At 6am I woke to the sound of footsteps on the landing. It was our granddaughter Phoebe. Shirley was already downstairs and I guessed that Phoebe would be disoriented. After all, she had not slept here over night for months.
I called to her, "Phoebe! Come and see Grandpa!" Then she came into our bedroom for a little chat and I was able to ease her anxiety. When she woke up she had been very surprised to find that she was not in her own bedroom.
Her mama had been down in London yesterday - meeting up with her London office team. Her new job will mostly involve working from home here in Sheffield with Thursdays down in London. Once a month, she will have to travel up to Glasgow where the business's head office is located. It is likely that Phoebe will stay with us every Thursday night. We look after her all day Thursday anyway.
Shirley left home at nine thirty - heading down to Warwickshire for what has become known as "The Cousins' Weekend". She will be staying in a big house with her sister and eight of their female cousins. They all grew up together on The Isle of Axholme in Lincolnshire and the annual weekend away has become a family tradition.
So I am "home alone" this weekend rather like Kevin in the popular 1990 film of that name.
This morning, I drove over to Wingerworth near Chesterfield to meet up with a man called Rick about a woodturning commission I have arranged with him. Presently, I would prefer to say nothing about this but all will be revealed in the fullness of time.
Upon my return from Chesterfield, I decided to trim our front hedge for the first time this year. One of the benefits of wintertime here in the north of England is that there is no need to mow grass or cut hedges. These are definitely summertime jobs. In winter months, dormancy is rather appealing.
We have got a general election here in Great Britain in less than a month's time and there was another debate on the television tonight. It is widely believed that The Conservative Party are about to be booted out of office and I for one am very happy about that.
Throughout my life, I have supported The Labour Party and I do not see that changing any time soon even though, after fourteen years in government, The Conservatives will leave behind a poisoned chalice. They have caused so much damage to the lives of ordinary working people, to The National Health Service, to schools and to the basic rules of fair play. They have drained away precious funding and ensured that under them the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. It was this shower of self-seeking nincompoops that led our country to the self-inflicted economic injuries of Brexit.
Late on this evening, I fancied a couple of pints of beer so I wandered down to "The Dark Horse" which used to be our local branch of "Lloyds TSB" bank. I drank two pints of "Stones" sitting at a window seat and didn't talk to anyone apart from the barmaid then I came home to write this blogpost.
The door is locked and I have got a lonesome night ahead of me but please don't worry. I will be okay.
Alone, perhaps, not lonely?
ReplyDeleteCorrect.
DeleteWood turning? You've never talked about wood turning . Tell us more. Had a good friend who is a wood turner. It's an obsession.
ReplyDeleteI cannot say more now. My son sometimes reads this blog.
DeleteTwo pints and I'd be snoring, no time to be lonely! Ha. I can't wait to see what the wood turning commission is all about.
ReplyDeleteYou may have to wait for August to arrive Jennifer.
DeleteI am not at all worried. You will be fine. Just be careful going up and down the stairs.
ReplyDeleteThat's the thing about being alone. There's nobody there to help you.
DeleteEvery now and then, time alone is good, isn't it. I am having a weekend on my own right now, too.
ReplyDeleteThis Sunday, we have a massive election here in Germany - three in one, actually: European, regional and local. Big fat envelopes with the voting sheets have been delivered to everyone who can vote; I have handed mine in by mail this year, since i wasn't sure whether I was going to be here or not. The system of voting is a bit puzzling; my Mum (who is very apt with such things normally) took half an hour to read through it all and make her choices on the three lists). For instance, you have 40 votes for Ludwigsburg's city council, since it has 40 seats - that sounds straightforward enough. But you may give up to three votes per candidate. It is fine if you do not use all your 40 votes, but as soon as you accidentally have given 41, your out, and none of your voting counts. I don't want to know how many sheets are deemed invalid! One really has to keep track of what one is doing on those lists.
That does sound ridiculously complicated and it will put many people off voting I would say.
DeleteDear me, no Shirley or Phoebe to chase away the fears of the night but I am sure everything will stay safe. There again you could get a dog which would also be a walking companion. Have you been following the disappearance of Doctor Michael Mosley on that Greek island after going off on a walk. I do hope they find him safe.
ReplyDeleteI would not put a quid on Dr Mosley's survival. He has surely gone.
DeleteI love the idea of your old Lloyds bank being turned into a pub called the Dark Horse - it took me a while to make the connection. I am glad you have kept busy while you're Home Alone. I've just done 14 years of being
ReplyDeleteHome Alone and it takes some doing to keep occupied.
Three nights alone is rather different from fourteen years!
DeleteI am not concerned at all about you being home alone.
ReplyDeleteYou can buy walking sticks off the shelf you know. You don't have to get one hand made.
It's not a walking stick. It's a bowl.
DeleteI don't think either party will be good for our country, they all make promises and never keep them. If I remember correctly, when to Tory's got in, the Labour party left a note saying they had spent all them money, and that was without Covid or the world recession.
ReplyDeleteThat note was just a joke that the Tories mischievously exploited. Labour have done many good things for ordinary British people - including the creation of the NHS and the "Sure Start" scheme that The Tories cruelly dismantled. However, this time, following on from The Tories, Labour really have their work cut out to bring about meaningful change. They have bled the coffers dry.
DeleteDid you make a deposit at the bank?
ReplyDeleteI waited till I got home to do that.
DeleteI thought Nigel Farage, Angela Rayner and the Green Party lady were excellent orators last night.
ReplyDeleteSurprised that Mordaunt kept banging on about every family having a £2000 tax bill under Labour when this assertion has already been rubbished. It is a big, fat lie.
DeleteI've been watching an unusual amount of political debates over the past two weeks as we have the election for the EU parliament coming up tomorrow. A lot of headache in relation to Sweden only having around 20 seats there out of around 700...
ReplyDelete20 out of 700 is not very influential.
DeleteREst well, and VOTE, we certainly need to VOTE on this side of the pond.
ReplyDeleteWe should all vote when elections happen.
DeleteI have been following the British election in the NY Times since the prime minister called for the new election. I think I like the British system much better than the American system because in 2016, Hillary Clinton would have become our president. The Tories do sound in some instances very similar to the Republican Party here. I know if I lived in the UK, I would be voting for the Labour Party. I love how your election only lasts for six weeks or so. Ours goes on and on and on....
ReplyDeleteWhat I don't like here is that the prime minister gets to pick the date of the election.
DeleteI think you've given away enough wood turning hints that if you're aiming to give someone a surprise, you'll fail 🤔
ReplyDeleteLet's hope the election has a positive result
I do not think that my son will dig into the comments.
DeleteLucky Phoebe, getting to stay overnight with grandma and grandpa. What about Margot? Will she be staying as well?
ReplyDeleteNo. Margot will stay with her daddy.
DeleteAmazing how much your Conservative party sounds like our Republican party. However, our Republicans have added the secret sauce of being batshit crazy to their efforts to ruin the country. I'm sure you have your share of that too but I think by any standards we would be judged #1 in lunacy.
ReplyDeleteAs to being alone- enjoy it!
Did you ever see Boris Johnson? Now that ****er is the very definition of "bat shit crazy"!
DeleteShirley's cousins' weekend sounds like such fun. I guess it is sweet that you miss her so. She'll be home before you know it, Neil.
ReplyDeleteHope the election turns out the way you want it and things get better. Politics have gotten so nutty!
There's right wing nuttiness all over the world - not just the USA.
DeleteI have every confidence that you were able to stay home alone quite safely!
ReplyDeleteYour reference to the "Isle of Axholme" confused me. I thought, "Is there an island in Lincolnshire?" This was news to me. You're testing the limits of my British geographical knowledge! But now I see it's not an island in the sea, it's an inland area of raised land surrounded by marshes.
Maybe once it was surrounded by marshes but after historical drainage projects the marshes were turned into valuable arable land and The River Trent was flanked by embankments.
DeleteI could swear I commented here. Lets blame blogger.
ReplyDeleteIf the wood turning is a surprise, you might have blown it. There's quite a bit hinted at here!