Visiting friends

Dear Marmite

I hope this finds you well. I am currently staying with Claude and Pips. You might remember those two from Singapore. I am sure if they could they would send their love to you. Claude always had a deathwish back then and tried to sniff your bottom just as you were about to sit.  Claude, being a Maltese and having rather short legs, isn't into long walks so yesterday I set off on foot on a very hot day for Lacock. 

This is a near-by village that is used for period dramas. Rachel told me the best route was along the old canal but with OS map in hand, I thought I would make it a round trip. I set off down a bridle path which fizzled out and as a result I built many detours into the outward journey. Some might suggest I got lost.  Google maps didn't help either. It wanted me to walk the 5 plus miles there on the road. After a gazillion or so steps I arrived in the village. The canal trip route home was very straight forward by comparison. It was also quite beautiful. The canal is being re-dug and is not in use for narrow boats. The setting is so quiet and so different from my canal. Long may it last!

I fancied a relaxing beer in some quiet corner of Lacock. No chance!! The place was heaving. You couldn't move for tourists. This was very much my experience the day before when I popped into Bristol on a Park and Ride. All the wharfs have been gentrified and have become a go-to venue for meeting and eating. That is what most of the West of England did that day. They converged on the wharfs in their millions. All the media over here warn of our financial crisis. It certainly didn't seem our country was in the midst of a recession in Bristol.

I have also got replacement epi-pens from the NHS that are not called epi-pens. They are called Jext. They look just the same so I will carry them with me always - Just in case! 

Yesterday on my walk, I had a blackberrying disaster. I picked a bag of beautiful gems and put them in my rucksack. The bag leaked and everything, including my emergency medical bag which turned from orange to purple. I didn't even have my blackberrying walking stick with me. The biggest anf juicest are always just out of reach. This was almost a double disaster!

On the home front disasters abound. Just before I was due to drive down to Chippenham, the lock on my front door became loose. I ended up running up the road and round to the outside of the door wearing nothing but a dressing gown at about 6am in the morning. My front door and back door are quite a way from each other. It wasn't part of my eccentricity that made me take to the streets so early. The company have now ordered a new barrel. Then my boiler system pressure went up too high. Now I am too far away to feel confident it will be OK til I get back. 

What is worse, Rachel has had her own set of disasters so today I am awaiting a visit from a workman to fix a door in her posh kitchen, a workman to fix her internet and possibly someone to fix the downstairs loo. Disasters are contagious, obviously. 

Fingers crossed they don't touch your life.

Love you

XXX