Monday 21 April 2008

Spring sunshine and Change

It's been a funny old Monday; I was supposed to look after my two grandsons as yet again, the school decided on tagging on a Teachers' Training Day to the end of the Easter Break... that's according to the school website. At the usual time I met my daughter at her place of work; the boys got out of her car and into mine. My daughter looked worried because they had just passed the boys' school and noticed some parents and children going inside. I waited with the boys while my daughter phoned the school. The website had not been updated... there was no longer a Teacher Training Day, so I drove the boys back to their home; they changed while I made their packed lunches and I took them over to the school reception and was 'signing them in' due to being late. The receptionist looked over her prim spectacles at me and the boys and said sternly, "So you thought you'd have another day's holiday did you boys"? I looked up and replied, "If you'd updated your website the boys would've been on time, my daughter would not be so stressed and I wouldn't have wasted valuable time and petrol driving the twelve miles back here!" There was no response; she turned away. Now I've probably done more harm than good, so went home and mentally wrote one hundred times: 'Do not answer receptionists back'. I think many of them must do their training at a place called Stepford.

Later, the postman brought a large parcel for which I had to sign. On opening, it turned out to be the personal effects of a deceased lady I'd never met. There were several rings, one of which was a large diamond; there were letters, deeds and numerous war medals. No letter inside, just a compliment slip from a solicitors' office in Chichester. It turned out, after I'd phoned, that the parcel was meant for someone else of the same surname who lived in Chichester, not Oxfordshire. So, I paid for the parcel to be sent back and await reimbursement. The solicitor in question was extremely sorry and embarrassed. Hmm, I'm not even a client, so how did they manage to send it to me?

And finally, Pebble is now officially a cat! He has been bringing in mice... alive. I wake about three in the morning to sounds of cats chasing, jumping and knocking things over. I now shut my bedroom door and go back to sleep, hoping that I won't descend the stairs in the morning to utter carnage. Pebble is now bigger than Banjo, but as yet, he doesn't know it and still backs off when she hisses at him.

I happened to read my 'stars' today... not something I'm prone to do as I think it's all gobble-de-gook. Apparently I'm on the brink of 'doing something spectacularly artistic and creative and that my life is about to change for the better'. 'Bout bloody time too!