Tuesday....

Hazel was working today leaving me free to spend the day reconnecting with Yeovil.  My first challenge was to negotiate the road system and the dreaded hospital roundabout which has actually had some thought put into it at long last making it less of a death trap than it used to be.

Having always had the luxury of a car parking space with work my next challenge was to find somewhere to leave the rollerskate on wheels and having paid for my parking spot down by the Old Cinema  (seemingly for a whole year judging by the cost) I began to appreciate the parking idiosyncrasies of Cypriot drivers i.e. don't pay and do get as close to the possible to the door of your target destination.

We knew that the majority of shops in Yeovil don't seem to open until 9.30am and here I am wandering around at 9.00am!  Still the stalwarts were open - M&S, H&M and Primani - all of which were very disappointing and nowhere near as cheap as I remembered - I had some cash burning a hole in my pocket and there it where it remained!

At 10.00 I met up with Mum in the Borough to do battle with HSBC so that we could ensure Mum had access to the bank account.  We almost managed to complete the exercise thanks to our Welsh accented Colombian assistant Angelica who bless her, valiantly attempted to get things sorted but was thwarted by her own colleague in the "Computer says NO" department.  Having achieved all that was possible there and then we met Janet and Alan for a cuppa in Marks before I went back to re-feed the parking meter and presumably buy a second space for the year!

I was off to meet Gemma, my old Porters work colleague at Ask where I bumped into two other ex-colleagues and caught up on their view on life at Porters since my departure.  It has all changed because now the majority of the workforce are housed in open plan offices in what used to be the old Labour Exchange (I have a sneaky suspicion I may even have had to sign on there after leaving college and before working at Westland!).

Everything is now all corporate and shiny and there are very few faces that are familiar although those I recognised and who recognised me were pleased to see me.  Back in the one last remaining old building The Close I called in on my old boss who, for all his stepping up the ladder to reach the dizzy heights of Partner, is facing the reality that money is not the answer as his wife battles cancer.  He looks thin and tired and said he envied me my opportunity to just live life and he said he planned to retire in two years' time and I told him not to leave it too late.

It is worrying that everyone keeps saying "you look well" - I am thinking that means I must have looked awful during my working days or, which I suspect is closer to the truth, I have put on weight as Fitos' kebabs take a toll on my waistline.

I say my goodbyes and hope that we may get a visit from Gem, Mark and the boys at some point.  Interestingly the third member of our IT department Horatiu recently contacted me to say he will be in Paphos with his girlfriend on my return to Cyprus and wants to meet up.  I have promised Debra afternoon tea at the Elysium if she makes it over - this is probably a fairly safe bet based on her ability to keep in contact thus far!

I swing by to catch an hour with Catherine whose husband Steven was friends with John on board ship towards the end of John's time in the RN.  Sadly Catherine is stricken with a severe form of ME.  Fortunately today was a fairly good day for her and we were able to sit outside in the sunshine and chat - on another day she could well have been bed-ridden and unable to do anything.  Such a shame to see this otherwise vibrant Geordie girl cut down in her prime.  Her condition is physical and they are struggling to control it let alone improve it.  Sadly they were coming to see us last year or maybe it was the year before and the lovely RN changed Steven's programme so they weren't able to make it and with Catherine's health as it is they are unlikely to do so for the foreseeable future.

I return to Hazel's where we are lucky enough to be able to sit outside enjoying the last of the sunshine with a large glass of wine in our hands.  Hazel has put her beautiful cockapoo Lily on a couple of days' sleep over with the man who will be looking after her when Hazel comes to stay.  We have a million recollections from our friendship which spans such a long time - our sentences start with "Do you remember when..." or "Who was that person who..."

Hazel avidly reads this blog to keep up with events in my life and asked about my preoccupation with Cillian Murphy in the fabulous series Peaky Blinders.  I could not believe that this had passed her by - for god's sake Cillian is just so easy on the eye that even if you didn't like the storyline he was reason enough to watch it!!!  She finds it on Netflix and we settle down to watch the very first episode and the familiar strains of the theme music Red Right Hand which becomes synonymous with the series.  I had forgotten how raw that first episode was and how they had mixed contemporary music with a period drama.  Hazel is immediately hooked as I knew she would be!