Autumnal rambling

Not a lot happening, just rambling on. Winter is on it's way, yesterday it was 5⁰ C all day,chilly, and grey and overcast, the same today. It was raining, or trying I should say, when I had to cycle to work at five thirty, why can't Liz use the bike sometimes? It is now dark just after four in the afternoon, so I ride to work in high viz gear and flashing lights everywhere, except on top of my head, although that might be a good idea too. I managed to overtake six cars on my bike, boy was I knackered after all that effort, and excited, I was nearly at work when they all flashed past me, they must have cleared the road quite quickly! I 'hoovered' the lawn this weekend, well I think it was called mowing, but it involved the recovery of a lot of leaves, the lawn looks quite good at the moment and hopefully that will be the last cut until May next year, unless the dandelions get too leggy again. The roads are getting really dirty around here so I am probably going to have to wash the bike. Liz had a large awning given to her by a 'friend' from work, no 'friend' of mine, grrr. “Miles will put that up in no time”, she told her, ha ha. The weather might be suitable next year some time, I have put it in the garage for safekeeping, along with everything else, probably wont be able to locate it, with a bit of luck. That huge cupboard I put up in the bathroom is now full and the girls are still buying make-up and hair care products, I don't understand it, I have only one bottle of shampoo and a bar of soap, oh and underarm 'stuff', and the three foot square, one foot deep cupboard is not enough, perhaps if I put my bits on top there will be enough room? I have found out that our cats are not that fond of frozen prawns, you would think they would suck them up and keep them in their mouth until they are defrosted, but, no, they want the useless human who gave it to them to defrost it, well tough it isn't going to happen, so suck it up! We knew it was cold the other day when the cats got into bed with us for our afternoon nap, these cats need some serious psychiatric help, or is it us that need the help? Liz and Catriona found where I had hidden the left over chocolates and scoffed most of them before I saw them, the remaining three or four chocolates and twenty or so suckers are now secreted safely, I hope. They were both comatose on settees and chairs, surrounded by ripped chocolate wrappers, in Liz' case snoring, but in both cases full to the brim with chocolates, the chocolate dribbling down their chins, that's the last time I leave chocolates in such a vulnerable place, I shall have to get a lockable place for them.

Ramblings

Well, quite a week at work. We have had a few women related problems from customers at the filling statation this week and an organ recital with the 'old dragon'.

On Sunday morning the old dragon phoned to see if we would like to go to an organ recital at the Peterborough college, apparently she couldn't find it the last time. We toddled off to the show with her, and found the venue OK, parking was not a problem, as all the other folks were fighting over the disabled parking spaces! We had a whole car park to choose from, what a treat, we were also the youngest attending, with the average age appearing to be around eighty. The recital was a Wurlitzer organ recital with the organist rising out of a whole in the floor of the stage. There was an old upright piano, that had been painted white, that was synchronised to the organ. The event was entertaining and we even had tea, out of polystyrene cups and biscuits at half time, what a way to spend a wet dreary Sunday afternoon.

We have had a couple of interesting female customers at the garage this week. A lady, in a flashy Mercedes convertible spent an inordinate amount of time on £1.09 on the pump, before she went on, I was a bit concerned that possibly the pump had broken down, when she came into the kiosk I found out what the 'problem' was. “ Did you know that when you put in a litre of fuel your pump registers £1,09, it is the same at Sainsburys?” , well I was flabergasted, the fuel price is £1,08.9per litre. I have now had time to mull over this comment and feel I should have suggested she tried some Marmite for her PMT, as it is full of vitamin B or something, that reduces stress. That was our first interesting customer, the next was a little old lady, who asked if we could get someone to fill up her car for her as her late husband used to do it, I organised it for her, she confided in me that her fuel gauge was faulty as it said the car was full, she was going to the garage afterwards to get it fixed. The car was refuelled, it took a whole three litres! I said to the old lady that I felt she could believe the fuel gauge in future and it would not be necessary for her to go to the garage, I am not sure she believed me. That should give folks a bit to think about 'til the next time.

Robyn in Oxford

Well that's another week, or so, gone. On the 8th October we went off to Oxford to see our youngest offspring. I decided to go via Milton Keynes, as it looked 'down' on the maps and going via Northampton felt like we were going 'up'. The Milton Keynes route took hours because a stretch of the A1 was closed from Huntingdon to St Neots, nearly all the motorway! The road past Milton Keynes was a bit slow with roadworks most of the way and a 40mph speed limit, if you could go that fast. The trip to Oxford took about three hours and we took a bit of a circuitous route to Robyn's residence. We were able to find the road etc quite well and didn't have too much of a problem locating her house. Robyn was delighted to see us and Martin, her boyfriend, was also there, he seemed happy too. We went for a little tour of Oxford, parked in a pay and display car park in Cowling and walked from there, we needed the loo, old people, so had to go in to a bar and have some coffee in order to enjoy their facilities. The coffee appeared to be a bit of a challenge to the barman, in spite of the really fancy espresso coffee machine behind the bar, we were almost tempted to send Robyn in to help, but he managed to find a qualified coffee person and we all enjoyed a very nice coffee and 'break', the people in the bar were Italian and seemed to speak very little English, they did not understand Shona or Afrikaans either! Oxford seemed to be suffering the usual roadwork upheaval, thank god we walked. The streets were busy with pedestrians and loads of cyclists, even people in formal wear or smartly dressed young ladies in high heals in bikes, a sight I haven't seen before, even in Africa. There were bikes chained to railings etc and some appeared to have been there for quite a while. Oxford was very picturesque, in spite of all the traffic, and we both enjoyed our little stroll, Liz even managed to find some charity shops to browse whilst Robyn and Martin stood outside smouldering, (smoking?). Martin made a few interesting observations, as you can see from the picture above. There were some South African influences in Oxford as well.We eventually returned to base and Liz cooked up the beef roast that Robyn had bought for us to have. Three of Robyn's room mates appeared out of the woodwork and dinner for four was dinner for seven, every one enjoyed the roast beef and lovely 'home made' Yorkshire pudding from a supermarket. Apparently the girls wanted to know when we would be back. We slept on an inflatable mattress that Liz brought along, however next time I shall opt for the floor. The mattress deflated slowly during the night, which meant that when Liz got up, for the loo in the night and came back, she launched me in the air as she got back into bed, I nearly hit the ceiling, so I just rolled onto the floor and was more comfortable there, god knows what a water bed would have been like. The next day Liz and a couple of the girls went to the church that Robyn could not find. Robyn was given the task of locating a church for Liz which she battled with, until she found out that it was almost directly across the road from her house! We left on a damp morning and returned to Forty Foot via Northampton, it only took two hours.

Halloween

Well what a party! Liz once again decided to celebrate Halloween at home, under the stars, she likes to personally greet the little trick or treaters. Liz dressed up in the gear that she wore to scare the customers at her work on Friday. She took the usual time to apply makeup and looked no different to usual to my untrained eye, judge for yourself. They let her out of the shop and she came across and 'scared ' a few of our customers at the garage, then went to the local nursry school, over the road, they were delighted and enjoyed the basket of sweeties she took along.The turnout, of trick or treaters, was a little disappointing this year, with only a few turning up, we had loads of sweets left over, I have hidden them to ration folks, otherwise they might lead to tooth decay and other horrible disease, well you never know. We had a great braai, with boerewors, hamburger patties and sadza (mealie meal). Liz did make some mashed potatoes, for those who did not like sadza, we had the mash fried for breakfast, no sadza left, however, I'll need a larger pot next time. We had a fire on the Weber fireplace, it was a smouldering success, but the smoke was not so good, Melly and Melvin brought us some wood and coal for the fire, we even had a few fireworks, left over from a wet Guy Fawkes last year. The coal was some smokeful coal for the fire as well, this was not such a welcome addition to the fire, it was some that Melly had bought on their trip to Wales, they could not understand why the people seemed so happy when they bought it, we all know why now, our streaming eyes did eventually clear up. I think the picture gives a good idea of the smoke scream. We had a little drink fountain going as well, with white wine OJ and grenadine to keep the theme of the evening. Liz got dressed for the occasion, I think it was hard to tell, so did the others, I didn't, I was braaing and did not want to ruin anything. Louise an Matt joined us along with Catriona and her current companion. Philip and Amy pitched up with a little 'pumpkin', Liz' grandson Harry. Harry is now nearly one year old and seems a delightful little chap, he enjoyed a marshmallow, which melted in his hot little hand, but not the ones cooked over the fire by his dad. The evening was dry, but a little chilly and the moon was wreathed in a fog of cloud “oooooh scarry!”. We all enjoyed some of Liz's meringues and cream and a few Kahlua coffees, what a way to go.