Sunshine again, which bodes well for Easter. It is rubbish when poor tourists are trudging wetly though puddles, looking miserably out from under their umbrellas at grey cloudy skies and grey slate houses and expanses of grey lakes. It looks as though the weekend might be quite bright, which will please the people who have invested their life savings into opening ice cream shops.
It will also be good for taxis. Nothing is more horrible than steamed-up windows and sodden seats and desperate brainless people begging you to agree to let them carry their wet dog on their knee because he has walked for miles and will feel lonely and abandoned if he is shoved in the boot.
I am utterly impervious to this sort of beseeching. Dogs go in the boot. All dogs. All the time, even ours. Especially ours.
Also I have got all my washing dry in the garden. This was a Good Thing, because one of the aforementioned dogs was sick on their cushion this morning. I stripped the cover off to wash it, but an hour later was very cross to discover that one of them, presumably the same one, had been sick again, in the same place, so I had to wash the cushion as well. I do not know which one it was. They all looked guilty and sloped off into the back yard, so I told them all that they were wicked. They were all very downcast, so maybe the innocent ones beat the guilty one up afterwards.
Apart from scrubbing dog sick off cushions, I went to the library and to the camper van to put the clean laundry away in it. This led to the ghastly discovery that I had forgotten to turn the fridge off when we left it last, so it has been chugging gassily away ever since, poisoning the poor helpless planet and more importantly, costing us money. I was very cross with myself, but too late now.
I had to empty the two pound coin collection to go to the library, because I had to pay a fine for a library book which got soaked some months ago when the lid came off my water bottle in the taxi. I dried it out over the stove, but of course it was crinkly and unappealing afterwards, and the library said that it had been brand new and just would not do.
Today I paid for it and said that since I had now bought it, I would like to have it back. They looked mildly surprised, but reluctantly agreed that I could, except they had already sent it to Kendal so they would have to go and get it. I was instantly bored with the idea then, and said I did not care about it that much because it had not been a very good book anyway, but they said that they were honourable public servants, determined to do the Right Thing, and they would send for the book right away and would I please call back next week and collect it.
It was all starting to sound like a lot more trouble than it was worth then, so I said please not to bother, and they said they would, and promised faithfully that they would call me, and I said not to, and we parted.
I imagine they will call me next week no matter what I think.
If anybody wants a rubbish crinkly book about an illegal immigrant from somewhere horrid becoming successful and important thus obviously rendering any argument about immigration invalid, don’t hesitate to ask.
I got another book out of the library, which was an interesting historical book about Elizabeth of York. I like the look of this now but can be sure that I will be a lot less interested when my eyes are gritty at three o’clock in the morning. I am currently reading the most recent Cormoran Strike book, as slowly as I possibly can so I don’t finish it, because it is a ripping yarn. I have looked at the end to see what happens, so now I can truly enjoy the story and appreciate its cleverness in its twists and turns as it gets you there.
It is still almost finished and I will be very sorry. Elizabeth of York is not that gripping, and I know what happens in the end of that as well.
Recommendations for brilliantly written easy read taxi books would be greatly appreciated. The reading list for the next module of the course is out, but I don’t think they are exactly late night page turners.
I am going to have to start reading them anyway.
