In the end everything, of course, was all right.
I set off in the camper van not long after I had finished writing to you last night, to lumber down the length of the lake to meet Mark and Ted at Ted’s house.
As I explained, I have become a bit out of practice with the camper van.
I had forgotten the excitingness of not having power steering. Power steering is a wonderful invention which I have not fully appreciated until now. Also I have become unfamiliar with right handed gear changes, and my left hand kept flapping about uselessly, wanting something to do with itself.
As the journey progressed I managed to locate more and more of the gears, until in the end I had found them all at least once, although not always when I was expecting to. Eventually I became confident enough in my ability to manoeuvre to be able to pull in to the side of the road and allow the long line of impatient traffic to pass me. I even pulled out again without mishap.
In the end I found Friendly Cottage, which was much where I had vaguely thought that it was, and Mark and Ted arrived shortly afterwards.
We had pasta and salad and some bottles of wine, which all worked splendidly well.
The mousse did not set at all in the end, but nobody cared because of having squishy blue cheeses, and wine and lots of things to talk about. Ted has got an interesting family whose adventures span the globe, and after some glasses of wine was expansive enough to tell story after story. Living on a yacht sounds fun but we decided that we were not in the least envious, we think that on the whole we would not change places. Our camper van goes wrong roughly about the same amount of time, but never makes us seasick, and if we drop something out of the window it is not the end of the world.
You will be pleased to hear that I did not become terribly intoxicated. This was a relief when we got up this morning. It is the loveliest thing in the whole world not to have a headache.
I had been very organised and made sure that I had brought everything with me to make a travelling dinner for Mark and Ted to take to work with them.
Once they had gone I thought that. would prefer to wait until the early-morning traffic had subsided before I braved setting off to go home.
I am sorry to confess that I thought I would have a little sleep first.
I was woken up an hour later by Mark appearing at the door. They had got some work to do in Bowness, and so he could drive the camper van back for me if I liked.
Sometimes it is nice to be a helpless girl, especially when the brakes are a bit reluctant.
I accepted gratefully, whilst trying to pretend that it was because it would be nice for him to have a little chance to drive the camper van and noble of me to let him.
He laughed and gave me the keys to his car.
When we got back he buzzed off to work again. I was supposed to be unpacking the camper van and getting ready for work.
I faffed about the house for a little while, hanging washing up and doing newly-returned domestic things, and eventually went back to the camper van to unpack.
The sun was shining, and the camper van was warm.
I only sat down and closed my eyes for a moment.
The next thing that happened was Mark appearing at the door, having finished work early.
I was horribly guilty, but whilst I was still trying to come up with a plausible excuse, he laughed and said that he was dog-tired as well, and curled up next to me.
We both slept for ages, until it was almost time to get ready for work.
It is lovely to be at work and not tired.
I must try it again.
The picture is Number One Daughter again, this one is from the Cross Fit Games event today.. I have got no idea at all how she is getting on. The Cross Fit Games website is one of the most incomprehensible pieces of cyber-literature imaginable to mankind, and despite perusing it determinedly for some time, I am no wiser.
I will have to wait until she lets us know.
