It’s been quite a frustrating day. Weeza and Phil had arranged for Gus’s present to be delivered here, as no time slot would be given – any time between 7.30 am and 9 pm *rolls eyes* – it’s now 8 minutes past 9 pm and it hasn’t arrived yet*. And I’d been told by the building suppliers that the pier caps for the two pillars that Dave built had been located, a month ago, but nothing since. I emailed Dan, my contact there, a week ago but there had been no reply. So I phoned this morning and was promised a call back as they’d probably be able to get them in today.
I was planning to view an auction north of Norwich, so I asked to be told by lunchtime. A few minutes after 2, I phoned again. Dan was serving a customer but hadn’t forgotten me and would phone in a few minutes. At quarter past 3, when it was too late to leave because of afternoon traffic, he sent me a brief email to say they hoped to pick them up tomorrow. I sent a briefer, terse one back to say that today had been my only opportunity this week to fetch them and would pick them up early next week. Let me know by Monday morning if they weren’t in.
We’d planned a few days at LT’s house, as we are going to be in London on two consecutive days, for the theatre with Wink and a business appointment for me. But Rose’s Lawrence has had to stay in hospital for a few days for monitoring and now, though he’s out and doing well, they want him to stay near London. This is more important than anything else, of course, there is no frustration or anything but loving understanding and support, but it means a change of plan – nothing compared to R and L’s changes of plans, though. So LT and I will go to London by train, I’ve booked into a hotel overnight, he’ll return alone and look after animals and I’ll come back after I’ve had my meeting the next day. The cost of the hotel is no more than an extra return ticket and a lot less hassle.
On the positive side, I’ve started *you know* shopping, all online I’m afraid. I can’t go to Norwich again, it’s too busy. I will go to local shops but I can’t get everything there.
The rats set off three traps but I didn’t catch any. I’ve reset them and sprinkled more food around – the container for food is very small and I think rats are too cautious to just dive in and grab it. We will see.
So, because I am a cheery Z and don’t want to end on a low note, here are a few positives.
1 I’ve started Christmas shopping, as I said – that has to be good, innit?
2 We are really enjoying the tranquillity of a temporarily almost furniture-free room. It wouldn’t suit forever, but it’s nice for now.
3 Lovely halibut for dinner tonight. The fishing restrictions have really helped stocks – my fishmonger tells me that the only prohibited fish now is rock eel (I’m not sure I’ve ever eaten it) and that most fish are doing very well – obviously, that does not mean that it should be a free-for-all again.
4 I slept well last night. I woke a few times but went to sleep again. This is, as far as I’m concerned, worthy of remark. Having had to get up early on two days running, last week, and having felt really quite rough the second morning and for much of the day, I realised that I need the short but deep sleep I usually get when it’s actually time to get up but can usually delay a bit.
5 I’ve had a letter from the drainage board to say that a stretch of water which runs through one of my fields is to be dredged. This is very good as it has got quite clogged up in the five years since it was last done. And I was going to phone G, to check if I need to have any clearance done first or if there will be sheep on the field – but he called in this evening, so we’ve sorted it out between us and I don’t have to do a thing. Which reminds me, I must email the council about a soakaway I’ve given them permission to put in another field. I’ll do it Right Now.
Toodle-pip, darlings
- 9.44. Still not here.
‘A soaraway in another field’ is pure poetry.
C’estquoi un soaraway . I’ve googled it but haven’t come up with anything remotely connected with farming.
Has the delivery arrived yet?
I have had a fit of furniture moving and now I have a modestly furnished living room. I love it. I wish I’d done it years ago.
Sx
Yeah. Soakaway, soaraway – damn autocorrect. It changed it, I changed it back, it changed it, I changed it back and didn’t notice that it changed it yet again. It autocorrected this comment too. I haven’t found out how to turn it off.
The delivery hasn’t arrived, now after 2.30pm the following day. We can’t be in for the next few days, reliably, so they’ll have to reschedule for the weekend.
The room does look a bit bare, actually, we have too much furniture, but not by all that much.