Hurrah, we are having a night off and I am halfway down the second glass.
It is lovely.
In fact, it has been a true day of happiness.
We have been at the camper van. Mark has been doing things to the engine. He explained what they were but despite paying careful attention I have still got no idea. However tomorrow it should be in a state to add oil and water and then we can turn it on properly.
The man with the prop shaft rang and said that we can have it. We can’t really, because when he said that it would be two hundred quid he neglected to mention VAT, and so we have got more to save up than we thought. Actually we have got two hundred and twenty three quid still to go. I am drinking a lovely French merlot and so don’t care, we will probably put it on our credit card and then eventually just shoot ourselves.
In fact I have had a splendid financial surprise today.
Number One Daughter is off to Madrid in a couple of weeks. This is because she does athletically inclined things and has long ago got past the stage of just competing against other English people. She goes off to compete against people from all over the world. This is because she has got a world ranking.
This means that you can count on your fingers and toes the number of people in the world who are fitter than Number One Daughter. This is very impressive because there are an awful lot of people in the world.
She is off to compete and has got no money.
I wanted to give her some but I have got no money either.
This has been making me quietly miserable for weeks.
She rang me tonight ecstatic with happiness because my parents, who have obviously been down the back of the sofa and taken all their empty lemonade bottles back to the shop, have stepped into the breach and given her some cash.
She can now compete without having to sleep in the car park.
I am jolly pleased. It is very kind of my parents, who are too elderly to be gainfully employed, and who also don’t do the lottery.
Relief washed over me like a warm wave.
It is a good thing that they did, because we have been having further shoe issues with Oliver.
School rang this afternoon to say that he was very upset and had been discovered walking around wearing one school shoe and one trainer.
Mark’s emergency patch had come off.
You are not supposed to wear trainers at school. You are supposed to wear polished black leather shoes.
It appeared that Oliver was concerned that he might be in trouble, hence he did his very best to comply with the regulations to the utmost of his ability.
I don’t know if the headmaster laughed, but I know that I would have done, and certainly Matron was trying very hard to smother chuckles when she spoke to me.
Oliver was very sad.
The school groundsman has taken his shoe to mend again, and he has been given a special dispensation to wear both trainers, since it is Exceptional Circumstances.
I have visited Clarks website and entered Mark’s credit card details through gritted teeth. The new shoes will arrive at school on the day after tomorrow.
The picture is blurred because I am rubbish at taking pictures. I can’t hold the phone still and press the button at the same time.
I have never been good at hand-eye-co-ordination, and was the only person at school not only last to be picked, but never to be picked, for teams. Mark occasionally throws things for me to catch and says that he is not surprised, and he would not pick me either.
Anyway, it gives you an idea of my day’s efforts.
I will get Mark to take tomorrow’s picture.
