While waiting for the call to go and fix Graham’s mother’s TV we actually managed a trip to the dump, to Tesco’s in Neath Abbey, and to Comet and Tesco’s in Llansamlett. Why two Tesco’s? Because the first one didn’t have the iPod Graham wanted to get for his mother’s birthday. Neither did the second, but there’s a Comet superstore next door that had them a’plenty.
And all I really wanted was some milk.
The iPod, a lurid pink thing, was easily acquired, and the milk similarly. Tripping around a large Tesco’s supermarket is however not my favourite thing to do. The aisles are too narrow, and the people smell. By the time we’d done the rounds I was well out of sorts, and complaining that the place was doing my head in and that I wanted to go home.
Lunch, late, and a nap, late, and then, just as I was settling down to watch the new Merlin, the call came and off we went to Graham’s mother’s.
There is, I suspect, some hidden agenda between Graham and his bitch sisters over the TV story and, when we got there it was fixed and Graham’s mother had already been given simple instruction in the operation of the digibox. I do not involve myself in these family disputes, and Graham shields me from them, so I have no idea of the back story. There are times when I’m profoundly grateful not to have family of my own, in spite of the obvious drawbacks.
So we sat for long enough to hand over the birthday present and to drink a cup of scalding hot black tea, all in a small living room that seems to have acquired yet another sub-collection of soft toys since our last visit. I sat on the sofa nursing my cup and tried my best to avoid being buried in cuddly animals, one of which, a pink dragon I think, seemed intent on attacking my shoulders, to my considerable discomfort.
I smiled through it all and, when we got home was allowed to disappear into my study to catch up with Merlin on my computer, courtesy of the BBC iPlayer service. A glass of a very pleasant sauvignon blanc appeared at my elbow and by the time the programme had finished I was fully restored.
Even more so since Saturday night is spaghetti bolognese night and Graham cooks it.
All in all, then, an action packed day. I can’t claim that it was an entirely enjoyable day but Graham’s mother was left happy and smiling, and Graham felt happy that he’d done his duty. The actual birthday is today, Sunday, and there’s a firewall of bitch sisters around his mother so we don’t have to attend. I’m happy with that. The combination of predatory soft toys and acid-tongued bitch sisters is not something I would actively seek.
And now, with a sense of delicious inevitability, we’re enjoying a quiet Welsh Sunday, sitting looking out at soft, quiet Welsh Sunday rain, and all is well with my world. Especially given the almost complete absence of soft toys.
