To my great satisfaction, in the end last night turned out to be not too bad at all. It rained a bit at the end, which always encourages people who have come out in their high heeled sandals to jump into taxis. Nobody argued very much, nobody was sick, and nobody tried to peg off without paying. All of these things help the night to go with a contented swing.
On top of this, I have decided that I am not sorry that there is no nightclub. It is lovely to finish work so early, it feels almost like a shirk.
When we set off I had called to Oliver that we would not be late, that we were expecting an early finish and would probably be home around two in the morning.
He laughed and said that we were the weirdest parents that he knew.
Having earned a competent living last night, today dawned without the recent flush of anxiety, and it turned out to be a very cheerful day.
Obviously, you know that Oliver needs a face mask as well. He does not much like shopping, which is when you have absolutely got to wear them, but obviously there are going to be times when it can’t be avoided. With this in mind, the other day he and Mark purchased another bucket.
These have the advantage not only of being wipe-clean, but also serve as a handy carrying receptacle for your shopping when you come outside again.
I promised that I would paint the face on it, and this afternoon I took it with me down to the taxi rank. As requested, I adorned it with a disguising scarf. This was so that nobody would recognise him. You can see it in the picture.
You would never guess who it was, would you?
It did not take very long, obviously, but it was rather splendid to do. I poured myself a cup of spiced chai and sat in the boot of my taxi with the lid up, with my current favourite CD playing. This happens to be Songs From Mary Poppins, which I like very much because I can sing along with it.
I sang along, to Chim Chim Cherree, loudly and happily, and painted the mask, and looked at the lake, and thought how lovely life is.
Eventually I got some customers and had to stop, especially the singing. I do not think that the other taxi drivers were especially sorry to see me go.
Another nice thing today has been that I have finally used my new washing machine, and I am very pleased to tell you that it works perfectly. Not a single clank, not a rattle vibrated from it. We had cheese on toast in the conservatory and listened to it, and it was barely a whisper, even when it was spinning. The old washing machine drowned out all conversation, even when you were upstairs.
All of our clothes are clean now, although most of them are still wet because of the rain going on in the garden, and the fire not being lit in the house. It did not help that I left Mark in charge of the second load whilst I went out to the taxi rank, and unsurprisingly he was not terribly interested in its progress.
He has been busy doing things with the Peppers all day. The bargain was that they would help with the kitchen tiling, which they did last week, if we helped with their camper van, which we are doing this week.
Of course when you purchase a camper van from a guilty-looking ex-taxi driver for a fairly small sum of money, you do not expect pristine perfection.
Actually you expect pretty much what they got, which was a doleful veneer of ghastly wallpaper, plastered liberally over the top of dreadfully wet and smelly woodwork.
This was exactly what we were expecting, and so nobody was miserably disappointed. This week they have optimistically set about the restoration project.
They have peeled off the horrid papery disguise to discover the extent of the black rot beneath. Then, in the manner of a newly-enlisted pastor in a prison for terminal recidivists, they have set about painstakingly chipping away the bad bits and rebuilding a bright new future.
It might take some time.
I drove past them this afternoon to see Mark clinging to the side of the van, bashing screws in from the outside whilst the Peppers held whatever he was bashing from the other side.
I have left them all some dinner.
I shall stay here and earn some cash.
