Running Errands With Mum

So today John was out on a bike ride with Pete and Richard and I was off down to see Mum and to unravel why her internet bill from Primetel had not been paid.  Thinking about it I realised that when we had a new contract in Mum's name the old one ceased and that was paid by direct debit so we had not set up a new direct debit which referred to the new contract.  Mum has no idea where the new contract went - she is adamant that I have it which I don't or that they never gave it to her and she is equally adamant that she has not received a bill.  I am thinking that this is as adamant as when she said she did not have the washers for the things that fit on her glasses for a mask which we told her to put somewhere safe!  She found those on Monday.  

So after some investigation I found that she had received a bill by email but guess she assumed it had been paid by direct debit.  I paid it online for her and, as I cannot stand trying to get to the offices of Primetel, told her that I would do that for her in future.  She just needed to look out for her new bill and forward it to me and I would pay it.  I then took her into town so that she could get some money from the bank.  She is still able to do this and we are keen that as long as she can do certain things she should continue to do so.  

I suggested that we stop for a coffee/tea somewhere because I know she likes to go out.  Little did I know that she had arranged to go out for lunch with Lilian after I had left!

She always says she doesn't know where to suggest which makes me smile but there is a cafe just down the road from her, Tricolor  - she says she isn't impressed by it but as she insists on making her tea herself and only dips her tea-bag into the water for a milli-second I would have thought that most establishments would be ok for that.

We called in to Tricolor for our cup of tea.  The young girl serving was lovely and said she recognised my mother and knew that she liked to have a small cup rather than a large mug because it was easier to hold.  I am not sure what Mum dislikes about this place - if it is the food then that is really no benchmark as there are very few places that Mum actually rates!

Tricolor advertises an outside garden but I have never been able to work out where that could be - they sometimes hold music events so it has to be a reasonable size.  I decided to go and investigate and if you go out the back and across the carpark there is a vine-lined avenue which leads you down to a massive outside space.  Who knew?

I would imagine this is rather a nice place to sit and have an evening drink and listen to music and it is well tucked away and quite unexpected!  I obviously wont make Mum change her mind.  I guess that sometimes when she says she can hear music it may well be coming from this garden as it is only a stones throw from where she lives.

I dropped Mum off and made sure she was ok before making my way back home via Lidl.  I only wanted some cans of soda, tonic and fizzy orange - they used to be 19 cents a can and are now 35!  Everything is shooting up.

What Lidl did have though, and at a reasonable price, was a selection of bulbs.  I picked up some packs of different alliums which I love and which I used to have in the garden and then they disappeared for some reason.

I made my way back home and popped into Kaponas to say Hi to the cyclists and to pinch a chip from John's food before going back home for an hour or so of gardening before John returned.

You can begin to see that it is moving from Summer to Autumn as various plants are looking tired - I have tomorrow earmarked for some serious tidying up but I always feel a bit sad when the garden is 'packed away' for the winter.

Nicky and Mark returned from their holiday in the Occupied North this afternoon.  We were pleased to hear that all three cats put in an appearance almost immediately - we had only seen two, Noodles and Tabitha this morning.  Anyway as a thank-you Nicky and Mark kindly bought us a box of Vasilikon wine - we didn't expect it but it was very welcome.  They said they had a fabulous time, made better by a fabulous rate of exchange which made the trip away cheaper than expected and were now fired up about getting work done on their house.