Another wasted day ...

18 October

I had a great idea on Sunday that we could go out for most of today, see, great eh? It sounded oh so easy, but I had forgotten that we have a large parcel to be returned and it’s due collected this morning, or that is what we hoped for. The timing for it though is between 7am and 9pm, so that means we can’t go out at all today. Tomorrow is no good cos Jan has a house group to go to. Plans, why do we bother.

Yes indeed, why do we make plans? We still have that parcel awaiting collection. There was no sign of any courier yesterday at all. So another day wasted for nowt – again! Well, Jan has cried off her group for tonight so we can do what I had planned for yesterday. She will be on the phone to the company in a short while but we are not waiting in all today, that is for certain.

For some time now have dreamt about living in Mallorca. Jan has always had this idea that the closer she get to the equator, the warmer she will be, not a bad idea either. It’s also one that I like too. That is why we watch so many of the Escape to the Sun type of shows on telly. It’s become clear that house buyers abroad get a lot more their £s than we do here in the UK. One we watched yesterday featured a couple with £60,000 to spend in Florida and the properties they were show were really good, we might well have gone for one of them.

The major turn off for me was the location, Hurricane Matthew being the pointer of how things are out there. But that’s not all really. Florida tends to have a lot of alligators cropping up in various waterways. Well, they should be easy enough to clear of, but you know what, I’m not so sure about rattlers and cotton mouths. I’m very nervous about snakes all round, and having animals like that living so close by, I would be very terrified all the time.

But there is another reason why we would think hard and long about any such move; Kile. He is terrified of heights and the idea of actually going on an airplane really makes him shudder with fear. Of course, he’s 12 now and it really won’t be long before he comes to the point where he will not want to spend a full weekend with us. Of course, ultimately the move would be for us, not for us and the rest of the family and that is where we would need to be looking. Anyway, lack of dosh prevents that happening right now.

This coming weekend is our normal weekend for having Kile. He really is a stubborn little sod at time you know. It’s clear to us that he is bored and yet he insists he’s not. On Friday we left him stay up a bit a longer and again, it’s clear he’s tired, but getting him to go to bed really is impossible. At least he does get on and do his homework without any fighting.

Today’s photo …

This imposing building was built in 1893 and eventually became the main entrance to the Manor Hospital, off Manor Court Road. A small fortune was spent on doing up the A&E but after only 18 months they decided to move all the services to the George Eliot Hospital, or the Hussy I call it. This place is now home of the local mental health unit. Now there are fears that it too will become surplus and everything will be moved over to the new site in Walsgrave, Coventry. A number of people were saying it was just rumours, then I heard that even more money was being spent on the Hussy, and that for me means the death of the Hussy.

Today’s funny …             

A passenger sitting in the back of a taxi taps the driver on the shoulder to ask him a question. Suddenly the driver screams, loses control of the vehicle, nearly hits a bus, mounts the pavement, and stops inches from a shop window. For a second, everything is quiet in the cab, then the driver turns round to the passenger and says: "Don't ever do that to me again. You scared the living daylights out of me!" The passenger apologises and says he didn't realise that a little tap could scare someone so much.
The driver replies: "Sorry, it's not really your fault. Today is my first day as a taxi driver - for the last 25 years I've been driving a hearse."