I am on the taxi rank in the middle of Bowness.
Somebody is playing jazz saxophone in one of the cafes. It is one of my favourite sounds, liquid and mellow, and it is sliding gloriously through the evening and across the square.
I am in the taxi. Around me, apart from the music, I can hear conversations going on in at least three different languages. It has been an absolutely gorgeous sunny afternoon and I have occupied it by sitting here sewing name tags into Oliver’s lovely new creamy-coloured cricket whites.
They all need both a name label sewn in and also a loop for hanging them up. I realised far too late that the only name labels I have got say Lucy Ibbetson, because School Blazer send those to me as spares, and not just plain Ibbetson, which is the all-purpose sort that I buy myself. I considered trying to tuck the first bit underneath but realised that a mistake would have consequences too terrible for words, and so have ordered some more and have had to recycle some name tags from outgrown uniform from a couple of years ago.
It has been a very pleasant day indeed, more so because I am unexpectedly alone. Oliver and Mark and the dog have gone off on a Boys’ Camping Trip.
We don’t have a tent, which is a bit misfortunate, but they were not to be deterred by such trivial details. They decided to build themselves a do-it-yourself shelter and a campfire in the great outdoors.
I went to visit them this evening and actually it is a very splendid outdoor dwelling, if a bit reminiscent of a Mumbai slum. They have camped in one of the fields at the farm, under a large overhanging rock, which forms the back of their house, and have built it all out of logs from our log heap and some heavy duty plastic sheet. They have dug a little campfire, and Oliver has a small garden tent which they have set up in one corner as a food store. Their beds are tidily made up at the back, and Oliver told me that they have decided it would be best if they went outside when they needed to wee, which I thought was a good idea. It is all very nice and charming apart from having nowhere you could plug a hairdryer in, no central heating and no carpets.
They briefly considered taking guns and shooting their own dinner but on reflection decided that a trip to Morrisons might be a better idea, and filled a small sack with doughnuts and apple juice and coffee instead. In fact Oliver said that they had sausages and scrambled egg for their dinner, and it was all right but the sausages were gritty on the outside and like a dead baby on the inside, which doesn’t exactly sound yummy. I think I shall have pasta for my own dinner and cook it properly in the microwave. However they seemed very happy and grubby and full of life, and have spent the rest of the day manufacturing bows and arrows and a small spear because they have finished the sausages now and think they might like to stay another day. I suppose if they can’t manage a rabbit there are plenty of lambs about.
It says a great deal for our mutual understanding of one another that neither of them asked me if I would like to join them. If I am honest I would rather wash a dead body. Instead I have filled my day with the taxi and the sewing and a good book in the sunshine, and this evening, free of all encumbrances, I skipped off to the BeautifulMe Wellness Whole Person Health Spa, and had a blissful hour of swimming and sauna and huge fluffy white towels.
I had saved the last sliver of the Chanel No 5 soap for such an occasion of self indulgence, and scrubbed happily with it in a steaming hot shower at the end until I was lobster-pink and smelling wonderful. It was a wonderful feeling, and I am sorry to say that I am not pining for their absence in the least bit.
Funnily enough I miss the dog. Everybody else comes and goes, but the dog is always there, snoring when I want to sleep, and smiling his unbelievably hideous smile when I come in, and having bad wind and needing to be emptied in the Library Gardens late at night. It is odd not to have to worry about him.
On the whole I think I am managing to cope with my solitary life very nicely.
I wonder if they’d like to stay until Sunday.
