More grey

We’re back to grey again. The rain is pelting down on the windows. The trees are blowing everywhere. Yesterday has turned out to be our one day of respite. The weathermen seems to be suggesting this is just the start as the gales of Abigail are due to hit the north-west of England, i.e. us, later today.

Fortunately we did manage to have a day of respite yesterday & dived out to the supermarket shop. The store is undergoing massive renovations at the moment so everything had been moved. Shoppers were wandering up & down the aisles like lost souls, desperately seeking where something was. As one woman commented to me, she understood the need to update the store while keeping the store open, but why couldn’t they give shoppers a print-out of where the new stands were as you enter the shop.

The Fox was put out to not be able to find the wine stands. They had moved to the far end of the shop. My problem was locating the meat. You would have thought fridges were easy enough to find, but no. It was the way the chilled shelving was arranged in its new (temporary?) position. The first lot of minced beef I found was very expensive. To be fair, it called itself “minced steak” rather than “minced beef”. I ended up going back up & down the fridges before I could find the more reasonably priced minced beef I prefer. There seemed no rationale for the arrangement.

I’ll be glad when the work is complete. I assume is for it all to be done in time for Christmas. I certainly hope so.

That will be just in time for our village pub to be torn apart as that is going to be refurbished & turned into a 12 bedroomed hotel. Admittedly it needs a bit of TLC (tender loving care). The carpets are so worn you either stick on them around the bar or almost trip over the fraying edges elsewhere. We’re very curious to see what the changes are going to mean. We gather the main bar is going to have a real log fire returned rather than the rather nasty electric mock wood-burning stove that was installed when the ivy started invading the chimney & the pub owners weren’t prepare to do anything to clear out the ivy & accumulated soot, & fill up any holes in the chimney. The present fire is not very welcoming, unlike the old real fires we used to have. Still it will no doubt mean yet more disruption.

It will be a relief to get off to the Netherlands in the spring. We’re just waiting to see whether enough other people sign up for it to justify the trip. We do hope so.

Linda, our home help, couldn’t help wondering why we wanted to go to the Netherlands. She could understand a coach trip – her mum goes on them regularly. She was amazed when she realised the coach was one with a lift so I could remain in my wheelchair all the time if I wished (& I would certainly prefer that) but why the Netherlands? I showed her some of our photos of the Hague when we visited there ten years ago & some pictures of the Keukenhof gardens at tulip time & of the porters carrying cheese at Almaar, both places we haven’t visited but would like to. I also commented we’d love to see Amsterdam again, when hopefully it is a bit warmer & the trees should be coming into leaf. All these are places we are scheduled to visit. And above all, we’ve found the Dutch people very friendly & on the whole, good English speakers – just as well as our Dutch is just about non-existant. It is good to have something so colourful & positive to look forward to to get us through these dark days.

The Hague

The Hague

The Hague