This morning, I forgot what I did before wrestling my jeans on and deciding what socks to wear; but after serving Mum a birthday breakfast in bed, opera music then came out of Mum’s tablet – brought downstairs with her, and Google Assistant identified it as a song called ‘When I, good friends, was called to the bar’ from a Gilbert and Sullivan opera called Trial By Jury (and the lyrics were very odd). I forgot if anything occurred following the opera music because we got in our car, it wouldn’t start, a couple more tries were made, and then she went and knocked on next doors door. Our neighbour went and found her husbands jump leads and phoned him, and we were trying to fathom what he was instructing from the other end of the phone when a man in a van pulled up, got out, and asked if we needed help, rapidly attached everything, instructed our neighbour to start her car and rev it a bit, and ours burst into life again. The man was thanked profusely, she thought we’d left our lights on, then we moved; Watery Lane and Fulbrook Lane were found to be very very watery, sun was very sunny, and the houses on another lane appeared to have just escaped a flood; a couple of small bridges were crossed; and it was 12.27pm when we made to Charlecote Park.
In the entrance part of the place, a man zapping membership cards did some toe tapping and asked a bit about my notepad, I told him my age (and I noticed that there were 4 other people in the room wearing matching bobbly hats) and then when Mum asked what else we could do today, he told her she spoke like the queen (and she hammed up her accent slightly and said something ridiculous), she briefly described my notes and how funny they are, he told me that his name is Joe, wrote his quote on the next page of my notepad…
…then said something about Jeffrey Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales, and the Cliffs of Moher (on the west coast of Ireland) and traditional music in Ennis (it’s a town in Ireland) were recommended to us.
We went through reception – where I spotted various ‘Red Rufus sock animals’, small tubs of Turkish delight, all sorts of knitted clothing (including jumpers, scarves, ponchos, sock hats, waterproof coats, various leather bags, flat caps, mittens, and small bottles of mineral oil) – following a big brown retriever – and across the road, we went round the path, plaques were identifying the trees round the edge of it, a Holm Oak seemed to be an evergreen, a tiny little thatched cottage was across the road; a wooden bridge over a river had been locked due to flooding – so we diverted up a path, and on a bench by the lake there was a lady cuddling a little Jack Russell like dog, and we ended up having quite a long chat to her (and she said something about traditional music and getting songs stuck in your head).
Ducks were in a line by the river, the very puddly path continued round the edge of the park, sheep were strolling; and I forgot when we got to the restaurant because Mum wanted vegan sausages, I saw loaded nachos, mince pie hot chocolate, millionaire doughnuts, and rhubarb crumble scones; and then we sat outside, someone came and told her oven issues meant they’d take a while, so she requested soup instead, and then she consumed a bowl, and a bit of gait analysis was done. A couple of ladies sat with cans of Tango were poking their phones and had a soft toy Highland cow on the table with them; I noticed big ropes holding up the branches of some of the massive trees nearby, and so went and photographed the needles of the branches for identification purposes, a lady briefly toddled out and looked like she was wearing a bath towel, and a man (very tall, very thin, early 30s), strode past holding an easel (and looked like he’d come from the 1800s). The path was toddled round, the cafe we’d been told was closed was open, the slaughter house had some massive antlers in it; and a bit further round, in a courtyard area (where I was stood because she needed the loo) I saw some wooden models of sheep.
The path was followed the river round, our hair was being blown all over the place, ducks flew over making loud noises, the button to open the exit gate wasn’t in a very obvious place – and a robin distracted me while it was searched for…
…and it was 2.17pm and very sunny when the car moved, and Mum started singing ‘it’s a long way to Tipperary’ (and the car said it was 15°C).
Wooden beamed houses were along the lane leading back to the main-ish road; that got wiggled round, and flooded fields were either side of it; I saw several vans – with ‘British Gypsum’ , ‘Skirting World’, and ‘Steaming Sam’ on them; and then the retail park was reached – where a delivery seemed to be being made by a HeyGates flour tanker. Then trying to go backwards over a bump caused expletives from both of us; Hot Wheels toys, Wet and Dry vacuum cleaners, and a heck of a lot of roof boxes were in Halfords; ‘Five Guys’ was advertising ‘loaded fries’; the park had crocuses everywhere, and the town was driven through. In the local pet shop were soft toy octopuses, kangaroos with babies in pouches, soft toy cactuses, hairy cows ears, collagen salmon doughnuts, and fox poo remover – and dog beds were browsed and debated (as that was what she wanted for her birthday present), and a big maroon one was chosen; and we got home at 3.15pm.
The dog bed was heaved through the house and put in the bit of garden furniture known as the cat basket, and a lot of twittering was going on out there; she went flop, and I unpacked my bag – and discovered something had caused it to get a very soggy inside. Sun remained bright, I found a big candle to light, and a way (using paper towel and an egg cup) of getting it to stay upright; and then I forgot if I did anything else before it reached tea time, and I lit it and boiled the kettle.
