In all those miles we’ve done lately we only had about 10 cds, at least four of which were Horrible Histories ones from cereal packets. One was disc two of War of the Worlds, which Scarlett used to listen to but now says is too scary. That leaves us with Deacon Blue, Alanis Morrisette (scratched, but not on the most sweary tracks), Michael Buble (tracks 1-6 all scratched) and about 5 home burned discs of music. These include Mika (both albums), Little Shop of Horrors soundtrack and a rowdy shouty women one with Pink, Lady Gaga, Ting Tings etc on it. We listen to Chris Evans and Ken Bruce but Ady doesn’t like the Jeremy Vine show and I want to kill Steve Wright, we’re too old to listen to Radio One and local commercial radio stations are a) too full of cheesey adverts and b) go out of range too quickly when you are doing hundreds of miles at a time. Which means we have resorted to listening to those 10 discs (well not the HH ones, I can’t cope with Bring Me Back my Legions and Henry the VIII was a big fat man as earworms) LOTS. This had made for over analysing songs in far more detail than I imagine was intended when ‘that’s not my name’ was penned.
So now we can listen to Yesterday Once More, Top of the World and the much mis-sung ‘calling octopus of interplanetary crabs’. Hurrah and huzzah.
This morning Davies and Scarlett were playing the new 3DS game – I have long since been left behind with such technology now. When I was a kid it was a mark of feeling old to have your kids eclipse you in their geekiness, personally it is with relief that I can not even have to pretend to know such stuff any more!
Ady and I worked our way through untangling a HUGE sack of cables, chargers, leads. There’s a Michael McIntyre stand up routine about men and their ‘man drawer’ – this was Ady’s equivalent. It probably has archaeological value as the deeper entangled the leads the larger the ports to go into mobile phones, the chunkier the leads and the costlier they would have been when new. He tells me he is happy to sell them / give them away. I suspect he intends smuggling leads in his socks, pockets, under his hat, in cavities of whatever vehicle we end up with. He may try, drug dealer stylee, to persuade the children to eat one each too to get them past me…
Just as we finished that there was a knock at the door and our friend Bruce was there having been out on his motorbike and decided to come and visit. Really good to see him 🙂 He is our farmer friend who is van sitting Willow, took our chickens in and is a great source of advice and help. Ady’s known him for over 30 years and lived with him for a while a long time ago. We are godparents to one of his grandchildren (stop laughing at the back there!).
Bruce stayed for a couple of cups of tea and catching up chats before heading off on his bike. We headed over to my parents via the tip to drop off the load from yesterdays sorting out.
Mum was there and greeted us with great enthusiasm. She was about to head over to my Granny’s so took Davies and Scarlett with her. The first time she has ever taken them out on her own I think. It meant Ady and I could get on with sorting and we have almost got to the point of sorting everything out into heaps, although all three heaps will now need going through again and possibly reducing further.
Mum and the kids came home, as did Dad so we stopped and all had (very late) lunch together. We declared ourselves done for the day at that point and had very long chats about money and what happens next. Much frank debate later we have the first cheque to send to Macleods for static deposit and Dad is coming with us to the car auction on Tuesday with hopes of finding a 4WD.
It meant we were stupidly late home but having promised pasta bake for dinner to the kids we swung past the little CoOp for bacon and did get some bargains of cooked whole chickens for 29p each (reduced from £6 each!) and some pastries for breakfast tomorrow along with some reduced to clear fruit. Stocked up for next couple of days food then 🙂 I won’t miss the convenience of supermarkets, I might miss the buzz of such bargain food!
I cooked while the others tried, and eventually managed, to tune in the video on the TV. A blank video they were testing had some children talking on it who sounded familiar but it was hard to tell through the fuzziness on the screen. It cleared to a decent picture just as the little girl was telling the camera about how her Dad’s used car business works. Oh the cuteness! She finished by saying she probably will go to school when she is older and would like to be a dancer when she grows up. Very much enjoyed watching that.
We’re keeping crazy hours these last few days, hoping to return to something a bit more conventional from tomorrow…
Ady could set himself up on Rum as the man to go to for a lead 🙂