Short entry this evening, mostly because of a dearth of adventure. We have not, unlike the rest of my relatives, been adventuring our way through the outer reaches of the known world. We have had an uneventful day. We got up late, because of working late, and then we have milled about for a while, before returning to work, which is where we are now, engaged in extracting more double time cash from indignant holidaymakers.
My milling about almost completely involved painting, because I wanted to finish the garden gate today. The weather has been glorious again, but this is still the Lake District, and torrential rain is absolutely bound to happen sooner or later. Also we are going to be fully occupied for the rest of the week, and so today was my deadline.
I had a lovely time, painting in the sunshine, although unfortunately, because of living in the Lake District, I had entirely forgotten that it really is possible to have too much of a good thing. I was mildly concerned, after a couple of hours or absorption, to look up and notice that the back of my neck was feeling warmer than usual.
I was still busy, so I didn’t do anything much about it, because of being at an interesting stage of blending artistic shades of yellow.
When I went inside Mark explained that the part of me between my hairline and the neck of my dress had become a vivid shade of scarlet. We put some cream on it, and finally found some sunscreen in the box with the shoe polish, but the damage was done. I have got a ridiculous red patch on my neck, and look like an upside down version of one of those monkeys who advertise their attractiveness to other monkeys by becoming an intense and excited shade of crimson.
I am in the taxi now, and the evening is cool, but I am pleased to note that my neck, at least, is pleasantly warm. Every cloud, etc.
I have finished the door now, one side of it at any rate, and a picture is attached. The whole activity was accompanied by the coming and going of the children who are having a holiday in our back alley, and I had a non-stop whittering noise in my ears whilst I painted. I imagine Mark’s tinnitus must be a similar experience.
One small girl hung around for most of the day, making my fingers itch to find a hairbrush. Actually a hairbrush wouldn’t have done it, you would have needed hair conditioner or coconut oil or something, and hours of patient teasing out of knots. The rest of them appeared and disappeared at intervals, mostly when they needed Mark to do something with their bicycle chains.
Our own children also put in an occasional appearance. Lucy has got her Bleep Test on Thursday, and decided today that she would do a bit of practice. She has done it lots of times at school, but today she jogged about for a bit, and then collapsed, white faced and shaking.
She was grey, and her lips had vanished altogether. On investigation it turned out that she had forgotten to bring her iron tablets home from school with her, and we had to dig through the first aid box to find some substitutes. This might not bode very well for her Bleep Test, we might have to see if they can change it for next week.
I think that concludes the highlights of the day’s events, you might be relieved to hear that I have missed out the dull bits. Tomorrow is more promising, we are off to Whitehaven to practice getting into fights.
I suggest that you tune in again tomorrow.
