Doctors, a funeral, some gardening and a birthday

I went to the doctors last Friday and had a very annoying full hour wait. Should it be that many people are waiting, I know I have to wait my turn.  But that was not the case this time. The extra annoyance came from a mixed system of seeing people.  It is grossly unfair and gets my goat every time.  It is apparently possible to ring up and ask for an appointment.  This is not something that is advertised and while I have discovered this some time ago I keep forgetting it. Once you are in the waiting room there is nothing you can do about it other than wait your turn, but I find the feeling of total uncertainty as to how many people are ahead of me intolerable.  More than once the queue got to me and then somebody who came after me got called in, because he/she had an appointment. I was hoping she wasn't going to take my blood pressure once I got in as it would have been very high indeed. As it happened she was sweetness and light, happily gave me some medication to take should my blood pressure ever jump again and as for the dizzyness, she seemed totally laid back about it.  She reckons it was something wrong with my ear, but as it settled down since, there is no need to worry.  Let's hope she is right!!

The St. Gellert urn cemetery

Just before we left on the Thursday one of our neighbours came across and told us that the ex-mayor's wife had died and the funeral was in town on Friday at 11am. As we happened to be in town that day we decided to attend. We didn't know her, but we did know the mayor and I always liked him, so we went to show our sympathy. She had already been cremated and the service was conducted in a hall which had lots of niches for urns. I have never been to one of these before, but it seemed a lot more straightforward and quicker than traditional burials.

We also had a few errands to run in town and as we managed to do everything we planned on the Friday (including a nice lunch at the Jelen), we decided to get back to Ber on the Saturday. Unfortunately, just as we were leaving I discovered that the chip was not in my camera. I thought I brought it in, as there was one photograph I posted here in my last post from it.  In spite of that I could not find it, so I convinced myself that it must have been left in Ber, so we left without it.  Since then I worked it out (after not finding it anywhere in Ber either) that it must have been left in BP. Perhaps I took it out of the laptop but didn't return it to the camera, so it could have fallen down into the bedding or onto the floor. It has been a bit of a nuisance that I couldn't use the camera all this week, although I have recently decided to take some photos with my old phone. They are not nearly as good as those taken with the camera, but will have to do. Let us hope we find the chip on our return to BP, or I will have to buy a new one, which will set me back a minimum of £30. The missing one was a special buy in Argos with the camera, 32 gig for only £20. Drat!!

On Saturday night I managed to come across Rush on Channel 4, a really good film about the rivalry of James Hunt and Nicki Lauda in F1 of the 1970's. It was because I faded out at 4pm in the afternoon having done all the travelling and shopping earlier in the day and slept until 8pm that I could stay up and watch it. I heard about this film, but have never seen it. It was really amazing that the director found Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl who were absolute clones of Hunt and Lauda to play the roles. Apparently Lauda was involved with the film in an advisory capacity and said that Hunt would have loved it. Well, we'll never know the truth of that, but I enjoyed it tremendously.

CompassSport and a cup of tea! Who needs more?

The rest of the time since Sunday has been spent in the garden, mowing the garden short (Roy managed to get in down to an inch and a half), weeding, dead heading, watering and finally just hanging around out there on the swing, reading, snoozing and generally enjoying the good weather. Marci turned up one day asking for work, so the rest of the detested weeding got done by him as well as helping Roy to cut down and dig out the apricot tree that died last year.  The tractor mower has now come into its own.  Last week Roy was still moaning about the amount of cuttings and that we have no space for them.  Now, provided we can keep it regularly and closely mowed, there will never be too much of it hopefully again.

The two loving little brothers

Yesterday Elian was 3 years old and he really enjoyed all his presents and his party. I managed to have a little chat with him on Skype, wish him happy birthday and promise him a present when I see him next week. He is such a beautiful boy I am not surprised that strangers often think he is a girl. The lovey like hystrionics often underpin this misunderstanding, but then again lovies are like that!

Aren't bubbles fun?

Today, after we have harvested all our Morello cherries and rhubarb, Roy made 4 litres of bottled rhubarb compote and just now we managed to catch one of our neighbours to get him climb up on the Kottage roof to put back a slipped tile. I noticed that the gutter was full of rotten leaves, so after he left I went up the ladder and cleared the gutter as well. Before he left we managed to get him agree to come in and water the garden while we are away, so hopefully that problem is also sorted.

The Morello cherries and the rhubarb

Roy in the courtyard

Ros (with a broken ankle) and Ian have arrived 2 days ago and I had an e-mail from Ian asking after us.  Hopefully we should be able to see them before we leave, Roy has not yet seen their flat since a lot more furniture was added. We are off to BP on either Saturday or Sunday and to Hassocks on Thursday. I will probably next post from there.