Wednesday, 4 July 2012

Strange food, wet weather and decorating


During the recent excursion to Belgium, we ate in the hotel restaurant one evening.  On scanning the menu I came across hamburgers, fish and meat dishes then two choices that caught my eye...........”Fillet of Fawn” and “Kangaroo Steak” served with fries and salad. No, no, no, no, no, it is simply not right to snack on Bambi or Skippy.  This reminded me of an eatery we used in Iceland, great buffet choice (even for my selective (i.e. fussy) tastes), plenty of vegetables and hot food choices.  One item was on offer every evening.........Pony.  Yes, real Black Beauty.  Now then, I have no real affection for horses but eating them seems a little unfair.  The owner of the establishment was more philosophical about the situation, commenting “We play with them, then we eat them....”.  I didn’t sample Dobbin and the additional choice of Sheep’s Head Flan on the final evening was left under the heat lamps.

I discovered this week that the local secondary school has a vacancy for a Learning Support Assistant so checked it out online (never hurts to keep an eye on what is around).........the advert described the position in brief detail and unbelievably contained TWO spelling mistakes.  Excellent attention to detail (not) and sufficiently poor to discourage me from looking further at the job specification.

July has landed with another spell of wet weather (oh great) which doesn’t bode well for the British Grand Prix weekend.  Having been caught out many times at Silverstone with extremes of weather, we are prepared this time and have thick plastic sheeting and industrial clips to protect us from the elements as our seats are on the open side of the grandstand.  I need to dig out plenty of warm and waterproof clothing this week and keep repeating this mantra to myself..........I will not buy any merchandise this year, I will not buy any merchandise this year, I will not buy any merchandise this year....... The wet conditions should make qualifying and race day interesting and I daresay there will be a few major spins off the track.  Bring it on!

Well then, the homecoming of the holidaymakers arrived at the weekend and I made sure I was at the house ready to welcome them back via their shiny hallway.  In they came, we went back and forth unpacking the car, had a natter in the hallway, but neither of them noticed the glare which was so strong that sunglasses should really have been called for.  After an hour or so I pointed out my handiwork with the paintbrush and.................no telling off.  How bizarre and totally unexpected!  The decoration went down well and I have painted the newly plastered walls of the rebuilt conservatory this week.  In between all this I have repainted my dining room, walls, woodwork, doors and radiator over the course of about ten hours in total.  See Dad, it doesn’t have to be a major operation to get the brushes and paint pots out...............!!

On my parents return they produced a copy of the local paper from Northumberland which did indeed feature the photograph taken by the local reporter lady as we waited for the Olympic Torch to arrive.  Fame at last and it is a pretty good picture too.  I am in process of obtaining a copy of the original.................signed copy anyone?

This week whilst on the morning school run I passed a ‘private ambulance’ (otherwise known as an undertakers van) parked outside a local house, obviously waiting to remove a newly deceased person from the premises.  A sad sight to see, but I was astonished to see the two waiting undertakers laughing and joking whilst awaiting the go ahead to carry out their work.  Now then, I do realise that in every situation some degree of frivolity can ease the moment, but to be displaying this in full view of the household concerned (to say nothing of passing parents and children) seemed to be a little tactless.  I cannot imagine my late Grandpa behaving in this fashion when he was waiting to start the process of caring for somebody’s deceased loved one.  Perhaps this is just the modern way of doing things?


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