My Sunday .........

Sunday 7th August

Had a long lie in today, unintended but welcome.

10 AM  When I did eventually surface Ishbel was in the bedroom putting the finishing touches to 'her face' so clearly had been there for a while..................

Anyway, as she was working I thought I had better get my skates on, quick wash, dressed and maybe a bit of toast before taking her to work, then I could get back do a quick tidy up and maybe get in a walk before Jennifer, Steve and the grand daughters, Hollie, Mollie, Shannon and Lacey Mae arrive.

10.45 AM Left to take Ishbel to work, threw her out of the car just as Donny Osmond was about to start singing 'Love Me for a Reason', close call see previous blog Musical-reflections-and-i-still-hate-the-Osmonds

11.10 AM back in the house and tidying up, headphones to hand for plugging into HTC smart phone so that I can listen to the new series on Radio 4 'The Reunion' bringing back together that awful man Nick Leason who caused the collapse of Barrings bank, and his old boss (now need to listen to it on the iPlayer later)

11.12 AM Unexpected phone call from work.  Duty chap bleeding from mouth.  I know the other two are busy so decide to go in and relieve him myself.  Tell him I will be in in half an hour.

Empty pockets of shorts I was wearing and head upstairs to change.

Return downstairs and refill pockets.  Decide to finish tidying kitchen and phone Jennifer to see what time they are arriving, no worries not till later and they have a key (what!)

Pick up kitchen waste to put in the three separate bins outside front door, will come back for my satchel with all my bits and bobs in it, you know all the essential stuff that a man about town needs;  Keys to the office, (do I still remember the security codes for the alarms for locking up later as I have not been called out or locked up in about six years?), Kindle, Camera, book of poetry, various leads and attachments for HTC and Samsung phones, USB portable hard drive and cables, Anadin Extra in case I get a headache, assorted coloured pens, bottle of water, assorted notebooks, cheque books and, lumps of gathered lint, etc.. etc.. etc..

Open front door and go to bins, door closes behind me, not a problem as I refilled my pockets........

Discover pockets refilled, but key to front door and car not there, AGAIN

Now at this point, if I have not already mentioned it I do suffer slightly, in that I forget things, not seriously forgetting by way of a a disease, at least I don't thinks so, but little forgetful things, particularly names and more particularly KEYS.

The office crew, as I am on my way out the door most nights will, if they do not forget, ask me if I have everything, Phone, camera , KEYS, head,  the last one I think is just a note of sarcasm creeping in but the penultimate one is of course the kicker and of particular importance particularly if I have got the train into work that day  as it would not be the first time when I have left the office, got home and found that I have left the keys in the office!!!!!!

So you can see, it is not highly unusual for me to be in this predicament, bur of course I have a bleeding colleague on my hands on this occasion.  What to do, I can't go over to the neighbour and get Arron, the son to climb over the back fence and in through the usual open window as I clearly recall closing that and anyway Sunday morning football has started again and their car wasn't there, so they were probably out.

Phoned Mani and told him he would need to wait for an hour as I needed to do something, hung up, and called a taxi, "Sorry nothing available for at least an hour".  Bit the bullet and phoned Sharon, explained situation with Mani and asked if she could go in for a couple of hours,  I usually insist that the office is open till 4 pm on a Sunday but told her if she could go in she could close it at 2 and I would pay her for a days shift, problem solved......

11.30 Now what, Oh well nothing for it better grab a bus and head in to Lakeside and get the house key from Ishbel!  Went to bus stop, Sunday Service bus not due for another 45 minutes.  Walkie time after all.  

Sun was shining but not to warm so off I start, bump into, not literally, a chap walking along the road with a Sainsbury carrier bag in each hand, comment that, "you look like a nice well balanced chap!" looked at me strangely, well by then I was in a strange place!

As I walked along in the sunshine with a slight breeze blowing west to east, ok if you insist right to left. There was clear blue sky's with little wispy clouds, but as I turned to my right and looked towards London there was the blackest cloud you could imagine with what looked like, and soon proved to be, a curtain of rain in front of it.  By this time, 12.40 ish I had been cracking on but knew I was not going to make Lakeside by the time it hit me.  I didn't but I was 5 minutes from the M25 roundabout just before Lakeside so managed to take some cover under there, not that it mattered to much as I was already bedraggled.

It's amazing what a heavy rain shower does, especially if it is followed by glorious sunshine.

  The leaves and the berries on the trees are hanging heavily towards the ground

   The weight of the water, as it makes it way down the branches onto the leaves and berries

    drips drips down onto the already sodden ground.

     The pavements and roads are washed clean and the sunshine sparkling on the ponds of water,

       left behind after the torrent, are sparkling in the sunshine that follows.

          It just makes the place look as if it has just been through a car wash, all clean and fresh ready to

             take on the dust and grime thrown at it by each passing vehicle until the next shower comes

along  

.13.05 Made it to Debenhams and retrieved key, just got a shake of the head now as this is an intermittent but usual occurrence.  Choice now was to walk home or wait 45 minutes for a bus.  Although the sun was shining rain clouds were scudding across and this was the pattern for the rest of the day.  Elected to wait the 45 minutes and get the bus.

Went in to Waterstones and had a browse at the books and got myself a David Baldacci 'The Sixth Man'.  Have heard good things about Mr Baldacci so will look forward to reading that..

Bus duly arrived, although  a few minutes late.  Not been on a 22 for a while but the driver is one of those old guys that is hard to forget.  He always has something cheery to say to everyone who gets on or off his bus.  Even the two young females who barged there way past people to ask him if he was going to Dartford?

Now, how they got here from Dartford is a mystery, or maybe they didn't, for as far as I knew and confirmed by the driver a few moments later, no he didn't go to Dartford and neither did any of the buses from here go to Dartford. Dartford is South of the river Thames in Kent and while their used to be a bus that went South over the QE2 bridge there hasn't been one for a couple of years, well at least not from Lakeside.!

14.30 hrs Got home and had a cool drink and woke up the PC and decided to write about my forgetfulness before starting to prepare Sunday lunch, which was going to be chicken casserole, with carrots, broccoli and cauliflower, as usual turned out well and everyone enjoyed.

Mind you as I was writing this the laptop crashed.  This one is a Vista and although everyone is either still on XP or upgraded to Win7, this one has been really reliable and has never crashed, not once, before.  It took 3 system restores, and a get rid of Google chrome, before it would work properly again, so I am hoping that it has just been a 'black Sunday, fitting in with my key aberration of earlier .

Kids have been sitting watching Spiderman and Free Willy2, whatever that is, I didn't even know there was a Free Willy 1?

So, that's about it for my day, started with a pleasant and unplanned lie in moving on to locking myself out, getting caught in a downpour and my laptop crashing on me, but Jennifer, Steve and the girls turned up and apart from Jennifer being her usual fruitcake youngest child  self has rounded the day of nicely

Sp whatever your Sunday brought I hope if it was annoying as mine in the middle, that it turned out well with welcome visitors , in the end....................

Best Wishes