On the edge of her seat …
I’m finding it very difficult not to write about politics. Johnson’s dad and his ‘spelling Pinocchio’ comment, the brave Pole who helped take down the London bridge terrorist, the BBC’s failure to get Johnson in front of Andrew Neil, and C4’s climate debate and Gove’s attempt to gatecrash it – when it was leaders only. The whole thing saddens me. That we are here, rather than the country we once might have been.
But, I won’t. Promise.
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have dog, will walk
On Wednesday night we had a parent of C’s round (from when she was a housemistress) to Jen’s for supper. And on Thursday we finished off at Jen’s by sorting out their garage. It has been a bit of a time with the pets. Cassie is easily the best dog in the world – such a lot of fun and very well behaved. But we wouldn’t have one; certainly not whilst we’re travelling so much. As for cats, well we had one of those once. We came home (it was an Army hiring) to find this cat in our back garden. She led us to an outhouse and proudly showed us five kittens. A single mum, hey? Well, we homed the kittens and kept ‘Tidge’.
Tidge survived through a move to Chepstow, onto Bristol and finally all the way to Wells. By then she was old and diabetic … it was only a matter of time. Some of you might have met her. And a few of you will know her from the letters she’s been writing every Christmas about the Ladley clan. That reminds me, I need to check that’s she’s getting one (I think it might be the eleventh or twelfth?) ready for this year. She pens it from cats’ heaven – there is one of those, you know.
Jen and James have two cats. One is cat-coloured: Zorro. He is a bit of a boy. You can’t pet him for fear that he might have your arm off. No offence, but if you can’t pet a cat, what’s the point? The second is Evelyn. She’s a Ragdoll. And as thick as they come. Think dumb blonde, but not so bright. But at least you can pet her without a trip to A&E. C was constantly worried that all four pets (sorry, I forgot the rabbit) hadn’t succumbed to some mysterious disease. Or they hadn’t escaped through the narrowest of gaps in the upstairs windows. The good news was that we handed them back as we found them. And none of us needed a trip to hospital.
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garage clearing specialists – give us a call
I’m still writing. Now at 93/120k words and worried that I’m going to go beyond that. I also worry that it may be a bit linear … and I do know that it needs a lot of work. We’ll see. This time I haven’t been keeping C up to date, nor have I read much to her. So today, to calm my nerves, I read a section to her (Sam, Jane and a new chap, Matthew, are on a German freighter in the South China Sea – I know, sounds exciting?). Well, there’s a punchline to the bit I was reading. C was initially sat back in her chair. By the time I reached the climax she was, unbeknown to her, literally sat on the edge of her seat. Success!
Onto next week. No writing before Friday, I think. I’m with an MoD team Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and back in with the boss (with a report) on Friday. I think we then intend to do some more work in late January – if I produce anything useful. We’ll see.
Cycling in tomorrow. Should be fun in these temperatures …
