Tuesday 7th April and it looks like a beautiful day. I went out with Eric last night to chew the fat over a few things – I only had a few diets cokes, but my back was killing me. I think I will stop the statins while I am off chemo and see if that improves things. It really is frustrating. When I went up to bed my little girl was sleep weeing – she was on the toilet fast asleep and when I woke her – or so I thought – she pulled her pyjama bottoms up and then went wandering off in the wrong direction and became very frightened because she went in the wrong bedroom and couldn’t find her bed. I soon got her back on track and she climbed into bed oblivious to the world.
When my four sons were younger I used to take them out without Irene so she could have a break. I was nearly always at work or at a conference or something and she virtually brought them up on their own. So we sued to have the “great unwashed weekend” where I took the to my brother’s who lives in Herne Bay at the seaside.
One weekend, piling the four kids and the dog in my old Cortina, we set off one Friday evening for the six hour journey. I tried to get on the M1 at junction twenty five but the motorway was closed and we were diverted towards Derby to go who knows where. I had no map and it was before the days of satnav. Driving towards sheep abuse country I suddenly hit a lump of metal which burst both front tyres. I didn’t know where I was – no mobile phones – and I pulled off the road into a disued factory entrance. By now I had four extremely concerned sons and a crazy dog.
Prince was a black Labrador – red setter mongrel and was beautiful. His coat looked black but in sunlight it looked red and he was the athletic setter shape. But he was very strong and strong willed and had to be near the kids all of the time. I stood scratching my head wondering how I was going to get out of this one when a lady stopped who was driving one of those parts delivery vans. She asked what the problem was. There was a garage just down the road and they were breaking a Cortina. They would probably sell me some wheels. So we piled the four kids and the dog in her little Escort van and drove to the garage. I bought three tyres and she gave us a journey back so I could change the wheels and we went on our merry way.
The journey back was just as bad – or maybe even worse. The radiator burst just outside London as I got on the M1. I pulled of the motorway and into a service station where I asked if they had any bottles I could put water into. I bought some radweld which slowed down the leaks and we filled about twenty detergent bottles from the biggest European car wash detergent bottle euro mountain you have ever seen. We managed to go about fourteen miles before having to stop and top up so the journey took about eight hours.
Happy days!
And Ratso and the bowels? Fairly pristine today but I am still farting like an old foghorn.
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