I do not have a very lot to tell you because we have had a Day off.
I don’t mean the sort of Day Off where you say Thank goodness for that, now I can get the ceiling painted, nor even the sort of Day Off where you throw everything into the camper van and charge off up the A9 to Scotland.
I mean the sort of Day Off where you don’t do very much at all.
Mark has done more than me. He has made sure the bits of exhaust that have already arrived were properly nailed to my taxi, and taken it down off the ramps. Not all bits of the exhaust have arrived yet, so the rest will have to wait until tomorrow. Tonight my taxi is still honking and grumbling like a very old person with indigestion.
After that he went off to his car and got it started, because the battery was flat. We don’t know why this was. I was not surprised by it, because in my experience it is what happens to all cars about a week after you have parked them somewhere, but Mark said that it was a new battery and should not have happened at all unless it had got something wrong with it, and after all, the camper van starts every time, except when it doesn’t.
I was still not surprised. It is, after all, a very clapped-out taxi, and could not be expected to share the camper van’s unconquerable zest for life.
I wrote some more of my story and folded the laundry up.
That was more or less it. Apart from that we have been sitting in the kitchen and drinking tea. Much of the drinking tea was accompanied by scrutinising our bank statements and scowling, because we have got all sorts of things that we need to do now, and we are not quite sure when Mark will be going offshore next. Number One Son-In-Law said not to worry about this because the company always starts to panic about the next job quite quickly, and usually after a week or two they start sending you emails hoping that you are available to mobilise tomorrow.
Mark is not allowed to go offshore for at least another week anyway, because you have got to spend some time on the land before you go away again, presumably in case you start to grow fins and a tail because of too much sea air.
I have been relieved and pleased to realise that his wages from this first job will just about write off all of our credit card nightmares, incurred whilst renewing his offshore medicals and training. They will even pay off the next instalment of school fees. After that we will have broken even. Then the very next time he goes away we will have become true plutocrats, rolling in wads of banknotes and laughing in the face of the electricity bill.
I do not really believe in this picture, attractive as it might be. Actually I am content to think how much more easily I can sleep at nights now that the credit card has been battered down to a reassuringly round figure.
There can be no better number for a debt.
Indeed, I also have a reassuringly round figure, in my case it is the result of too many chocolate buttons.
The scowling was also somewhat alleviated this afternoon, by a timely donation from my ever-helpful parents. We were profoundly relieved, and I can tell you now that I am already starting to imagine some new boots. I have walked so far in mine that the soles have become smooth, which is not a good state for walking boots, especially on muddy days. They are supposed to be the tractor tyres of the footwear world, and mine would be better used in a skid pan.
Mark has been given some new boots at work. He was given some new overalls as well, although to look at them you would not know that they had been new a mere three weeks ago. They are blackened and torn, so I am very glad we did not have to buy them ourselves. I have offered to patch them up, but he seems to think that somehow torn overalls are the company’s problem not his, and that they have got plenty more in the cupboard.
I am not sure I believe this. I might patch them anyway. I do not want the oil rig thinking we do not care about his appearance.
In any case, I am happy to say that it has been a very nice day, despite the scowling bits. It is very splendid to catch up and think about our lives with a cup of tea, and I am feeling very contented with my world.
I have got Mark at home and we are no longer flat broke.
Just to make sure of that, we are on the taxi rank. It is raining, but I have got a flask of tea and a good book. I am not being interrupted very often, so it is just as good as the rest of the Day Off.
The world is a happy place.
