After a slightly shaky start I got my act together, shaved, showered, and hauled the auld body off to Kwik-Fit for the new tyre. All done very well and I’m happy except for the price–£73 quid for fitting and balancing one lousy tyre. I shall investigate local prices for the same make of tyre and trot back very happily to claim my discount if I can find it cheaper. I don’t think I’ll be going back to this particular branch again–I didn’t get the feeling that I was being looked after properly.
This is to be an expensive month for the little silver Ford. New tyre. Annual MOT test. Annual Road Tax. And with petrol edging up in price a couple of pence each visit, I’m wondering how many more years it’ll be before I hand in my keys and walk away. The car is there on my list of “essentials” but there are other things ahead of it.
Then to the little supermarket in Neath for a mini-provisioning, and next door to B&Q where I needed tough plastic sacks for litter tray cleaning purposes, and where I fancied I’d be able to buy myself one of those dust-pan and brush sets with long handles. No longer able to get down to floor level with any feeling of safety or comfort I’m reduced to lugging the vacuum cleaner out to pick up crumbs, cat biscuit, and peas; Graham doesn’t approve, but he’s not here to use the little bend-over dust-pan.
Speaking of peas, I’m given to wonder how it is they seem to escape, and lodge themselves in strange places. I’m not careless with spillages but there seems always to be at least one pea on the floor, somewhere. And, of course, when I clean out the freezer, there’s always a few in the bottom, somewhere. Do you think they have a life force that propels the more energetic of them from the bag, saucepan or plate before going where decent peas ought to go?
And then, after Rome, and two glasses of wine, and dinner, I sat down to watch the second episode of Torchwood. Brilliant!
I didn’t feel overly weary but even so I took myself off to bed at a sensible hour, wondering if I’d toss and turn, restless after my long sleep in the morning. Nothing of it. Soon as I turned the light out and applied head to pillow I was off by instantaneous means to the Land of Nod.
Waking this morning to a land of sunshine and sweet air, Dolly and I had a companionable breakfast time together, then she made her way up to sleep on the day bed. When I spoke to Graham on the phone I told him that we had no real plans for the day; might go out, might not, might doze, might not.
“That sounds lovely,” he said.
