We’ve discovered the benefits of buying a railcard, in our case “Two Together”. The only disadvantage with this, is that I have to travel with Heather, and vice versa. We bought it prior to a few days away to see my cousin in Godalming and it slashed the price of our travel by half. On arrival in London we bought Oyster cards and took the tube from Kings Cross to Waterloo where we hopped on a train to Guilford. The introduction of the Oyster card threw Heather into undue confusion, and she wasted £8 of it by using it to board the Guilford train, despite my protestations that we already had a valid ticket purchased over the internet. Tomorrow we are journeying to Edinburgh, just for the day – £16 return each.
It was great to see my cousin Clea, her husband David and their two teenage daughters. On the Friday evening Clea and David had an engagement so I bravely cooked stir fry for Mallory, Summer, and Mallory’s boyfriend Joe. After dinner (as Clea calls it, we call it tea) Heather and I retreated to the upstairs living room to read, and the youngsters departed to various rooms. After two hours we hadn’t heard anything of them or from them, so we naively assumed all was well.
Living with young people is exhausting. Since retirement I’d completely forgotten that there are two 6 ‘0’ clocks in one day. We emerged from bed at 8.30am to find Clea eating breakfast at the kitchen bar having already driven the girls to Guilford 15 miles away. David had been at work since 5.30am. Then the dog had to be walked, ferrets and chickens fed. At the weekend it’s dancing class, drum practice and voluntary jobs, all of which the girls have to be ferried to and from (no public transport nearby).
On Sunday afternoon the folk of Thursley Village Hall had organised a pancake race, something which it might be rather fun to do here, maybe to raise funds for Ye Olde Cross. Unfortunately, it isn’t pancake time for another year yet. The village hall is like Ye Olde Cross in the respect that its existence was threatened and villagers have fought to save it. David entered the race earmarked for people of my age. We resisted calls to do the same, citing gammy legs. We showed our support though.Oh yes! We spent lots of money on coffee, beer, and pancakes and consumed them in the warmth of the hall.
Our projected building work creeps depressingly closer, only a month to go now. We are happy with the plans and have lined up a builder. We got quotes from builders according to recommendations. They each came to see us on the same afternoon and our architect Jonathan sat in on all the sessions. He later provided us with a detailed technical document going through the different advantages of each firm. We followed it closely, prodding with our fingers and nodding knowingly before finally telling Jonathan we had made our choice. The decision was based entirely on the fact that our chosen chap looks like Wayne from Auf Wiedersehen Pet.
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