Just a quick note to say that we have caught our mouse.
We realised when we got back from holiday that something had been so desperate for absolutely any food available that it had grubbed down the cracks in the floorboards for any crumbs of dry dog food that had lodged there. This must have been pretty horrible, because I swill it all down with bleach every couple of days, the last time being just as we left, and so we bought a trap from the ironmonger yesterday and set it last night.
This was a little problematic because the dogs were very interested in the idea of a little bit of peppermint chocolate, and had to be forcibly restrained. We shepherded them upstairs and only just captured Rosie in time, who was sloping off back downstairs when she thought nobody was looking.
Mark set two traps, although caught only one mouse. I think we only had one mouse anyway, and I think that was only in there because of fleeing from Roger. There are some more outside in the yard, living just near to the drain. We know this because the dogs like that bit very much, and poke their noses under the woodpile there with fascinated intensity whenever they are confined to the great Outdoors because of being under my feet.
I do not mind mice in the yard. They can stay there. I do not want mice in the house, but I felt terribly sorry for the poor broken-necked one in the mouse trap. Mark said I ought to be more appreciative of him as Man The Hunter, but it was an awful thing, if only it had crept off back outside again when nobody was looking.
Mark has reset the trap and blockaded it off from the dogs, so if there are any more we will know pretty soon.
We have occupied most of the day in pit-stop activities. I have remade all of the camper van beds with clean linens, and Mark has been faffing about underneath it. He has been trying to fix the gauge on the fuel tank. This has not worked for the last ten years or so, and although it is only mildly inconvenient, still it might be a nice thing to have.
We have not had the first idea how much fuel has been in the tank for ages. We know it will get us as far as Perth, and so all journeys at the moment are calibrated in relation to the distance to Perth. Manchester, for instance, is not so far. Cambridge is a very short distance further. Kettering is about the same. We are getting very good at this.
All then same it would be very convenient indeed to have a little dial telling us how much is left in the tank, how indifferent and blasé we could become. Mark says that also it will have the advantage of making the dashboard a useful piece of furniture, because at the moment it just isn’t, apart from if you need to rest your feet on it, and giving you a handy place to store coffee.
He is still doing it as I write. I will let you know if it works.
Maybe not tomorrow. It is all a bit busy here at the moment.
It is bank holiday and I am trying to write a best selling novel and study poetry for a degree in between customers.
I am going to stop writing to you and get on with it.
