SHANT!

I can’t believe what a pants day it is. Helen is working too so it’s doubly pants. And I have a massive list of things to do so it’s triply pants with cherries on top!

We have had a lovely weekend, saw Helen’s parents and also had mine up yesterday. We introduced Mum to primark who made some purchases including a funky t-shirt with “urban hippie” on the front. As she had just got back from a Morris Dancer festival, it seemed fitting!

Well I have just had a bath with Derick! With the hole in the bathroom™ I could hear him in his as I am sure he could in mine. Nice to know we keep it clean in our postcode.

Well I shan’t (SHAN’T™ (Gary)) go on too long, although I am due an essay long blog. In brief, the following events have taken place:

• Allie caught a juvenile blue tit. I thought at first it was dead, then realised it was alive and better off dead. Tried to mime this to my neighbours who only Mum speaks broken English and thought my cat needed knocking off. Finally beckoned Dad to come with me – who discovered that the bird seemed ok – no feathers either so Allie clearly just brought it in. Anyway, they took it next door and put it in a bird box and I gave them a shoe box and bird seed. Personally I think it will die, I don’t know much about birds but if it hadn’t left home already it’s mother will no doubt reject it. Sad really – especially as I have always been proud of Allie never having done this before. Anyho, we suspect it was partially our fault as I let Allie out without feeding her because it was so hot and her food would have ruined. I suspect that the bird was a gift to us as I assume if Allie thinks she’s hungry, then so are we. Next day Allie got a bumper portion of prawns so as to slow her down and make her less inclined to repeat the performance.

• Clifford has got a brand new exhaust system also marking the milestone of spending more on car then purchase price. Easily done though as the car was cheap. Anyho, situation was desperate as the mechanic demonstrated by putting his thumb through the box which is more to do with its level of corrosion and not the fact he had the worlds strongest thumb (if he did, I bet he makes a lot of business). The nice thing about my car is that mechanics seem to be genuinely thrilled to have a tinker at Clifford and big jobs are coming off fairly cheaply. The fitting of the new exhaust that included parts that had to be made especially came in way under then buying just the exhaust for a Toledo from a very good (i.e. not a rip off merchant) nationwide parts dealer. Sadly however we decided not to do Beaulieu’s Autojumble as we couldn’t justify both cost. The MOT is in July which is when we make the official decision as to whether to keep Clifford or not. As I said to Helen, Clifford would have to be crushed by a tank before I let him go now. Anyway, before the MOT I need to get his hand brake sorted, indicator sequencing and brakes – they are either worn shoes or the cylinders are not firing on the left side and as such pulls to one side when I brake at about 50 (I say brake, my car will never brake as such it just slows down). This happened in Boris too and is not because the car is old. So nah! My college helpfully suggested that maybe I should get a loan and buy a more modern car. I pointed out of course that Clifford is hardly an economic choice and that my car previous was perfectly reliable, just boring (sorry Boris). She has only ever driven Ford Fiestas and is annoying vegetarian who eats fish and chicken. So nah to her!

Can’t think what else really, other then the obvious. So, no more excuses and down to the list for me. We have digitalised about 90% of our CD collection and I have that on random now which is cool and very much the “the too many DJs” effect.

Take care all,

Love K x