Taking Care

 It is August and our green and pleasant surroundings are no longer green, but brown.  This is the view going down the ropey road which I do on auto-pilot even though I know that it is now cutting up badly, it is just habit.  As I was going down I could see a white saloon car coming up - one of those ubiquitous white Japanese saloons of indistinguishable age.  The road is only wide enough in a couple of places for two cars to pass so the coming together usually results in an impasse with me having to be the 'bigger person' and reverse back.  Today however, the Ubiquitous White Saloon Car started to reverse as soon as it saw me.  Somewhat surprised I carried on down the hill until I could pull in and indicate to UWSC that it could pass.  I had my window open to thank the driver.  As we levelled I could see that the UWSC housed four guys of Indian or maybe Sri-Lankan descent.  As I said thanks the driver gave me a huge smile and cheery wave and shot off saying "My Pleasure lady, have a lovely day".  That made me smile!

I was on my way down to Mum's - I had agreed to take her down to the Mall so that she could by my sister a Christmas present.  My sister is coming in December - it is June - clearly Mum likes to be organised - she will forget what she has bought and where she has put it so either a massive search will ensue or she will keep schtum and go and buy something else.  I needed a few things in Jumbos but persuaded her that I would only be a couple of minutes as I knew EXACTLY what I wanted and where it was so she might be best to wait for me upstairs.  She agreed but asked me to pick her up a washing up brush which was the one thing I struggled to find and was therefore more than a couple of minutes.

We did however have a more successful trip into Marks and Sparks where I managed to find her a pretty lilac coloured swimming costume at a reasonable price so that she will no longer have to go into a pool with a costume that is so saggy it looks like she is wearing a nappy.

John had been concerned about our neighbour's car which is gathering dust next door so when we saw a car cover being auctioned for charity we were on it and, even better, we won it so I picked it up today - the cats at Tala monastery will benefit and the lean green pash-wag Peugeot next door will benefit so that is a win-win.

While I was doing something in the garden John gave the pash-wag a hose off and left it to dry before he reversed it back and we got the new cover out so we could tuck it up and put it to bed.  At some point during this exercise our immediate neighbours arrived, Gregoris and Dora.  We haven't seen them for ages and sadly the work we had previously done to their small bit of front garden had gone by the wayside in the last week when the overnight condensation had acted like the most effective plant food in the world.

We have met some wonderful people through the blog including people with holiday homes here in Droushia who have been kind enough to answer some of our calls for help.  Case in point is lovely Jan who read that we were struggling with finding Lick-e-Lix at a reasonable price.  This has become increasingly more important with Minnie becoming super difficult since her pancreatitis.  On my return from mums I found a bag by the gate with a nice little note from Jan.  The cats are ecstatic but two will be disappointed as these are firmly earmarked for Miss Minnie.  Thank you Jan that was so kind of you.

Here is the pash-wag all tucked up and safe and sound and at least it will be protected from the dust until Jan and Derek return which wont be too long now.  Apparently they are having an electrical inspection at the end of the month so fingers crossed they will have their own supply and be able to stay there this time.  I have to thank them because they gave us a whole load of foodstuffs when they left and I realised when Nicky and Mark came over that I was down to my last tea bag until I remember the super-bumper industrial sized packet Jan had donated to our larder.

It was very weird weather this evening - in fact we thought it was going to rain and apparently looking back it did exactly that two years ago!  It wasn't conducive to going for a swim but was still sticky and muggy so John and I decided to go for a walk around the block.  We couldn't go far because Fat Lad Charlie decided he had to come with us and he is so un-road savvy.  He would follow us for miles - once he and Chivers followed us when we walked down to Di and Rob's crossing the main road in the process and then followed us back!