Friday 2nd December to Wednesday
14th December
Saturday 3rd December
Today I’ll be driving down to Harlow to visit
my brother Alan. On the way back home tomorrow I’ll call in on my daughter,
Teresa. However, ‘the best laid plans….’ Etcetera!!
Sunday 4th December
Well, as expected, I drove down to Harlow
yesterday to spend the day with Alan and Val. On the way down and for some
reason best known to itself, the nearside wing mirror glass came adrift and
ended up resting against the body of the car. So, I pulled onto the hard
shoulder and, applying some firm pressure to the glass, ‘stuck’ it back on.
Unfortunately, after pulling back onto the motorway, the darned thing fell off
after a few minutes. By this time I was too far away to go back and retrieve
it, so I simply carried on to Harlow and, later in the day we called into a
motor parts shop in Bush Fair and bough another glass. This one is a wee bit
smaller than the one I needed, but will suffice until I can find the right one.
Now, you may think I should have simply put
that recalcitrant mirror glass in the boot and waited until I could buy the
right one. And, you would be right. But, I hate driving without wing mirrors.
As a bus driver I was required to use them all the time, so their use has
become habit with me. I’m sure you understand.
After watching Alan make his batch of
marmalade and, after a few beers in The White Admiral later, it was home to a
dinner of sausages, eggs and chips, as requested by me. Actually, the marmalade
was at my request also, or, should I say Wifey’s, because she was running out
and she does have a thing about Alan’s three fruit marmalade. She now has a
couple of jars to keep here going. Of course, when we leave here in April, for
our 2017 cruise, I’ll have to prevail upon him to make more; enough to see us
through six months cruising.
Today we spent an hour in the local pub,
after a walk into the village.
Tomorrow we’ll take the bus into Hinckley.
This time I’ll be looking for some sweatshirts to hide these blood eruptions on
my arms. These are as a side effect of my medication. I’m due to see a
different doctor on Wednesday. Hopefully he’ll prescribe something else.
Monday 5th December
Frosty this morning, which means I’ll have to
scrape the ice off the car before driving into Market Bosworth for the bus to
Hinckley. While we are there, as you know, I’ll be looking for a couple of new
sweatshirts. I also need to post off a pewter car that I sold on eBay. Sadly,
it’s the only one of seven that has sold.
Unfortunately, there are no car part shops in
Hinckley, well, not that we know of. However, we could take a run down to
Halford’s, on Thursday for that new wing mirror.
Other than that we have no specific plans for
this week. Except, of course, my doctor’s appointment on Wednesday.
Incidentally, having enjoyed my first run to
Harlow in my latest car, I’m pleased to say I’m very happy with it. Finally I
have become ‘one’ with my new vehicle and now know how to handle it. Why does
it take so long to familiarise oneself to a different car as one gets older?
Yet another mystery for someone to solve.
Tuesday 6th December
Yesterday was rather hectic, what with taking
the bus to Hinckley and shopping etcetera. We lead a hectic life, we boaters.
Resting up for the rest of the day, was not an option, because I have family
matters to attend to and they have been taking up my ‘rest’ time. Darn it!!
Today, however, will be a rest day.
Tomorrow, however, I have a doctor’s
appointment in the morning, and I’m hoping to dispose of several containers of
oil and a naff radiator, to the tip. Other than that, I have no idea what’s in
store for the rest of the week.
Thursday 8th December
An interesting day yesterday. Some of you are
aware of a particular family problem I am currently trying to solve, and some of
you aren’t. Well, for those of you who are, my visit to the doctor; which was
not of significant importance; was interrupted by a phone call. Thankfully I
managed to complete it before being called in to see said doctor.
Following on from that visit, we drove down
to the Post Office and deposited a bunch of 50p and £2 coins. Sheila saves the
50ps and I save to £2 coins. We came away with £120 in crisp £20 notes.
From there it was off to the local tip to
dispose of our broken radiator and oil. Unfortunately, one of the oil
containers had some lagging caught in the lid and I simply couldn’t open it.
So, that one came back with us, but only temporarily. We’ll dispose of it
later.
Finally we topped the petrol tank up and went
home. The rest of the day saw me fretting over this family crisis. However,
after a reasonably good night’s sleep, I’m as ready as I can be to face the
day.
Saturday 10th December
On Thursday I drove down to Bedford to see my
eldest daughter. The trip there was pretty normal but I left it rather late
leaving; about 4.30pm; with the consequence of spending the next 2½ hours
getting home. It was wall to wall cars all the way home, both on the M1 and the
A5. What made it worse was the dark night.
Now, as you all know, we spend 6 – 7 months
cruising the canals and rivers, although we tend to avoid rivers for the most
part. Nasty things, they tend to flood from time to time, and you never know
what time to time that will be.
Anyway, we’ve now been living on the boat for
10 years and, during that time we spent most winters at a static mooring,
sometimes on the canal side but most times in a marina. Except for my trips to
Harlow, which usually occur on Saturday, with my return on Sunday, we simply
poodle around the area doing shopping and such. However, it’s very rare for me
to be driving at night. Therefore, I’m now 10 years out of practice and, what
with the headlights glaring at me almost continuously, that ride home was very uncomfortable,
to say the least.
On top of that and due to the late hour, we
didn’t even bother with a proper dinner. Instead we settled for half a sausage
sarnie each.
We certainly made up for it last night though
and indulged in a gorgeous steak and kidney pie. Heaven! We bought that pie at
our local butcher’s, but he buys them in from another butcher in South Kilworth
and, as we know from experience, his pies are to die for. Our next one will be
a chicken and leek. Yummee!!
Well, yesterday was not as relaxing as I had
hoped, but it did pass without incident. We took our usual walk to the shops in
the morning and indulged in a coffee and biscuits when we got back. As for the
rest of the day, apart from having my phone glued to my ear, we muddled through
it as usual.
Today, since Wifey still hasn’t tracked down
the sewing machine she wants for Christmas, we might take a run down to Tesco
in Hinckley and order it there.
Hey!! Success on a plate, I finally managed
to find the sewing machine Wifey wants for Christmas. Not only that, I found it
at Hobbycraft who, the last time we looked, had run out of stock. Also, they
only had two in stock when I visited their website, so I quickly snapped one
up. Won’t Wifey be pleased? And, it’s free delivery to the marina.
Sunday 11th December
Oh dear, silly me! When I ordered Wifey’s
sewing machine yesterday, I ran into a problem on the PayPal site. It suddenly
came up with a message that the site was unavailable, or some such rubbish. This
was after I had gone through the process of paying and, not wanting to miss the
opportunity of buying the machine – Hobbycraft only had two in stock – the only
thing I could do was to backtrack and try again. All went well after that.
However, while we were sitting there,
watching tele, my phone rang and it was a man from Hobbycraft. He asked if I
had deliberately ordered two sewing machines, or had I made a mistake. So,
after explaining what had gone wrong, he said he would get it sorted and I
would be reimbursed the additional payment.
I’ll have to keep an eye on my PayPal
account. In fact, I’ll check that now, although I haven’t received an email
from them about this, so I don’t expect the payment to have gone through just
yet. Probably not until Monday morning now.
Today is lazy Sunday, although walking into
the village twice in one day, can hardly be called lazy.
Tuesday 13th December
OK, it seems the double payment has been
credited to my PayPal account, but has yet to be paid into our bank. Such
things take time and it’s just as well we’re not skint, because it could take up
to 30 days. Marvellous!!
So, at about 11.30, off we trotted to the
village, by car I hasten to add and we took Alex with us. Wifey had a hair
appointment at 12.20, so we parked up in the local car par, which charges just
20 pence per hour, but 50 pence for two hours!! Hmmmm !! Crafty!
Anyway, of course we were early, so I took
Alex for a bit of a stroll through some of the back streets of the town and, on
the way back, we passed (almost) the pub we use on Sundays, which is The Old
Red Lion. I say almost because, at that point I was feeling a wee bit chilly
and, since we had at least another 20 minutes before Wifey would be sitting in
her chair, we swivelled around and entered said establishment.
Up came a pint of Stella and a packet of
crisps, which our wee pooch helped me to devour. No flies on him, you know!
Anyway, I sat there for a few minutes,
soaking up the atmosphere and feeding Alex, when I decided to phone Teresa, my
eldest daughter. Unfortunately, as with much of this village centre, the mobile
signal is pretty naff and, although she could hear some garbled speech, it was
pretty useless, so I switched off.
After a few more minutes, during which time
we had finished our bag of crisps, and I had polished off a good part of my
pint, I decided to text Wifey and let her know where I was. She texted me back
saying she would meet me there.
Meanwhile, just to test the situation, I
moved over to be nearer to the window and, hey presto, a clear signal, so I
tried Teresa again and was rewarded with clear words. Lovely!! A good, long
chat ensued.
Sadly I felt the need to reply to a call of
nature by then but, since I had Alex with me, I decided to walk around to the
hairdresser’s and wait for Wifey. By this time I had imbibed another half pint
of Stella, so my situation was getting quite desperate. Had I but known it,
Wifey was just paying up and would have joined me in the pub. But, as I had had
enough anyway, we tootled off home.
Lunch followed, but only after a quick visit
to the head. Ooooh, that was good. What do you mean, too much information? Tsk,
tsk!!
Tomorrow is blood test day and I have to
submit to the local vampire.
Wednesday 14th December
A few weeks ago I listed my old mobile phone
on eBay and somebody bought it, or so I thought. So, I waited for the money to
find its way into my PayPal account, but it never did.
Yesterday I received an email from eBay
which, I thought, said the item had been paid for. Well, that particular mobile
has been allocated a different use, so this ‘buyer’ won’t be receiving it.
This morning I accessed my emails and
discovered I had read the message incorrectly. I should have read, ‘This item
hasn’t been paid for’. Ooops!
Anyway, thanks to eBay’s Resolution Centre, I
was able to cancel that particular transaction. Which was just as well, because
I had already contacted this buyer twice, telling them I would not be selling
the mobile after all.
Okey, dokey, that’s this blog done and
dusted, so I’ll list it now.
Cheers for now and best wishes for Christmas
and the New Year, just in case I forget.
Dave, Sheila and Alex, our wee pooch
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