Driven

Mark and Lucy started the day by cleaning Lucy’s car.

I have not looked at the inside, but they are both in agreement that it was revoltingly dirty. It appears that the previous owner was an alsatian dog, who left greasy hair all over the seats and spilled coffee in the cup holder. Obviously if you have only got paws it is difficult to clean this sort of mess up, and so he didn’t bother, leaving it all to grow a thick coat of smelly mould. 

Lucy and Mark scrubbed it today. It was so bad that they think it is likely to need some more scrubbing tomorrow. 

Once it was clean enough to be habitable they packed themselves some Jammy Dodgers and black currant juice and buzzed off to practice driving.

They practised driving all the way to Morecambe, where they bought some new tyres.

Then they practised driving all the way to the beach, where they had a Jammy Dodger picnic and watched the tide coming in.

After that they practised driving to B&Q, where Mark bought some light switches for the living room, and then across Kendal to Halfords, where they bought an extra mirror for the driving test examiner to use  on Monday morning.

In the end they practised driving back home. Mark was surprised to discover that Lucy does not know where she lives. She had to explain that she has a perfectly functional map App on her phone should she ever go out without an experienced grown up, and hence has never felt the need to pay much attention when somebody else is driving.

It was dark when they got home. They were feeling very pleased with themselves after so much driving, and talked about it for ages. I listened carefully to discussions about changing down gears and parallel parking for a while, and was secretly very glad that none of it was my problem. My interest in driving tends towards a preference for high speeds, which often surprises customers. It is not necessarily what they are expecting when they get in the taxi driven by the little old lady. 

Mark told me afterwards that it had been a very successful day, and that she had not burst into tears even once. This is an improvement on yesterday, when the traffic lights in Richmond frightened her so much that she cried all the way to the A66. He has explained to her that driving test examiners prefer people not to cry, and so she has resolved to remain calm and focused instead. I am glad they have established this much, at least, it is a jolly good start.

I had a busy day once they were out from underneath my feet. Before Christmas we had bought some candles in glass jars which turned out only to burn about half of the wax. The candle burned a deeper and deeper hole in the middle, and eventually went out altogether, leaving a thick layer of wax all the way up the sides of the jar.

I have been saving these, and today I dug them all out and melted them down to make some new candles. This was a therapeutic sort of thing to be doing. I like candles. It is lovely to sit quietly in bed by candle light, especially when they are the scented sort. 

I put two wicks in them this time, which I thought might improve matters. Then I scented them with cypress oil and bergamot, and added an orange crayon to make them look pretty. 

When I had finished I had intended to display them beautifully in the bedroom, and on the dresser. This was when I realised just how much dust our Home Improvements have created.

I washed and polished until Mark and Lucy came home.

The house smelled of scented candles and of beeswax polish and pine cleaner.

The new living room looked splendid, and the newly covered fridge glowed warmly in the middle of it all.

Have another picture of it.