Friday December 27th.
Laura and I are
hiding from the wind and rain!
It’s dreadful. There
have been floods and power cuts and all sorts of nasties happening out there. I
am so pleased we don’t HAVE to go out in it!
We cranked up Dad’s
wood burning stove and the house is snug bug ruggly. Callie and the other dogs
try and get as close as they can to it and then, after melting themselves, they
wander off into the hall or kitchen to lie on the cool tiled floor! They are so
silly!
Had Laura’s Mum &
Dad and kid brother round for lunch today. [It saves buying food LOL] Cracked
open a bottle of Dornfelder rose from Dad’s old stock which was absolutely
gorgeous. Even Eric, who is a BEER man through and through enjoyed his glass!
I was pleased with
the black forest trifle, which was a surprise by the Lollster. She used a large
amount of cherry liqueur in it judging by its taste. We’ll have to make this
again. The whole dishful just disappeared. I was hoping there would be some left
for a fridge raid later on but it was not to be. Boo Hoo!
I have a Sydney
Oilskin Company Stockman’s Coat, a long one, which I brought back from Oz in
2010. It has not been off my back for dog walks during the last four of their
walks! They have come back all soaked through and muddied up to eyeballs. I had
to shift one of Dad’s cars from the garage so I could set up the bath inside to
wash them down. We have gone through eleven dog towels since Boxing Day
morning! Oh bring on some dry weather!
I think volunteering
to house sit may have been a mistake. I may end up with cabin fever!
OK, I am
over-reacting.
Luckily we have had
no floods or power cuts, so I suppose we should be thankful for that. [Dad does
have a genny in the garage though so we can still get power if the supply is
cut off. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.]
We banked up the
stove with coal to keep it in all night. If you leave it with just wood, it
doesn’t make it through the night.
Saturday December 28th.
It made it through
the night!
Laura and I seemed to
have slept snuggled up together, when I awoke we were still wrapped in each
other’s arms. Isn’t that romantic? We can’t have shuffled about at all during
the night.
I had a phone call
from an old school chum from Norwich this morning. Helen told me it was really
sunny there and had been all week. Oh no! We want their weather up here! She
was phoning because my Christmas card to her had arrived but she hadn’t sent me
one and she wanted to apologise. She also spent half an hour [or so it seemed]
telling me all her news. Husband, babies, holidays and the like. I am afraid I
just let it wash over me. We haven’t actually spoken for ages, I thought it was
a bit pointless us having a conversation now. Maybe she has an ulterior motive?
Laura and I drove
into Cockermouth this morning and replenished our dwindling food stock. The
River Derwent was still very high. It must be one hell of a worry for the
residents as the mega floods were only four years ago! They have put lots of
new flood defences in and around the town; they’ve also cleared out the
culverts under the Papcastle Road bridge which may have been a contributory
factor in the floods last time. They were choked and it allowed the water to
back up with disastrous consequences. I was in Oz at the time but I did get
lots the news feeds over the internet. There is a marker on Cockermouth High
Street showing the height of the floodwater at its peak. It’s about 10 inches
over my head!
The road to and from
the village to Cockermouth has flooded sections at three points along it and
still morons drive through as though the huge puddle isn’t there. I only hope
one aquaplanes into Dad’s Land Rover, that’ll finish off any of these crappy
modern cars.
Pretty blowy and
rainy for most of the day so we hibernated again once we got back from town.
The forecast is for a nicer day tomorrow. Let’s hope so. Too much rain is bad
for you!
Sunday December 29th.
Gilbert phoned this
morning at about 7am looking for Dad. What is it with Dad’s friends? Do they
not listen to him when he says he’ll be going to Australia? Or do they think he’ll
be there for a few days and then come home again? They can’t have an idea of
just how far away it is.
I told Gilbert that
Dad was in Australia and he replied, “Can you tell him to phone me when he gets
back in?”
What is he taking? If
it wasn’t for the fact Gil is an old mucker of Dad’s I would have shouted
something rude at him down the phone.
Laura was standing
right next to me in the kitchen as I went through this comedy routine with Gil
and asked if he was right in the head? I seriously doubt it with some of Dad’s
cronies at times. Maybe it’s just a man thing but they all seem weird in some
way or another. Perhaps all that testosterone fries their already addled brains
to mush as they get older?
The weather showed an
improvement by around 2pm so we loaded the pups into Dad’s Land Rover and
scooted off to Mawbray Dunes and beach. I figured that we had less chance of a
shower on the coast than inland in the national park. I was proved right. While
we didn’t get glorious, wall to wall, uninterrupted blue skies and sunshine we
did get spells of sun through the patchy clouds. Also it was a warm breeze,
must have been well on the way to ten Celsius I would imagine.
We walked the dogs right
out to the edge of the Solway and they had a whale of a time, chasing about and
playing their doggy tag game. We took a ball wanger each and spent some time
simply wearing them out by getting them to fetch the wanged balls. Callie,
being the youngest of the pack, was the undisputed star at this game, but she
does do it a lot and so is match fit.
We drove onto the
land time forgot after the Dunes [Silloth] and had a more sedate stroll down
the marvellous promenade there. I will probably have mentioned this place
before. Laura’s sister, Avril, lives in Abbeytown so we ended up there and
stayed for tea.
I have not been to
their house before and it was really, really untidy. I mean mega untidy. I was
very twitchy wanting to get up and sort out the mess. I think Laura could sense
this as she tried to excuse her sister’s mess. Tea was lovely though, it was
simply a cold collation with masses of meats and pickles and salad. I ended up
with a scale model of Mount Fuji on my plate which I proceeded to demolish with
delight. I love this way of eating up the remains of the Christmas meats. When
I prepare this I also have bubble and squeak made from the left over
vegetables. The flavour and texture combinations are brilliant.
Back at home we
chilled out again waiting for the predicted turn in the weather again. It hadn’t
arrived by last walk time for the dogs! It did during last walk time! I didn’t
have my Oilskin on and got rather damp. Although not as damp as a few minutes
later in my en-suite shower where Laura made me get in, the she joined me and washed
me with the loofah mitt naturally I returned the favour. It’s only polite!
What a boring set of
entries for the weekend this has been.
I must try harder!
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