I was all geared up to get up and out early to go do weekend provisioning this morning, leaving Graham at home to start varnishing the living-room floor.
But then, when I woke for a hip-easing-break in the small hours, it had snowed. It wasn’t supposed to snow here in Wales. Over on the east side of the Kingdom, from Kent and London up to Lincoln, there it was supposed to snow. Not here in Wales.
Hey ho.
So I snuggled up in my precious fleecy dressing gown, and snuck back in bed just as soon as my hips had eased under the influence of coffee.
Whaddya mean, you didn’t know that coffee eases hip pain? Coffee eases any kind of pain. Where have you been?
I slipped off to sleep easy as easy, and woke at about eight 0′clock, to find Graham puttering around in the living-room, washing and sponging the floor dry and clean, clear of any offending bits of grit, ready to take the first coat.
“Is it still all white and snowy out there?” I asked.
“Look for yourself.”
Sure enough, the snow, such as it was and it was no more than a dusting of icy particles, all stuck together and treacherous. The sun was just beginning to shine through the haze and, for what it was worth, it all looked very pretty.
“Oh, bother,” I said.
“Yeah, I know. You’re not going out in this.”
“But we need stuff for the weekend.”
“No prob. I’ll put the first coat on and we’ll go out together while it dries. I’m not letting you out on your own when it’s like this.”
“Like what?”
“Like freezing, nasty, freezing. Poke your nose out the door if you don’t believe me.”
I did so. “Oh. I see what you mean.”
“Right. Go and play with your computer until I’m ready.”
It was after mid-day before we were ready, leaving the floor all gleaming and neat in the noon-day sun. Not dry yet, but gleaming and neat like you wouldn’t believe.
We had lunch in the supermarket restaurant, and then did our weekend shop, disciplining ourselves to only a couple of Christmas goodies–wine and chocolate. All of our other Christmas favourites looked well stocked and ready for us to go blitz the store on Monday. I charged up my triple Nectar points and extra booze points, leaving the card topped up with more than it’s ever held before. On Monday I shall pay for the shop with my points, together with the cash from our penny jar. Christmas will not cost a great deal in real money this year, any more than it did last.
Then, on our way out of the supermarket car park, I decided to do the Christmas top-up of the fuel tank. Needed doing, but it was a major delay. On our exit it was impossible to cross the lane into our way home, so I was obliged to take a detour through the city centre and back out again. Swansea is in dire need of a road re-planning exercise but then it’s been in dire need of a road re-planning exercise since WWII when the Nazi bombers flattened most of the buildings but left the roads intact. Bad Nazis. Nasty Nazis.
Back home, we unpacked, had our little snack–mine was two little custard pies–and flopped off to take a late siesta.
Life is good.
