next time I’ll look there first

This week has been filled with highs and lows ,ups and downs, crap and nice stuff .I could go on except I’ve run out of poetic sounding opposites -I thought of Dairy Lea and Cornish Yarg or Quavers and Walker’s Salt and Vinegar – but thought we might disagree over which was a high and which ,a low .

Anyway ,lets start off with how we mean to go on…with the lows

1.My arm getting in the way of a man and his chewed feather – my arm came off worse .If a tattoo-artist etched into it ,I could have a nice set of teeth marks just below my elbow.

2. Monday being much harder/sadder/lonelier ,than I could have imagined .Next year I’m going to have strategies.

3.It’s December .

4.Loosing my handbag .Now this doesn’t sound much , but it near dam sent me over the top .Anyone who has a handbag and carries it themselves ( Queenie skip to ‘Highs’) knows they carry half your worldly possessions .

So let us rewind to Wednesday .

From work I shot to Ealing Broadway , bought some bits and bobs ,picked up two Evening Standards and drove home ,parking outside 117. I quickly jumped ( I know – an exaggeration – but ‘got’ is such a horrible word) ) out of the car ,posted one of the Evening standards through 113’s letterbox, walked the 10 metres back to the car ,took my bags off the back seat ,and came home .Job done ..end of …or so I thought .

Wind forward six hours and it’s bed time .John’s already up there zzzzzing away .I turn off lights, bolt front door and go to take handbag from the spot I always leave it – over the stair-post in the hall ,but it’s not there ,In fact it’s not anywhere …believe me ,I looked…in the fridge,freezer,dustbin.,every cupboard,nook and cranny .Not wanting to wake John up I put on the head torch and crawled around our bedroom floor,using my kindle as a torch to focus on higher surfaces .I went down the road to the car ,I went into the shed ( even though I haven’t been in there all evening ) .Then I did it all again..and again . At 2pm I am teary and in a right old state .I come to the conclusion in the 10 seconds I was delivering the E.Standard ,someone must have taken my bag off the seat of the car . At 2.30am I phone my Credit Card Company and my bank – the cards haven’t been used – the sweet assistant listens to my tale of woe and advises me to cancel them in the morning after I’ve had a look round in the light. .But it was not the cards I was really worried about – it was the photos I keep of Grandpa,Grandma,Jane,Jacob,Rosie and Florence ,plus my Sainsburys Nectar card which ,over 2 years ,I have saved over £220 .All I could see was Burglar Bill in a 24hour Sainsburys having bought a flat screen TV after ripping up and then throwing my photos in a bin.

At 4.30 ,I gave up my hunt at 5.30 John was on the case .At 7.30 John left for work .At 8.30 our 3 Italian students left for college. At 8.35, just before phoning Jayne and cancelling my place on TCF Christmas lunch , and then phoning the banks,stores,Tate,Kew etc etc I had one last tour of the house ,this time entering the students bedroom .At first I didn’t see it ( think of Rosie’s bedroom ,but replacing the fish-pie with chocolate brioche ) , but then I shifted one of the many Primark carriers ..and there it was smiling up at me

now the highs

1.The tin of shortbread given as a gift from the three Italian students ( I think we know why ). It was an accident ,one of them scooped my bag up by mistake ,thinking it was hers

2.The TCf lunch – we were a group of 19 women and 1 man , and as we were leaving the waitress commented on what a happy lot we were ( if only she knew ).

3. Having a meeting with the new Head of Art at Drayton Manor,and her telling me they have a photo of Rosie up on their wall.

3 Replies to “next time I’ll look there first”

  1. Oh wow that’s lovely that Drayton have a photo of Rosie up – I went in the other day to collect my A level certificates (3 years late…) I would have gone in to see. Also, love the fish pie story hahah!

  2. To be honest the Italians room wasn’t covered in as much fish,mashed potato,peas and ketchup as Rosie’s was .They had gone more for the brioche/Haribo/Pringle look .
    B Block ( art and DT) is being knocked down next week and they are moving into a new lighter-brighter block .I’ve been invited in at the end of Jan – I hope they take Rosie’s photo with them

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *