A Domestic Dispute

On Friday Di managed to break the sofa. It seems that this particular manufacturer doesn't understand that us 40-some-things need to push on the arm to get our ageing a***s out and that the arm needs to be strong enough to support this. We phoned the factory outlet and they sent a man round to have a look. He said he'd get it sorted out.

Di decided we needed to get the barbie out as it was a pleasant evening although a bit windy. V&W were duly invited round and in fact most of the neighbours kids seemed to be in on the act at one point or another as the evening became an almost biblical catering event in terms of numbers. The barbie and/or me performed rather well. Everything was cooked with just the right amount of authentic barbecue flavour. V&W's kids started to get a bit tired and wouldn't settle in our beds, so after we'd put the barbie away and got our kids to bed, we headed round to theirs and finished off the beers. I managed to instigate my cunning method of listening to TMS on Wayne's laptop, and we sat outside listening to Aggers & Co while staring up at an exceptionally clear sky, scoping for UFO's.

Saturday we walked into the Mount for an exciting dinner at Burger King, the highlight of which was watching a dollop of ice cream that some one (not us) dropped on the floor and gradually slide down the ramp out of the door. The staff seemed somewhat disinterested in cleaning it up so the entertainment was not only free, but long lasting.

Later we wandered round the rock pools at the base of the mount and rummaged around for whatever we could find. The usual fish, shrimps, hermit crabs, snails and starfish were today supplemented by an 8 inch purple crab which I managed to winkle out from its hiding place under a rock using a stick. This was in fact the mk II stick, since the one Imogen had procured was big enough to use as a javelin, and not much used for tactical cancerian extraction. The poor old crab had one claw and one leg missing, which on closer inspection were old injuries not related to my clumsy poking. The kids were rather fascinated by the crab, especially when it was released and scuttled off back under its rock.

On Sunday I took the noo shoos out for a trial run, of about 4K or so. It's amazing how much more supportive new shoes are than the old ones I've been pounding around in. No obvious ill effects and the leg behaved itself.

There's a church at the end of the road, and a large patch of land adjacent to it. There was some sort of event going on, involving free sausages and a bouncy castle. Although there was a distinctly Christian theme, the kids made a bee-line for the bouncing and we went along to stop them getting into too much trouble. One or two of the regular congregation attempted to "spread the word" but we politely declined to listen. Possibly a bit mercenary to go along like this, but it was an open event, and the amount of noise their P.A was blasting out it was hard to ignore.

One of our neighbours came in for a chat and a cup of tea, which was nice. Always good to be on friendly terms with the neighbours, particularly as the kids all seem to be getting on pretty well.

At tea time, there was a mad search for the ketchup, and not even Di with her infra red echo locating radar sixth sense was able to find it. Looking in the cupboard, I did manage to find it in one hit which was of course thoroughly annoying as it's usually the other way round. I did however take exception to the way the cupboard was "organised" and was half full of empty Tupperware containers. I "went off on one", and despite protestations, all empty Tupperware was stuffed in a cardboard box and shoved in the garage. This helped immensely, and pleased with the result, I rearranged everything else so that it made some sort of sense - like all the cereal boxes in one place, all the tins and jars in another, and all the sauces and condiments together. I expect this organisation to last for exactly 0.5 pico seconds, or until the next time Di opens the door.

Later I listened to the final day of the test match until the tea interval, when England looked safe. Should have known better. Still, at least the Quarter Cask was up to scratch. Oh yeah.