The caravan has net curtains and proper curtains. And a blind in the kitchen. Lovely Tim bought the caravan in 2010, so 14 years of light and sun has wrecked the nets and they’re falling apart. When I went down last, I measured them, to buy more. But I just put the length and said either “wide” or “narrow” in the notes, so realised when I looked again that I didn’t know how wide or narrow, because I’m clearly an idiot. This time, as it’s the last visit of the year, I took them all down and brought them home – I’d forgotten to take a tape measure (I did mention I’m an idiot) and asked Wink to help me measure them here. We ended up giggling. We dropped an end of a curtain, we dropped the tape measure, I mixed up length and width at one point (the idiot thing again) and some of the widths didn’t seem to equate with the sizes of the windows; or rather, they were different widths from each other. We concluded that the person who made them was pretty happy-go-lucky and wasn’t too bothered.
There were ten curtains but, when I’d written down measurements before, I’d written down eleven. I counted my way round all the windows in the caravan and suggested we count the curtains again. Still ten. I felt there should be eleven or twelve. I also wondered if I’d included both bedroom windows. But there were only ten curtains … or were there? Wink, amusedly, offered to count them again. I said I’d check the car in case I’d left some in there. I knew I’d taken down all the curtains, I said, because I thought I’d get confused if I left some behind. We almost fell on the floor laughing.
Anyway, in the end, I decided I’d buy as many damn curtains as I wanted to and hang them all and pretend that was what I’d intended all along. So I have. Sadly, our wonderful local shop that sold fabric and haberdashery and a few clothes (mostly nightclothes and underwear, which I suspect was built for comfort rather than speed) and carpets and beds and furniture and almost everything you didn’t know you needed until you spotted it when you went in for some wool, well, it’s shut. A beautiful, if shabby old Georgian building in the heart of the town, a brother and sister had run it for decades since their parents retired and now wanted to retire themselves. Their families didn’t feel able to take it on, though they are carrying on with the flooring department, in another premises round the corner. So I have ordered the curtains from Amazon. I’ll put them in the boot of the BMW, so that I don’t have time to lose them – that is, forget the safe place where I put them – by next April. Because I’m an – no, I take that back, this time. I think ahead, to avoid being an idiot, once in a while.
I’ve had quite a satisfying week, on the whole. This time last week, I went off to Pembrokeshire, calling on John G on the way. He used to write the splendid Publog, but the pub he went to closed down and somehow, though he started a new blog about visits to the next pub, he lost heart after a while. He’s been disabled for over 20 years, since a tree fell on his car – which he was driving at the time – in a storm. I first visited him 11 years ago, he mentioned, which I knew was correct, as it was the year before the Sage died. Anyway, I cooked him lunch and we chatted for a few hours and then I drove the rest of the way. I had a good time at the caravan. There was a tremendous storm, with hard rain and wind, the next evening. Bits of wood from the trees behind the hedge were hitting the caravan and then there was a power cut, so I fished out some candles. I don’t mind a bit of weather and a loud sea. I was cosy and I had books and a gas heater and cooker. I just had two days there and drove back on Tuesday. On Wednesday, I fetched our Nadfas, as I still resolutely call it, speaker from the station. I’d heard her speak, only a fortnight earlier, on Vermeer, so knew she was excellent. She was just as good talking about Van Gogh, in his 444 days in Provence, painting obsessively and marvellously. The current exhibition at the National Gallery is amazing. If you can, do go. I want to go again.
On Thursday I was vaccinated – all I haven’t been vaccinated against is shingles, which is the one I really want and they haven’t yet offered me, so I must phone and arrange it. On Friday, we went to Norwich and did some necessary admin-type errands, so I feel a bit more competent than usual. Tomorrow, it’s my favourite street fair in Yagnub: the food one. I go quite mad and buy vast quantities of everything nice. I’ve told Ro about it and he may join us – he’d semi-arranged to see a friend, but was going to check if it was still happening.
I’ve also talked to all my children in the past three days, which doesn’t happen every week, so I count that as another plus. Eldest grandson had his 18th birthday and all seems to be well there. He’s extremely busy with schoolwork, music and his part-time job, which suits him. He was a bit bored, back in the spring, but now he hasn’t got time to be bored….