only to have the battery die
on me almost instantly .. so we give up on that, walk down to the beach
and have a dusk paddle in the sea .. the water isn’t that cold
actually. There are loads of shadowy figures in the surf doing the
things surfers do .. some are pretty good, with the wind the surf is
pretty good too.
20.58 .. We head back to George’s ..
21.20 .. We are “home” at George’s ..
A cup of tea to warm us up after our paddle .. LOL .. and catch up on
the TV news ..
21.50 .. Karen heads up to wash and get ready for bed .. I sit and do
some diary notes.
22.35 .. Karen’s come to find me .. I pack up and head for the bathroom
..
23.00 .. ish .. I’m in bed ..
Passions rise .. nightie night.
More to come ...
Day 2082. Saturday 21st August 2010.
Memory Joggers ...
I slept quite well .. things are good between Karen and I, relaxing is
so much easier now.
07.20 .. The alarm goes off ..
07.30 .. Up and at it ..
It’s the Saturday morning weigh in .. no it’s not .. I’m dreading it
when I can check it .. tomorrow .. << grimace >>.
We head down and sort breakfast before doing the packing and showering
..
09.30 .. ish .. I start to pack the car .. we have a lot of extra stuff
to fit in and we haven’t finished yet to be honest.
Karen does a quick note for the “maid” regarding problems we have found
..
09.58 .. Karen goes to put the key in the outside key safe .. disaster
.. on the way back towards the car she slips over on the wet and very
slippery slate block path, the other side of the front door.
In the car she’s in pain and rolls up her soiled jeans, her right knee
is badly grazed through the material and is bleeding .. ouch !!.
10.03 .. We drive away .. in the rain .. a bit sad really .. because we
are going home away from this slightly special place. I hope the new
found passion between us continues at home, I’m sure it will.
We are heading for the Asda and Factory Outlet store complex. Jane
gives us a non stop ETA for home as 13.55 .. 210 miles .. hmmm .. not
on a Saturday in holiday season .. LOL.
10.20 .. We arrive at the “superstore” complex, luckily I find an empty
bay pretty much outside Asda’s door. Karen stays in the car and dry
while I raid Asda’s for a few items .. including some plasters.
10.33 .. I return to the car, only to realise I forgot the plasters ..
DOH .. though I remembered everything else. I return to Asda’s and get
a selection of things, including a small travel first aid kit, a
selection of different plasters including a pack of special graze
dressings and some medical cleansing wipes.
10.42 .. I leave Karen to sort her wound out and head into the Factory
Outlet area. First stop Cotton Traders to buy a couple of pastel shade
£3 “T” shirts for Linda to print for me .. and some garden chairs
we had taken a fancy to in “Mountain Life”. We are in luck .. they now
only have two of the chairs left Karen and I really liked ( yes they
have purple recliner frames and spotted covers ) and appear to be
really well made, and a different pink one for Claire.
A chap from the shop assists me and carries the two bigger chairs to
the car for me .. they just slide into the gap between the seats
stacked on top with the drivers seat pulled forward for loading .. the
car is now officially full .. LOL.
11.08 .. We are on the road again and rejoin the A39 after a detour to
top Violet up again with Bideford’s cheap Esso Supreme .. I also raid a
shop on another detour .. one to get a mug for work .. its “loud” and
got two Meerkat’s with “Simples” written on it. As we drive away up the
hill Karen spots another shop with MeerKat’s in the window .. so I park
again and walk back.
They are just putting their Meerkat stock out .. they only just put the
window display in .. if we’d been a few minutes earlier we’d have not
seen them. They haven’t got any Meerkat mugs, but I do buy two rather
nice “Sarah” and “Karen” mugs .. and another Meerkat, this one wearing
a maroon “smoking jacket” like in the TV commercials .. LOL.
Well it’s Saturday morning, and many others are heading east too. I
think the A39 at times like this is probably a victim of it’s own
success, as the M25 became. The queue’s and hold ups in places go for
miles .. though much of it is set up to give three lanes on hills ..
two up and one down .. much more could have been dual carriageway.
13.00 .. ish .. We reached the M5 .. to discover it’s almost at a
standstill .. I do two circuits of the roundabout above to make sure
and head up the A38 to Taunton instead. Seems a few others are doing
that too but at least it’s doing 40mph instead of a lot less ..it adds
about 5 miles to our journey.
Taunton is actually two junctions up the M5, the A38 kisses the M5
about 20 miles nearer Taunton again, with only about 7 miles to go to
the next junction .. I take a gamble and take to the motorway .. it’s
doing 40mph now most of the time .. I guess I did the right
thing.
At Taunton it’s a cut across to the A303, past my sisters place and
onwards to the M3 and home. But a lot of others seem to be doing the
same thing. I ignore Jane and use the “short cut” through Langport to
avoid a lot of the queue’s to Yeouvilton.
13.56 .. We join the A303, having bypassed about 30 miles of TomTom
holiday route .. I guess we’ve saved a load of time .. cause the A303
as we join it is crawling along.
14.08 .. We stop just past my sisters place at the Sparkford Inn, to
have a quick bite to eat .. use the facilities etc. We both go for
different chicken sandwiches .. then swap halves when they arrive ..
love is .. << smiles >>.
14.55 .. We are back on the road .. Jane is now giving us an ETA of
16.12 .. 86 miles .. dream on.
The A303 is a mare, with many holdups .. at one point just before we
have passed Stone Henge . .that has increased to 16.58 .. hmmm .. some
mighty jams for sure.
Once past Stone Henge the road really starts to move onceon the
continuous dual carriageway that joins the M3 non stop. Though it’s
stopped raining a while ago the roads aren’t bone dry. I join the
outside lane rocket space .. and start to catch up on time in a big way
.. Violet with the load on still is very eagre to go .. but at
unmentionable speeds she feel’s a little “loose” .. not the feeling she
gave going to Christine’s across the Yorkshire Moors on worse road
surfaces at the same speeds .. it must be the load we are carrying
unbalancing the car.
16.45 .. We are home, the last 8 days has put 862 miles on Violet .. we
should have used Red really. Gosh I’m car seat shaped .. after a little
fiddling, taking the three chairs out, Karen can get to her handbag and
the keys to Red, so we can put her in the road to make unloading Violet
easier.
17.25 .. With the car unloaded and a few things sorted .. Karen says I
can go use the PC for a while .. I check my e-mails.
There is some interesting news from an ex colleague at the “old place”
.. apparently they have appointed another ex Radio 1 DJ, who did do a
spell in the building I worked in about 14 years ago .. to be the
network Breakfast DJ from 06.00 till 10.00 weekdays. He’s a seriously
nice guy on air, and I worked with him in my early 80's BBC days with
Radio 1. However he had an attitude with other staff off air that
really grated with me and others at the time.
Another good friend from the old place will be doing the breakfast show
in the mean time, which will do her no harm at all .. so I guess all
the current network stations breakfast DJ’s are being made redundant
too .. sooner or later.
He starts in January 2011, he currently works in London and lives
nearby .. are they going to expect him to move to Manchester to do this
show or keep the studio’s in London open .. I don’t have that
information.
For sure, in the independent radio station business, where most of the
DJ’s work on short term freelance contracts .. this sort of chop and
change means they have little security beyond their reputations and
ability to pull an audience given the restrictions put on them by
licence and management.
I remember a DJ on this station “in the good old days”, 13 - 14 years
ago, that had an amazing following. The old management forced a music
policy change through and though his following had been high .. his
audience walked. He became very vocal about the new policy after loads
of calls from complaining listeners, which was a disaster, but he
didn’t last as long as the disastrous music scheduling .. sadly .. and
that was short lived too.
17.45 .. ish .. I start a Skype call with Nanda in Holland .. she’s
been trying to get us on our Skype phone a few times in the last week.
She’s on good form, we talk about a lot of things, including my
redundancy. It turns out if I’d been employed in Holland my old company
would have had to pay me 3 years salary to get rid of me the way they
did. For this reason it seems it doesn’t happen too often in the
Netherlands, and businesses plan for the long term rather than the next
few months, as what seems to happen in the UK all too often.
19.25 .. I order a Chinese ..
19.58 .. I’m back with the food .. it’s washed down with the 3/4 of a
bottle of white we bought home from Devon.
21.55 .. ish .. Karen heads for bed .. I should follow her soon ..
Time flies .. and I’m not chatting to folks on line either ..
00.05 .. I’m in the bedroom ..
00.42 .. I climb into bed .. Karen stirs .. we exchange kisses then
it’s lights out .. nightie night.
More to come ...
Day 2083. Sunday 22nd August 2010.
Memory Joggers ...
Back in our own bed is bliss .. and I slept really well. Recently I’ve
been emptying my water glass most nights, but really not aware of doing
it .. must be drinking in my sleep .. no laying awake worrying anymore.
07.15 .. The alarm goes off ..
07.22 .. I get up .. post comfort break I go make some tea .. while the
kettle boils I weigh myself .. 14st 9 ½ lb .. well it feels a
lot worse than that .. hopefully the excess will fall off quickly like
it did after my return from Nanda’s a few weeks ago.
I return with the tea, I put the TV on .. then have to get up to turn
the freeview box on .. we don’t want football .. BBC News 24 sorts us
out .. we snuggle up while the tea cools .. as always I finish mine
first, so I curl up with my head in her lap .. purr, purrrrrrrr ..
<< smiles >>.
08.10 .. Up and at it .. I head for the shower .. my hair can wait till
tomorrow .. so a quicky routine is in order.
08.45 .. I’m dressed and sorted .. I head downstairs to sort the
kitchen routine .. however I go to boot the laptop and main PC with the
full intension of copying last weeks pictures from the laptop to the
main PC while munching .. but I get carried away .. finding friends on
my new Facebook profile, the intension is to separate my real life
everyday contacts from my old profile that buses my web name and has
mainly “virtual” trans friends.
Before anyone takes exception .. there are quite a few of my real
friends on there too .. Alison, Christine x 2, Martha, Frankie and
others I’ve forgotten to mention ..
09.15 .. Arghhhh .. look at the time .. I rush to the kitchen and sort
the kitchen routine .. where’s my pills .. found them ..phew.
Thinking that Sparkle was nearly full .. we do a car shuffle and put
Violet at the back of the drive ..
09.31 .. We are on the road to collect Claire .. I thought Sparkle was
filled up, but she’s not .. so we need to stop for fuel. In Egham I
have a lucky escape .. Karen’s stopped a bit further forward on pump 3
than usual, and I open the door onto a post I couldn’t see .. luckily
there is no damage.
09.52 .. We join the M25 .. well the really good news it seems they
have really finished the widening works clockwise from J17 to J19. As
J17 will be my exit when I start my new job .. that should improve
traffic flow no end .. << smiles >> .. I’m thinking of
doing a dummy run on Friday the 3rd Sept ..
10.10 .. We join the M1 .. it’s flowing really well .. famous last
words.
10.35 .. We come to halt a few vehicles back from the front of a queue
.. created by a rolling road block that stops .. grrrrr .. why do they
need to re arrange cones at this time of the day ???
10.40 .. We are rolling again .. but now we are going to be late for
Claire’s pick up .. DOH.
10.48 .. We are clear of the 50MPH zone .. and 7 minutes late .. Mrs
Schummaker comes out of hiding and she lets rip in Sparkle for the
first time .. with a nearly empty M1 she’s actually holding back a
little .. it will be interesting to find out what sparkle will do one
day .. it’s supposed to be the same as Red .. and I know she would
actually do at least 8mph faster than claimed on V power .. speedo
verified by our TomTom.
11.04 .. Karen’s made up 3 minutes in that short blast .. Claire see’s
our car drive in and we can see her starting to flap her arms in
excitement .. as she does .. we are greeted with hugs and kisses and
she gets into the car.
11.07 .. Back on the road .. the M1 is really clear .. Claire is now a
little quieter than normal .. we have to hope she’s not going to give
us grief later.
11.59 .. Sadly the same can’t be said initially for the M25 .. the
queues through the road works anti clockwise are long and slow .. but
past junction 17 .. all is good.
12.30 .. We leave the M25 ..
12.43 .. We are home ..
13.10 .. Lunch is served .. a ham sandwich, crisps and dips, olives ..
a slice of fruit cake and some a cup of tea to wash it all down.
Post lunch I transfer my diary back to the PC and check a few things ..
I find an off line message from Kirsti on Yahoo .. I reply ..
16.28 .. We head for my mums, Robert comes too .. as we get to Egham
Claire asks Karen for Apricot jam for breakfast .. Karen says we’ll
have to buy some ..
16.48 .. We arrive at my mum’s .. OK it’s been a couple of weeks .. but
life repeats itself with my mum.
I sort a couple of issues for her, then she starts on about a few
things .. like how her sense of taste is getting worse and worse. What
happens next gets a “spooky” from Karen and I .. she pulls a jar of
Apricot Jam out of her fridge and offers it to us .. she can’t eat it
anymore because she can’t taste it .. so is Claire a psychic ? .. I
wonder how she’d do with lottery numbers !?!
17.58 .. It’s a relief to head for home .. via the garage again to fill
Red up ..
18.25 .. We are home .. I start the disposable BBQ going ..
We surprise Claire with the new garden chair we bought for her in Devon
.. she likes it .. and happily sits in it ..
18.50 .. ish .. it’s ready to start cooking .. chicken drumsticks and
some Bratworst sausages I bought home from Nanda’s a three weeks ago ..
The BBQ starts to fizzle out rather early I think. Previously I’ve
bought individual ones from Waitrose, but as we’ve now decided to wait
for the autumn sales before buying a decent one I bought a three pack
of single use ones yesterday from Waitrose. The packing says it’s the
same as the single ones from the same company .. “Buy three and save”
.. but on closer inspection they are slightly different .. the one from
the three pack is shallower, so I guess it holds less charcoal than the
one still sitting to one side from 2 weeks ago ..
19.30 .. With the help of a gas blow lamp heating the bottom of the
tray gently we’ve managed to finish the foods cooking .. three spare
drumsticks to eat cold with lunch tomorrow ..
I put everything away including Claire’s seat, that’s when I find a
“weight limit 90KG” label .. oo er .. a quick sum Claire’s weight is ..
<< oo er >> .. but it all still seems straight without any
sign of stress ..
19.40 .. Karen takes Claire up for her bath .. I go prepare some
Strawberries. I open a pack of Waitrose Strawberries .. there are some
enormous ones .. the three biggest alone, hulled and cut up .. way 117g
.. wow ..
20.05 .. Karen and Claire return .. strawberries and ice cream all
round .. lovely.
Karen makes a cup of tea .. that helps down the ritual popcorn course
that Claire expects on her evenings home before bed.
20.20 .. ish .. I head off for friends John and Julie, it’s Julie’s
birthday today .. I take her a card and box of chocolates ..
20.35 .. ish .. I’m there, gosh the drive is stuffed with cars .. 5 of
them I think .. I’ll have to reverse out later.
I’m greeted at the door by Paul, their eldest son, Adam soon joins ..
followed by Julie fresh out of the bathroom .. John then appears, still
very disabled by the stroke he had some time ago.
We exchange family news.. Paul is starting teaching IT at a local
school in two weeks .. I tell them about Karen and I and apologise for
not being in contact in the last 6 months. Julie will call Karen soon
so we can restart having a regular chinese or Indian with them .. at
their home.
20.58 .. I head for home ..
21.17 .. I am home .. Karen is still up .. we chat about what was said
at J & J’s.
21.40 .. Karen heads up to bed ..
21.50 .. I head for bed too ..
22.27 .. I’m in bed too .. Karen turns the TV off and we snuggle up for
a while .. passions rise .. << smiles >>.
Nightie night ..
More to come ...
Day 2084. Monday 23rd August 2010.
Memory Joggers ...
I slept really well, things are so much happier in my life now that
relaxing is not a problem .. no longer do I lay in bed, dreading,
waiting for the phone to ring.
08.02 .. I wake briefly and take a drink from my nearly empty water
glass .. I soon dose off.
09.15 .. ish .. I’m woken up by voices on the landing .. Karen and
Claire’s.
09.26 .. Up and at it .. a quick pit stop and I head down to sort the
kitchen routine ..
10.50 .. I finally head for a shower .. full monty time .. luxury ..
first dose of conditioner for my poor hair for weeks .. feels lovely
later.
11.40 .. I’m getting dressed, problem is many of my lower half’s with
“fitted waists” .. don’t fit anymore .. the diet restarts tomorrow ..
maybe .. it needs to work quick otherwise I’ll need to buy more jeans
for starting work again, but some are serious tat now .. maybe I should
buy a new pair too.
As Karen takes Claire up to bath I switch the PC on .. time to do more
sorting on my two Facebook profiles .. moving work / personal friends
without “Trans Issues” to my new profile .. it’s taken a while to go
through my friends list and do this. Fact is everybody there has known
me for years anyway .. but starting a new job .. where people may not
necessarily know my history .. I feel it would be nicer for them than
to discover something, which is down to my discretion now .. <<
smiles >>.
13.05 .. Lunch is served .. the same as yesterday really, with the
addition of the cakes make by Claire ( Karen ) earlier .. topped with
something special .. a little clotted cream .. mmmmm.
13.35 .. To the PC .. I find Yahoo off liners from Linda and Kirsti ..
I reply to both ..
14.10 .. We are on the road to take Claire back .. rather early but
this is a Monday .. it feels rather odd .. Karen is surprised before
she realises that our bank in Sunningdale is open .. LOL. There
is more traffic on the road for sure ..
Karen gets cut up twice by a black VW Beetle .. after the second time
we discover why .. the chap is on the phone .. OK, I do that too
sometimes, I am not alone for sure .. using the phone when driving that
is .. but if you can’t drive when using a phone like he couldn’t ..
DON’T .. grrrr.
14.30 .. The M25 is busy ..
14.40 .. Into the road works beyond J17 just before J18 and the road
works it grinds to a near halt. We are using up the 23 minutes of spare
time we started with according to Jane rapidly .. this is really bad ..
15.17 .. We finally join the M1 .. we are now 2 minutes behind Jane’s
schedule .. it seems to be running a lot better than the M25 ..
15.35 .. The first set of road works comes and goes without incident ..
except for some amazing rain .. and we are being help at 50mph all the
way into the second set of “active” roadworks .. hmmm .. more time
lost.
15.47 .. We leave the second set of roadworks .. it’s stopped raining
.. but the surface water and spray are horrendous . .the sun makes an
appearance and illuminates the spray making seeing ahead even harder ..
Mrs Schumacker will have to remain in the bottle. We are 9 minutes late
now.
16.09 .. We arrive at Northampton services .. her car awaits .. she
happily decants from our car to the homes ..
16.14 .. We head for home .. the weather ahead seems to be clearing up
nicely now .. just a little spray occasionally to cope with.
16.31 .. It couldn’t last for long we meet a queue heading into
the second set ( from home ) road works and things grind to an
intermittent crawl ..
16.38 .. A police 4 x 4, “2 & blues on” hurtles down the hard
shoulder .. hmmm .. the blue patchy sky is covered by a large grey
cloud .. and more rain .. lovely.
16.52 .. In the roadworks, right under J13 there has been a multi car
shunt .. some have been cleared it appears .. two more to go. Soon as
we are past it the speed picks up .. just like the rain .. British
summers .. “Great Britain” .. LOL.
17.12 .. We join the M25 and another queue but once through J18 the
queue clears and we are soon doing 70mph ..
17.44 .. We go through M25 J16 towards home .. this will be my route
home around this time from two weeks today .. it’ll be interesting to
see how quickly we get home .. at the moment Karen is getting “gonged”
by Jane for some reason .. << grimace >>. OK we are still
in School holiday zone .. so this isn’t a fair test .. it’ll be 3rd
week in September onwards before the traffic gets back to “normal”.
A couple of miles on we get into the controlled speed limit zone ..
60mph
17.48 .. We cross J15 .. a overhead sign says “SPRAY SLOW” .. the road
is bone dry and the sky is 80% blue space ..
17.50 .. OK I should have been paying more attention .. we join a queue
going under J14 .. I would have done an “Up and Over” here .. probably
saving quite a bit of time .. the speed limit is now 40 .. we wish !!!
17.55 .. We are now level with the ramp back on at J14 .. from
experience it’s a lucky escape .. the up and over would have taken 2
minutes max .. today .. less.
17.58 .. We leave the M25 .. I’d say the A30 is a little quieter than
normal ..
18.17 .. We are home .. 90% blue sky .. lovely .. except Roberts taken
both parking spaces outside the house .. grrrrrr. Karen gets Robert to
move his car.
A cup of tea hits the spot ..
While waiting for dinner and things .. I decide to go and clean the
windscreen on Red on the inside. Driving back earlier, when it started
to mist is was clear that the fitter who fitted it a 10 days or so ago
didn’t clean the drivers side properly .. that’s soon done.
I decide to do the windscreen on Violet too, then try an external glass
polish / cleaner on the drivers door glass and door mirror. This
“Turtle Wax” product is supposed to repel water, so the glass stays
cleaner, and apparently if used on Windscreens almost eliminates the
use of windscreen wipers .. but I’m not risking the windscreen yet.
19.28 .. Dinner is served .. grilled chicken done with pasta and
mushroom and Madeira cream sauce .. it’s lovely .. dessert is
Strawberries .. what no vanilla ice cream .. we have to “slum it” with
samples of two different clotted creams .. << grins
>>
21.19 .. I’m on the bed ready to start the drudgery .. it’s been 11
days and I’m just a little nervous .. the glass of red wine with dinner
has helped I guess.
21.55 .. I’m cooked .. well that was quite easy in the end, but then I
am much more relaxed, and able to relax that much easier not worrying
about calls from work at all hours.
22.25 .. I’ve cleansed and I’m ready for bed .. Karen goes to sort
herself out.
22.50 .. Karen returns to bed ..
Passions rise .. I’m glad that this can happen here too .. <<
smiles >> .. life is so good now.
00.26 .. I turn the lights off and take a drink .. nightie night.
More to come ...
Day 2085. Tuesday 24th August 2010.
Memory Joggers ...
Blissful sleep .. << smiles >>
06.00 .. ish .. I’m disturbed by Karen putting another blanket over me
“you look cold” .. I was a little .. she’s up to have a comfort break ..
08.30 .. ish .. We are awake .. Karen gets up and makes the tea. We
cuddle up and watch the news ..
09.05 .. ish .. I need the loo, so I go sort that and do a quick
freshen up .. I notice my mouth is swollen again .. now what on earth
has triggered that from yesterday’s food ? Before returning to
bed I weigh myself .. 14st 7lb .. well that’s improving.
09.35 .. Up and at it .. I head down after Karen to do the kitchen
routine .. breakfast is in the lounge watching TV.
Our BT hub phone starts to ring .. somebody offering us a cracking deal
on our house building and contents insurance which is due very soon ..
I let him try to do his job .. will just have to wait now for the
written quotation.
10.20 .. I boot the PC to check more of my e-mails.
I answer an e-mail from a friend at “the old place” .. interesting
developments there too ..
11.20 .. Karen heads out to see her friend ..
12.35 .. I head to the bathroom to sort the routine .. just a quickie
today ..
13.20 .. Lunch .. it’s the return of PAB .. hopefully the weight will
fall off more.
13.30 .. Post lunch I’ve got two sink fulls of washing up to do .. a
dish washer will be part of the new kitchen when we get it eventually
..
14.18 .. The washing up is sorted .. phew .. I go to the PC ..
14.32 .. I open Skype and see Nanda’s on line .. I give her a call ..
15.05 .. I say goodbye to Nanda, and answer some off liners on Yahoo
from Kirsti, Dawn and Lucinda ..
Chats with Julie ( long time no see ) and Linda on Yahoo ..
Hazy pops up for a chat too .. it’s been a while ..
17.50 .. I’m hungry .. I go make a cup of tea and find some biscuits ..
some I bought home from Germany .. lovely .. << grimace >>
.. what diet is this .. << sulks >>.
18.05 .. ish .. Karen is home ..
19.08 .. I head for Budgens ..
22.30 .. I spend a long time trying to set up an Advert with Autotrader
for Red .. in the end I have to give up when after multiple attempts ..
I fail to upload a picture ..
00.30 .. I climb into bed .. nightie night ..
More to come ...
Day 2086. Wednesday 25th August 2010.
Memory Joggers ...
22.58 .. I’m in bed .. passions rise ..
23.40 .. lights out .. nightie night ..
More to come ...
Day 2087. Thursday 26th August 2010.
Memory Joggers ...
09.35 .. Up and at it .. I go do a weight check .. 14st 4 ½ lb
.. that’s a pound a day off since returning from holiday .. I need to
continue that way ..
15.35 .. I head for the charity shop in Sunningdale with stuff from my
mothers for them to use ..
Dinner is served .. a cold pork chop with a salad .. dessert is
strawberries and yoghurt ..
23.35 .. I’m in bed .. passions rise ..
12.55 .. I turn the lights off .. nighty night ..
More to come ...
Day 2088. Friday 27th August 2010.
Memory Joggers ...
I slept really well again ..
08.15 .. I’m awake ..
11.32 .. I’m in the doctors ..
11.38 .. I’m called through to see the doctor .. it’s a slightly
frustrating conversation.
12.10 .. I’m home ..
13.10 .. Lunch .. PAB .. but I do add some lovely brie and biscuits ..
<< sighs >>.
13.50 .. I go on line and try for a second time to place the advert in
Autotrader for Red .. it’s really got to go. After I’ve placed the add,
successfully at last, I find a lot of ads for similar aged care .. many
are cheaper, lower milage, some are as expensive .. I suspect that few
of the cars there will have the pile of bills we have got for the car
.. << grimace >>.
14.50 .. I call my new company to talk to personnel about my P45 from
the old place, and the MOD questionnaire pack I’ve not received .. I
eventually get to a voicemail .. so I leave a message.
17.10 .. ish .. I get a call back from Joanne at the new company .. I
can take the P45 with me Monday week, she will chase the MOD, she
thinks she forgot to tell them I was starting earlier now .. oop’s.
My mother calls .. just to make my day .. NOT.
Karen makes a cup of tea .. it helps wash down the last of the fudge.
19.20 .. Dinner is served .. chicken fillet chopped up with Tagliatelle
and a tomato and herb sauce .. dessert is strawberries and yoghurt ..
22.05 .. Karen heads off to bed .. I head for the PC ..
22.50 .. I head for bed ..
More to come ...
Day 2089. Saturday 28th August 2010.
Memory Joggers ...
08.10 .. I need a quick pit stop and then head down and do the Saturday
morning weigh in .. 14st 2 3/4b .. << smiles >> .. YES,Yes,
yes .. phew .. 6 3/4 lb off in 6 days .. I like that .. bet it won’t
continue .. << grimace >>. I return to bed for a cuddle ..
08.35 .. I get up and make the tea ..
09.40 .. I really must make a move ..
10.40 .. I head for Lightwater, via the dump to lose 2 compactor bags
full of shredded paper. A car wash for Red follows in Lightwater ..
then pay our paper bill ..
11.28 .. I’m in Waitrose in Sunningdale for a few items ..
12.16 .. I’m home .. I put the jewellers in Petersfield co-ordinates
into the TomTom .. it says we need 58 minutes to go 40 miles .. that
seems odd. We change our plans and have lunch at home, then dine out
tonight ..
13.21 .. We are on the road for Petersfield .. I thought I knew where I
was going, as far as fastest route is concerned, but Jane and Karen
shouting “Petersfields left” ( cause of a road sign and what Jane was
saying ) .. so I went left.
Grrrrr .. stupid TomTom .. it cuts us across to the A3 about 10 miles
east of the disaster called Hinehead .. with the road works and this
usual bottle neck on full form .. it adds ten minutes to our travel
time .. and finally joins up with my cut across through Bordon about 5
miles from Petersfield .. DOH .. my route would have been hassle
free.
14.31 .. We enter Trevor Towner, Gold & Silver Smiths in
Petersfield. Trevor is called through by a member of his staff to look
at our wedding rings and sort them out. Mine is simple, it needs making
round again and polishing .. Karens is more complex. He checks my ring
size and compares it to the ring forced onto his gauge .. the same.
Karen had her wedding ring cut off about 2 months ago because it was
about 5 sizes too small now and cutting off the blood supply in her
finger .. not good .. a lot of pain. The jeweller measures her finger
to get a snug fit .. then forces her cut ring onto the gauge to the
same point .. it’s going to need a fair chunk of gold dropping in.
Sadly the hall mark was cut through when it was removed .. that may
need redoing.
The rings will be ready in a week to 10 days cause of the bank holiday
.. ho hum. He’ll let us know when they are ready. It feels really odd
as we leave not having that ring on my finger ..
We go for a walk around the town, which is quite quant .. there’s a
farmers market on and a general market too .. nice .. we buy some
olives and some garlic, as in peeled and ready to eat ..
15.43 .. We head for home .. I do a fuel stop in Bordon .. the basic
Shell “Fuel Saver” is 116.9 .. better than Egham, but 9p more for V
Power .. CRIMINAL .. so Red gets a dose of Shell “Fuel Saver” unleaded.
16.22 .. We are home ..
16.28 .. I head for my mums in Sparkle .. alone ..
16.38 .. I’m just pulling into Egham, when my mobile rings .. it’s my
mother ..
16.43 .. I’m in my mothers ..
17.52 .. I can’t take anymore .. I head for home via a fuel stop in
Egham ..
18.12 .. I’m home .. Karen asks what I’ve said to my mother .. she’s
tried to call about 15 minutes ago .. soon after I left .. she wonders
why .. I chewed off my mother a little for the letter she wrote to
Karen a short while back ..
I use the sun to nip into the garden to dead head some rose bushes and
a little tidy up ..
19.08 .. I’m back in doors ..
19.35 .. I dash up stairs to clean up and change ..
20.13 .. We head for The Bel Vedere Italian restaurant in Bagshot, this
was the last place that the dining group I organise used as a “guest
venue” ..
20.21 .. We are in the restaurant reception area, the manager spots us,
walks over and welcomes us “Good evening Sarah, good evening signora”.
We are shown to a table and olives and bread arrive while I look at the
wine list ..
22.40 .. We are home .. I do some diary notes for today while Karen
heads for the bathroom ..
23.55 .. I head for bed ..
More to come ...
Day 2090. Sunday 29th August 2010.
Memory Joggers ...
10.30 .. Karen gets up and makes some tea ..
11.50 .. Finally up and at it .. I need to take my HRT.
17.35 .. I head for my mums ..
17.47 .. I’m home again .. briefly ..
18.10 .. I’m at my mum’s ..
18.58 .. I’m home ..
23.31 .. I head for bed ..
More to come ...
Day 2091. Monday 30th August 2010.( Sarah is legally 5 years old today
.. )
Memory Joggers ...
08.18 .. Oop’s .. up and at it .. I head for a quick shower and quicker
hair wash .. Gary, Karen’s tree surgeon brother, is coming around at
09.30 to quote us to sort our garden out ..
09.18 .. I’ve just finished drying my hair when I hear a rumbling
diesel outside .. Gary’s arrived early ..
10.10 .. ish .. Gary heads for home ..
I sort my kitchen routine
00.20 .. I finally arrive in bed ..
Passions rise ..
01.40 .. Nightie night ..
More to come ...
Day 2092. Tuesday 31st August 2010.
Memory Joggers ...
19.45 .. We leave home heading for Hyns Chinese restaurant in South
Ascot .. Amanda calls to say she’s just leaving and will see us there
soon, I give directions, she soon knows where she is going.
19.55 .. We arrive at Hyns .. parking is a pain tonight, we later
discover there’s a party going on inside in the hidden back part. As we
are trying to park “Lucinda” and Margaret arrive, Lucinda is in her
alterego mode .. they go round the block while somebody backs out and
leaves.
We are seated in the window at a round table for 5 .. we order some
soft drinks and start chatting.
20.10 .. ish .. Amanda arrives .. we soon sort out what we are eating,
“Lucinda” chooses a bottle of Chardonnay for us to enjoy, Margaret
refrains.
Well courses come and go and we chat about different things .. we offer
to share our duck course with L & M but they decline.
Our usual friendly waiter is quite jovial as usual, he’s seen Karen and
I many times .. last time 5 weeks ago last Friday .. the day I left the
old place. He refers to me by my first name a lot and just before the
main course arrives he presents me with my glasses case from 5 weeks
ago .. apparently after he found it he dashed out to catch me but we
had gone ..
The main courses arrive .. Margaret gets two massive battered chicken
fillets as a portion for her sweet and sour chicken .. by the end we
are all pretty well stuffed.
Our waiter clears away and brings out the dessert for the set menu ..
accept he’s put 2 extra portions on so L & M can join us. Amanda
joins me in a coffee ..
22.25 .. ish .. I ask for the bill and I work out the sums £156+
inc 10% service .. “Lucinda” suggests a 5 way split, I say no as she
and Margaret only had a couple of courses from the menu each were the
three of us had Karen and I’s usual Chef’s special house menu. It’s
soon sorted ..
We head our own ways .. we say goodbye to L & M last as their car
is close to ours, Mandy’s is across the main road. Karen and I hope
Margaret is happy to have joined the group and finally met me .. I know
it’s early times still socially for them, we can only hope she got the
right impression.
22.40 .. ish .. We are home .. Karen heads up and sorts herself in the
bathroom ..
23.56 .. I finally climb into bed .. it’s just a snuggle up tonight ..
nightie night ..
More to come ...
Day 2093. Wednesday 1st September 2010.
Memory Joggers ...
11.30 .. We finally leave home heading for West Wittering .. I drive
the outward journey and head across country as if we were heading for
Selsey Bill via Chiddingfold .. a really gorgeous village.
13.08 .. £5 to park the car .. hmmmm .. such is life. We thought
we were being clever by going today .. the place is heaving .. we drive
down towards where the beech curves round into the entrance to
Chichester harbour .. and find a place to fit Red in.
Knowing high water will be about 15.40 ( GMT ) .. I’m keen to find a
patch of beech that I can be sure is just above the expected high water
mark. The thin lowest band of sea weed is the give away, and I know
it’ll be higher this after noon as the tides are moving from neeps to
springs.
13.22 .. I’ve built a camp for the two of us using my 40+ year old
fishing umbrella and two of the brilliant wind breaks my mother made
for us many years ago ..
15.30 .. ish .. I go for a paddle in the sea alone .. leaving Karen to
snooze a little ..
16.40 . .I look round the wind break .. we chose well the tide has come
up another few metres further than the weed mark .. and we are 10 to15
metres safe of that ..
We settle down for lunch as it’s that time.
18.08 .. Car packed, I drive off while discussing what we are going to
do food wise .. we agree on Chichester Marina Club, we’ve been there
before a few years back .. the food is always good quality and cheap
enough.
19.42 .. I head back to the car to grab my camera .. the sun is setting
.. time to grab a shot or two looking along the two thirds of the
marina from the club house towards the lock in the sunset .. lovely ..
19.52 .. I go and order some desserts and more drinks .. Karen goes
outside to call Claire’s home on her mobile ..
20.20 .. We leave the club house and cut across to the Ancastor Marines
sales office a few metres away to see what they have for sale .. they
have a few old Westerly’s but not the varieties I’m interested in.
20.30 .. ish .. We head for home, with Karen at the wheel ..
21.10 .. We are driving towards Bordon when Karen asks me to redirect
the air vent on my side to the side window .. gosh the car is really
steamed up .. I switch the air con on .. then realise I’d pushed the
air to recirculate before Chichester Marina when we drove through some
smoke .. DOH .. I push the lever across .. gosh what a sudden
difference .. LOL.
21.44 .. We are home ..
More to come ...
Day 2094. Thursday 2nd September 2010.
Memory Joggers ...
06.00 .. The alarm goes off .. it’s new job dummy run job.
06.12 .. Up and it .. I head for a shower and give my hair a wash ..
06.48 .. I head downstairs to dry my hair ..
07.55 .. I head out to Red to do my dummy run .. I put Jane up and
select my destination.
07.59 .. A moment early .. I head for “work” .. the traffic down the
M25 is pretty typical, with a 7 minute queue to the A30 roundabout by
the M25 ..
08.17 .. I join the M25 .. it’s busy .. but it’s not crawling .. when I
get to J16, the M40 .. I ignore Jane and head east one junction to pick
up the A40 / A413. There can’t be much difference between routes, as
Jane almost immediately plots me the new route taking me through
Chalfont St Peter’s “high street”. One worry will be winter snow and
ice .. there’s a lot of hills here.
08.41 .. I’m in the lane into the new place and stop short of the
security barriers and hut .. well it’s been pretty consistent over the
three trips I’ve made. I do a three point turn and stop at the exit
onto the “main road” .. I study the map on the TomTom looking for
another way home.
08.51 .. I think I’ve found a way so I go and try some country lane
“rat running” .. but I make a mistake and rather than ending up on the
A40 west of the M25, I end up on the A413 somewhat North on Chalfont St
Peters .. I’ve done 6 miles to go a lot less .. DOH. I’ll have to play
with routes next week to see what I can work out.
09.02 .. I resume the A413 route home, heading for Waitrose ..
09.41 .. I’m in Waitrose .. gosh this is the time to shop .. not a lot
of people in here.
10.35 .. ish .. I’m home, I unload the car and fill the fridge ..
More to come ...
Day 2095. Friday 3rd September 2010.
Memory Joggers ...
06.22 .. Oop’s .. we’ve slept through the alarm ..
06.25 .. Up and at it ..
07.45 .. I boot the PC and check my e-mails and change my Facebook
status on both profiles ..
08.50 .. Finally on the road for Gosport .. the traffic is kind to me
at this time as I decide to go the M3 / M27 route to Fareham.
10.08 .. At Fareham the cheap Esso garage still is .. 112.9 for
unleaded, Red gets a dose of “Supreme” at 119.9 .. amazing.
When I return to the car I notice a missed call from Bob’s mobile .. I
return the call.
10.22 .. I arrive outside the marina where Bob is waiting for me .. I
pick him up, he hands me a free car parking card .. I drive in and open
the barrier with it ..
10.29 .. ish .. I’m on board the boat .. where to start .. a cup of tea
and a ginger nut or three ..
New Feruno Navtex install .. “simples” .. and for once a boat install
goes pretty easy. A quick test of the system with the aerial installed
shows that the NMEA connections are the wrong way round and this unit
pulls everything else down .. soon rectified and all works.
Fitting the new antenna is a delicate job standing in the narrow walk
way outside the boat .. if I go overt it’ll be a hard landing on the
pontoon a few feet below ..
I use the old Navtex antenna cable to pull a “mouse” through .. to draw
the new cable in .. this means removing the “N” type from the cable ..
not too much of a problem.
With the hull gland reassembled on the cable after a fashion .. it’s
time to pull the new cable back into the hull luckily I can lean on
through the bridge door and pull on the “mouse” gently while feeding
the new antenna cable into the tight whole .. it takes a while but
success.
Bob can’t find any silicone rubber or mastic to reseal the gland .. bum
..
13.10 .. We stop for lunch .. Bob makes me a cheese and ham sandwich ..
I use my fruit as a chaser for that .. giving Bob slices off my apple
and pear.
13.30 .. ish .. Lunch is over .. the next project ..
Bob has an Icom DSC Command-mic to install on the flybridge .. there is
a cable that needs to connect it to the M505 radio on the bridge below.
Well .. the original wiring path from bridge to fly bridge, point to
point should only be 2 - 3 metres .. but during the original
install they took the wiring down into the bilge and back up .. why ?
.. cause they could.
With the flybridge instrument panel out .. I can see the roof mounding
for the side of the roof which has two aerial cables running through
it. After a little discussion with Bob he agree’s my plan to drill a
whole with a tank cutter inside the instrument panel into that
moulding. Nervously I do the drilling .. success. I soon have the 6
metre extension cable fed under the fly bridge chart table from under
the helm wheel .. through the new hole and pulled through the whole
front edge of the bridge roof to the port side instrument housing ..
connected to the VHF.
Next job is to mount the Command-mic near to the flybridge helm, then
mount the connector through a whole I have to create under the
flybridge wheel .. again soon sorted .. Bob goes off to buy a new tube
of sealant.
The external loudspeaker for the VHF RT, to be mounted under the wheel
panel too .. is another little problem. The mounting goes easily .. but
it refuses to work .. Bob remembers there is a “secret menu” in the
Command-mic that enables that external loudspeaker .. but not how to
access it .. and he’s not got the instruction sheet for the command mic.
Bob calls ICOM .. and asks for their technician to talk to me ..
introducing me he says .. “this is my engineer, HIS name is Sarah” ..
grrrrrrr .. I bite my tongue .. but the technician isn’t immediately
available .. they agree to call us back.
While we wait for the call back on Bob’s mobile .. I seal up the gland
and secure everything with the Navtex aerial on the Port side.
Bob’s phone rings .. it’s the technician .. again he does it to me ..
“let me pass you to my engineer, HIS name is Sarah” .. I’m quietly
fuming ..
17.15 .. I’m finally on the road for home .. I call Karen as I approach
the M27 .. Jane is saying I’ll be home at 18.52. Karen tells me there
is a message on the answerphone from a woman wanting to have a look at
Red ..
18.39 .. I’m home .. didn’t Red do well .. but the MPG is showing 45.2
.. oop’s.
I make call to the woman who wants to look at Red .. she seems really
keen, but suggests it’s over priced. I explain the situation with what
we’ve replaced recently .. she’s very interested still .. she’s going
to leave immediately to have a look and drive it .. so our dinner goes
on hold.
19.25 .. “Vicky”, husband and baby arrive .. a quick show around, and I
take “Vicky” for a drive out, while hubby minds sleeping baby .. she
drives back. On the way back I invite her to try the brakes “properly”
.. she’s quite timid and even on a second “harder” attempt doesn’t
trigger the ABS .. but she’s very happy.
19.45 .. She loves the car and want’s it .. husband isn’t sure .. they
sit in their car and I go back in while they discuss it ..
20.00 .. ish .. Vicky comes to the door .. she does want the car, she
needs to work on her husband .. she’ll call tomorrow to let us know one
way or the other.
20.15 .. ish .. Dinner is finally served .. a cold pork chop salad ..
followed by a Waitrose “pot au chocolate” .. lovely ..
22.50 .. I head for bed ..
23.20 .. I climb into bed .. we snuggle up for a while before sleeping.
23.45 .. Lights out .. nightie night.
More to come ...
Day 2096. Saturday 4th September 2010.
Memory Joggers ...
07.13 .. Up and at it .. it needs to be a quicky routine .. but with
the sun blasting in the bathroom window .. it’s ideal plucking
conditions ..
07.29 .. ish .. Karen is banging on the bathroom door on Robert’s
behalf .. eh what .. hmmm.
07.34 .. I leave the bathroom ..
07.40 .. After sitting on the bed for a few minutes I head down stairs
and do the Saturday morning weigh in .. 14st 4lb .. << sighs
>> .. up on last week ..
Back to the bedroom to dress .. purple crops and purple flowery top.
07.48 .. I’m back in the kitchen to sort the routine there ..
07.55 .. Post breakfast I start to do a quick clear up in the lounge ..
ready for Claire’s visit .. to be honest we have such a lot to do here
still .. << sighs >>.
09.25 .. We are on the road to Northampton .. in Red .. hopefully for
the last time in her ..
Hmmm .. what’s happened to yesterdays weather forecast for today ..
wall to wall blue sky this is not ..
09.40 .. We join the M25 .. it’s moving well ..
10.03 .. We join the M1 .. all looks good ..
I try to get my Sarah phone to reconnect to our TomTom for hands free
.. but it won’t play ball .. each can find the other .. connect
initially then the phone drops the connection. I try deleting all the
settings in both phone and TomTom .. I do the pairing operation afresh,
they find each other and the passwords are entered .. but still won’t
play ball for more than a few seconds.
10.51 .. We arrive early at Northampton services .. no sign of the
homes vehicle, and Karen is desperate for the loo .. so she parks up
and heads for the services building ..
10.59 .. Karen returns ..
11.01 .. Claire arrives .. the transfer is soon completed and we head
for home .. ETA 12.32.
11.50 .. As we leave the M1 we join the back of the queue on the
junction to the M25 itself .. once we can see down onto the M25 we can
see there’s a breakdown or accident where the slip road joins the M25
.. it clears as we get there .. but not for very far ..
12.15 .. We get to J18 and the traffic queue disappears .. lovely ..
ETA now is 12.52 ..
12.28 .. Karen tries for an up and over at J14 .. but loses out
slightly.
12.33 .. We leave the M25 at J 13 ..
12.53 .. We are home ..
To amuse Claire I put Karen and I’s “Purple Passion Pagoda” up in the
garden .. she laughs when I let go of the folded up “pancake” and it
springs up to be a tent .. she’s soon inside and wants me to go in too,
I get her cushion, and return later to get the blanket she asks for.
13.25 .. Lunch is served .. for Claire and I inside the tent .. Karen
sits outside on a chair .. she could have got inside with us ..
Lunch is a coronation chicken filler sandwich .. some crisps and a dip,
olives and sun dried tomatoes with Feta cheese chunks .. washed down
with cranberry juice. Cake is a malt loaf shared 3 ways .. lovely.
After lunch I open the post and find a note form the jeweller in
Petersfield .. it implies our rings are ready to collect, even though
we thought it would be next week .. a phone call confirms it. So that
sets a plan for later.
Claire happily lays in the tent during the afternoon, I take my
“handbag” glasses off and hang them on a hook inside the tent. I leave
her after a while as she doses off .. and go do some more searching for
missing invoices for Red’s recent work .. and do some other clearing
too ..
15.22 .. We head off to Petersfield to collect our rings ..
16.08 .. We park in the High Street in a 1 hour bay and I walk across
to collect the rings, Karen stays with Claire. In the shop the business
is sorted very quickly, the woman behind the counter from last week has
a young male trainee working with her, so the card transaction takes a
while.
I put my ring on straight away .. it’s lovely and shiny now, and round
again .. looks more like a woman’s wedding ring .. I’ll have to be more
careful from now on .. avoid bending it and doing “rough work”
unprotected. Karen’s ring gets put into a fancy bag out of the clear
plastic bag it was in.
16.17 .. I’m back in the car .. we head for my mothers place .. Karen
is reluctant to try her ring on now .. which I find hard to
understand.
17.12 .. We arrive at my mums ..
Mum is in her usual condition .. playing for sympathy. For months I’ve
been telling her that her “lack of retention” as she keeps telling us
maybe the onset of Alzheimer's disease .. which she’s always got
aggressive about and poo poo’d. Now her “wonderful nurse” who does her
bathing has said the same .. and now she says she might have that and
she’ll have to change the way she needs to do everything.
She got a list of things .. the top one is “Karen letter” .. I assume
she wanted to clear the air with Karen ( one lives in hope ) after what
I told her last week .. but now she can’t remember what that was about
.. so goes on to the next thing .. hmmmm.
18.25 .. We leave my mums .. we stop in Egham to top Red up again ..
then head for home.
18.49 .. We are home .. I need to get the barbeque lit .. Claire goes
and makes camp in the tent again, but facing out .. she looks quite
cute .. in a Claire way .. Karen takes some photo’s including me at the
barbeque ..
It's hot sitting over a mini barbecue
.. but it's a fun time .. doesn't it get dark earlier now !!!
19.10 .. ish .. The barbeque, 2nd box from a pack of three is alight .. and like the first from this pack it proves to be quite feeble .. I’m going to try returning the last of the three pack to Waitrose and explain my feelings about the apparently identical single pack and money saving 3 pack boxes .. grrrrrrr .. with maybe ½ to 2/3 of the charcoal in the multi-pack units.
19.40 .. The barbeque is fizzling out .. even with Camping Gaz blow
lamp assistance .. Karen takes the chicken pieces I have no chance of
booking to put in the oven to finish off .. they’ll be lunch tomorrow.
I find and put my “tree light” ( 300W halogen flood light ), place it
on the garage roof and light up the oak tree .. it’s starting to get
dark with the unexpected cloud cover.
20.05 .. We’ve finished eating .. Karen takes Claire for her evening
bath .. I put the tent away and put the garden back to order. Before
going back to my invoice hunt and shredding I go prepare our
strawberries.
I can’t find my glasses .. where did I leave them ..
20.25 .. Karen and Claire return just as I finish the strawberries prep
.. and dish out some ice cream. We retreat to the lounge to eat them, I
sit along side Claire before Karen hands her strawberries and ice cream
to her.
Karen offers her some sprinkles on it, just as karen goes to sprinkle
out the pink ones Claire asked for, Claire throws her bowl across the
room .. landing on the carpet a few feet away .. that’s the end of her
dessert for tonight. I sit and eat mine in front of her, but not before
scooping up her wreckage and putting it in the kitchen. Claire knows
she’s done wrong ..
Karen goes up and gets ready for bed .. we have drinks and popcorn
afterwards .. Claire should not get any popcorn I feel .. but she does
..
22.45 .. The film I was watching finishes .. gripping stuff about
American agents .. so I head for bed too .. a final hunt for my glasses
.. maybe I buried them while searching through papers earlier .
.they’ll turn up ..
23.15 .. I’m in bed .. Karen finally reveals she’s got her ring on ..
but ..
23.25 .. After some sharp words about our rings and weather to have a
blessing service or not .. I’d sooner roll over and sulk .. nightie
night.
More to come ...
Day 2097. Sunday 5th September 2010.
Memory Joggers ...
I didn’t sleep as well as I have recently .. I’m just a little stressed
starting the new job tomorrow.
09.05 .. We are awake .. after a little closeness Karen gets up for a
comfort break .. Claire is disturbed by something and I can hear her ..
I put Claire cam on the bedroom TV to see what she’s up to ..
09.12 .. Karen has got Claire up, after last nights incident I have to
get up to .. I do a quick pit stop as I follow them down.
Breakfast and pills sitting next to Claire in the lounge .. she starts
asking to try my cereals .. I let her have a some when I’m nearly
finished.
09.45 .. I head up for a shower, but need to do one emergency nail
repair after last nights accident with it. However on close
inspection, two other nails are just hanging on .. so I do them too,
reusing the old reinforcing as I’ve learnt to do, just need to do the
other three later tonight.
10.25 .. I’m finally in the bathroom .. to shower .. it’s a full monty,
but I hold back on the conditioner, hoping to get three days out of my
hair .. mind you with the new job and no motor bike, hair will be less
of a problem in the mornings .. << smiles >>
11.02 .. I’m clear of the bathroom, I get dressed and head down stairs
.. to dry my hair, Karen’s located the “big bill” for Red .. we’d
mislaid several of the bills which have slowly come to light as we
clear our lounge.
11.10 .. Karen takes Claire for her bath as I finish sorting my hair. I
boot the PC and check my e-mails.
11.30 .. ish .. Claire returns and I dry her hair .. while Karen goes
and showers. Claire lays out on the settee when I’ve done her hair, she
soon doses off ..
PING !!! .. I remember taking my glasses off in the tent yesterday .. I
pull the tent out from behind a chair by the French doors and have a
feel .. phew .. I can feel them inside .. I open the tent indoors ..
Claire laughs .. I retrieve the glasses and re-pack the tent .. it
takes 2 attempts again .. LOL.
12.10 .. ish .. Karen returns .. Claire is snoring at times ..
I’ve added all the bills up for the red car since March, we’ll make a
paper loss on that money if we don’t get our £2800 asking price.
Karen seriously suggests selling Sparkle and keeping Red as it drives
better, and we’ll make less of a loss.. Karen, having suggested selling
Sparkle now that the novelty has worn off .. I’d want to swap numbers
between Red and Sparkle if we do that .. the current “personal plate”
on Red is my old male initials, but that will cost at least £160.
14.05 .. We are sorting a few things in the kitchen .. Karen starts
talking about Red and the perspective buyer we saw Friday .. “I don’t
want it going to any old buyer .. I want it to go to a decent home,
like the young woman yesterday with the baby” .. we both love the car
.. we have been so many places in her over the years, and till the
exhaust failed it had never let us down on the road, we don’t consider
the battery dying when 37 months old in the drive way a let down as
such.
14.22 .. We are on the road with Claire .. in Red .. Karen’s favourite
again at the moment.
14.35 .. We join the M25 .. it’s running really well ..
I answer the text message I got from Vicky yesterday re the sale of
Red, letting her know that yesterdays customer was a no show, and that
now Karen and I have found all the bills since March this year ..
£2759.**, and the fact Karen prefers driving Red to Sparkle, she
now thinks we should insure it and use it to save the miles on Violet (
whose done 16K in her first year ) and Sparkle. If we don’t sell Red,
we will keep her.
14.49 .. We join the road works queue in the 50 mph zone just before
J18 .. what joy .. Jane says we have 21 minutes in hand for Claire’s
rendezvous .. we may well need it ..
14.59 .. We join the M1 .. we’ve used up 4 minutes of spare time .. the
M1 is alaso moving well at this point and time ..
In one section of the motorway roadworks, Karen is doing 50mph in the
outside of the two lanes, and articulated lorry roars up behind and
starts flashing .. hmmm .. Karen holds her ground. Half a mile later
out of the contraflow the lorry driver starts to pass Karen up the
inside and doesn’t quite get clear when the speed limit changes ..
Karen overtakes again and just holds position for a while .. the lorry
driver looks incredibly young !!!
15.50 .. We arrive at Northampton southbound services .. seconds
later the home car pulls in too.
15.55 .. We are back on the road ..
Knowing what’s waiting for us on the M25 I start playing with Jane, and
discover a feature using “browse map” .. I set a new course that will
allow us to bypass the M25 from the M1 to where the road works on the
M25 finish at J18 .. keeping “outside” the M25 .. a drive in the
country .. << smiles >>.
16.12 .. We pass a massive smash in the contraflow lane coming the
other way .. it’s only just happened in the last minute of so ..
several very damaged cars and one partially buried to windscreen level
under the raised back of a sports car ..
16.20 .. We see the start of a flood of emergency vehicles heading down
to the accident in the two lanes of the main carriageway opposite ..
headed by a fleet of police cars .. finally we see an ambulance and a
fire engine ..
16.25 .. As we draw to where the contraflow starts they are still
letting cars go down there, none of the police vehicles that have
screamed by have stopped to shut it off ..
16.26 .. A motorway works truck is seen with in the outside lane
approaching the contraflow with it’s big arrow saying pass to the left
.. he’ll be closing the contraflow .. and about time, after 200 or so
cars have entered it .. it’s a very long section .. about 7.5 miles I
think.
16.42 .. Karen has missed the exit so we carry on .. option is to try
inside the M25 . .but Karen opts for the M25 ..
16.46 .. We join the queue on the slip road to join a stuffed M25 .. ho
hum.
16.48 .. Once on to the motorway it does seem to move .. at 30mph ..
but not for far .. after a mile we are doing 4 - 10 mph.
17.25 .. We finally leave the M25 ..
17.40 .. We are home .. time for a cup of tea and think about things
for tomorrow.
17.45 .. Karen has made the tea .. we sit and eat a “Claire” cake and
some biscuits ..
23.05 .. I head for bed ..
More to come ...
Day 2098. Monday 6th September 2010. ( First day at “the new place” )
Memory Joggers ...
05.55 .. The alarm goes off ..
06.08 .. After a brief cuddle it’s up and at it ..
07.54 .. I’m finally on the road, a little later than intended ..
08.40 .. I’m parked up opposite the security building and go in to
introduce myself .. the guard starts me filling in a visitors pass then
recognises my name .. “Stop, I have something for you” .. a PAC fob
with my name on it. He says he’ll call ahead to where I’m going and
alert someone.
08.48 .. I enter what I refer to as the main reception, nobody there ..
so I stand like a lemon, a couple of people walk past me on their way
in, then a woman comes in and asks if she can help .. she goes off to
find someone. Ten seconds later my immediate boss, Jon, walks in and
welcomes me, I follow him through to the engineering area and he
invites me into his office.
Well the morning is a lot of admin, I go see personnel who relieve me
of my P45, then into finance to meet people, and to get the department
head to program my gate fob to open all the doors engineers need around
this companies area of the site.
I get introduced to some of my new colleagues .. Tracy the
administrator for the “technical” dept, Peter who joined last week.
Boss Jon takes me through some H&S stuff, and walks me out near to
the gate to see our fire assembly point .. “L” ..
12.25 .. Lunch, Jon escorts me to the “Canteen” taking his sandwiches
with him .. I go for Garlic chicken with sauteed potatoes .. and a
banana .. £4.10 isn’t bad .. the food really was quite good.
13.25 .. We wander back to the office ..
17.35 .. I leave the office ..
18.20 .. I’m home .. and pretty happy too ..
Chats with Kirsti and Gillian from USA ..
22.46 .. I head for bed ..
23.15 .. I’m in bed .. I massage Karen’s right shoulder for a while ..
she’s hurt it at work today ..
23.30 .. Nightie night.
More to come ...
Day 2099. Tuesday 7th September 2010.
Memory Joggers ...
05.55 .. The alarm .. a quick snuggle.
08.05 .. I’m late getting on to the road ..
09.07 .. I’m in the office .. boss Jon is cool .. realizing the
problems for everyone today .. several arrive after me.
I’m having a problem with names .. I do a rough floor plan and fill in
the 6 names ( inc mine) I can remember of the 15 .. and ask Tracy to
fill in the blanks .. she does it happily .. << smiles >>
12.02 .. We all head for one of the conference rooms for a medal
ceremony .. and buffet lunch .. well it’s all very nice for sure .. one
of my colleagues has spent over 5 years in days in Afghanistan ..
13.25 .. I return to the office with a colleague .. chatting about
technical things ..
Jon gives me a project .. it’s a set of “broadcast over consumer
“internet access” network” kit made by Comrex, to get working.
17.44 .. I leave the office .. heading across country to Maplin’s in
Slough . .to try and get mum a new watch battery .. I fail ..
19.16 .. I’m home ..
19.35 .. ish .. Nanda calls me on Skype from Holland .. we chat for a
while, she’s not feeling to good at the moment ..
20.15 .. Dinner is served .. chicken fillet salad .. followed by bio
yoghurt with granola and honey .. all washed down with water.
Yahoo chats with Martha and Lucinda ..
22.15 .. I head to bed ..
More to come ...
Day 2100. Wednesday 8th September 2010.
Memory Joggers ...
12.40 .. I head down to the town / village .. but the road is now
closed like they have been threatening with signs for the last two days
.. so I follow another from our site .. single track road down to
Chalfont St Giles, then follow my nose to get to “our village”.. it
started to hiss with rain as I got into the car ..
12.50 .. I’m in the village, the rain hasn’t happened here .. 4.5 miles
to go about 1.1 miles. My job is to find a Jewellers to get a watch
battery for my mum .. I go into a “we sell everything” type hardware
shop .. to look around .. amazingly they stock a massive range of watch
batteries, including my mum’s rare one .. I get two.
I explore a little more of the village before returning to the car and
heading back the long way .. I remember the way too !!
13.26 .. I’m back in the office ..
15.00 .. ish .. Boss Jon asks me to go into his office .. oo er .. but
it’s actually good news .. I’m offered a trip to a site in Alberta
Canada .. starting on the 27th for ten days .. he wants me to check
with home to make sure everything is ok. Seb will be my partner on this
trip / installation project, he’s going to take two days leave at the
end and come back later .. to go sight seeing or something. I’m shown
the map of where it is, looks quite close to Jamie’s place .. so maybe
I could do the same ..
17.10 .. I get through to Karen and discuss my news .. sadly it’s a
Claire weekend in the middle .. but we are going to have to learn to
cope with this in the future ..
17.45 .. I finally leave for home .. going the “long way around as the
road is still closed the shorter way ..
More to come ...