Gundog exercise and unexpected baby sitting.

Friday October 3^rd.

The usual start to our day began with me walking the dog and then both of us (Laura and me, not me and Callie) going to the pool. On the way back we bumped into Steve who checked that I was still OK to go picking up with the shoot tomorrow. I said I was. He told me to prepare for wet weather as it looked like heavy rain could fall. Mmm… I hope not.

It was a full day at Uni today for us both. After parking up the car, I lost Laura in the crowd of people heading toward the SU, there were masses of them for some reason, so I texted her to say I’d meet her at lunch. It is pointless trying to find someone when the hordes are out. Maybe there was free breakfast or something. She replied almost instantly with, “Indian?” I sent back, “Absolutely!”

In my broom cupboard I had a visit from our Head Honcho (a rare privilege) and I was asked if I could hold the fort on our research as Felice wouldn’t be back until November!  I asked why but was told that was all the information they had too. Curious or what? I texted her number with several messages but nothing has been returned. I tried to Skype her but no joy there either. I considered phoning her Mum in D’Arcachon  but in the end decided against the idea. If she had wanted us to know what was going on we’d have heard.

My lecture notes and details etc have all been approved and I am good to go. I am not in the schedule on the Uni-web site though. I asked about that and was told it was probably an oversight. Like last year’s cancellation of my lecturing was also an oversight?

I breathed a huge sigh of relief at lunch time when Laura turned up with Marie in tow and found Marie had a boyfriend. I suppose I had been unconsciously worrying that Laura may be… no, I won’t even write that down. It is a totally unworthy thought. Marie’s surname is Werhlig, the family are originally from Germany apparently, although they now live near Darlington. It is not a name I have ever heard or even seen before. Eddie, her BF, is not a mathematician at all; they have a relationship a bit like the one between Laura and me, where I am astounded by what she does and she feels the same about my field of study. These two are share same feelings about each other’s chosen field of study. He is a Geography student from County Durham who can’t get his head round why Marie likes Maths so much.

We had already decided to go and eat at the Indian restaurant and I really fancied a Jalfrezi. Eddie, which is hard to believe, is a curry virgin! They are both freshers and Laura and Marie had been paired in a buddying scheme run by the Maths department, whereby a new student is taken under the wing of a senior. This sounds like a great idea. They asked what I had studied and when I said I had done the Classics Tripos they gave me a totally blank look. I tried to go into more detail about what the Tripos System is at Cambridge and how I done a two year part one and one year part two. I could tell they hadn’t really got it, so I abandoned my explanation. It is quite an unusual system to be honest. The Greek cramming we did, is mostly a distant memory but my Latin is still functioning, even though until my PhD I haven’t really used it.

We started Eddie off on one of the milder dishes from the menu and he really enjoyed it. He was beaten by the heat of the chana masala side dish we ordered, which isn’t that hot IMHO. He liked the naan bread and thought the pilau rice was delicious. It is so strange watching someone try curry for the first time. It sort of makes you wish you were them so you could have that first rush of sublime tastes exploding on your tongue again.

He declared the experience a good one and something he’d definitely be willing to try again. He did get through two pints of lager and enough water to have refloated the Titanic! We had dessert and then wandered back to my broom cupboard for a ‘real’ cup of tea. They were surprised by two things; a, that I actually had an office and b, how small it was. They seemed really nice and very keen to hear all about what to expect from University life. They had met, apparently, at a sixth-form college doing their A Levels and they chose Sheffield to be together. (I am not sure whether that is really sweet or rather sad and disappointing.)

I think I may have put my feet right in it by my behaviour with Laura as I gave her a huge kiss when we got to the office and that seemed to shock them both. I seems that Laura had neglected to tell them the exactly nature of our ‘friendship’. A plus point in their favour was that they didn’t seem offended or disgusted by the fact we are a pair of raging lezzies, in fact they seemed interested to hear how we had become a couple.  Loll spent the next few minutes giving them a potted version of our relationship. They then told us more about theirs; I suppose our frankness had prompted them to be frank too. They are both virgins! I was able to contain my surprise and I hope nothing showed on my face either. We made sort of non-committal, polite remarks about their decision but I could tell Laura was thinking, “OMG!”

When they wandered off to their next lecture I couldn’t help thinking that it sounded as though they were either doomed to fail in their relationship or they could be like Darby and Joan! I tended to think the former was more likely, though I hope not. I do tend to judge people by the standards of my own behaviour and I know that when I discovered sex I just couldn’t get enough of it. Firstly with my BF, with whom I shared my virginity and his but then masses of other guys who seemed like a good idea at the time. I hope the revelation of what sex is really like doesn’t bring Marie and Eddie asunder.

After work we headed to the supermarket for a weekly food shop and then home for our evening meal and some studying before we settled down to be entertained by HIGNFY on the TV.

Saturday October 4^th.

We had time for our dog walk and swim and breakfast before we spotted any clouds that looked like rain bearing ones, this morning. I guess Eddie would have been the one to ask for certain. By the time Steve knocked on our door at 9.45 we had started to get the first spots, and very big two pound coin sized spots they were. He took Callie and me to Rotherham in his car (a 4x4) which meant I wouldn’t have to try and negotiate muddy tracks and by ways to get to our rendez-vous point, in my ordinary vehicle.

There was a full complement of guns, so none of the pickers-up was asked to join. That sometimes happens if one of the members can’t make it. We were driven to the start of the first drive in a wagon, with a roof, that is specially used for the shoots (they have two, one for the guns and one for the dog crew). It had started to rain properly by the time we were all ready to begin.

I had dressed for wet rather than cold: my long stock-man’s coat (it reaches my calf), a thin fleece underneath that and my Toggi waterproof leather boots. The whole lot was topped by a wide brimmed wax-cotton hat the whole ensemble (according to Laura) makes me look like Clint Eastwood! I had even put a coat on Callie. When she gets very wet she gets cold very quickly and I didn’t want a hypothermic dog! She is sensible enough not to try and shake her waxed-cotton coat off.

I don’t know if it was the weather, or the later start which caused it, but we only had three drives before lunch and three afterwards. This is 25% fewer than we usually have done. Steve was surprised too. Lunch was taken back in the wagon. I had a mega ham salad sandwich collection courtesy of the Lollster and a flask of Earl Grey. She had even slipped in two squares of the cherry chocolate cake we baked on Thursday evening at Mum’s and brought half home with us.

Callie didn’t disgrace herself at all. She waited patiently until I was called upon and then she fetched all her birds back really well. She is good at blind retrieves (thank goodness), another guy, with a Goldie, had a problem with two of his retrieves so I volunteered Callie when his dog came back ‘empty’. She was a star. Gavin was annoyed with his dog but grateful that I was discreet in my support.

We were all offered a brace of birds after the last drive and count up but not all of the pickers-up took them. I did. We now have a cock and hen pheasant hanging in our shed. I had a surprise back home too. When I opened the little buff envelope contain our pay for the day I discovered we’d been given £75 rather than £50! Bonus!

Laura came and helped scrub me down in the hot bath I’d run for myself and although she ministered to my important little places while I was in the bath and then as I got dried, I just fell asleep on the bed. She must’ve covered me up with the duvet for I woke a couple of hours later, absolutely starving and really concerned that Loll would have been offended by my lack of response. She thought it was quite funny. I promised we’d make up later. We did!

Sunday 5^th October.

Started bright but turned grey. It was very cold first thing; a few more degrees lower and there would've been a frost. I had to wear a fleece for the first time in ages. Brrr…

We decided to have a potter about morning as we were heading to Phil and Jane’s for tea. We had said we’d arrive at about 3pm. While it was still dry we did some chores in the garden. We have dead headed the lavender and I gave the lawn a swift cut. We removed the strands of grass and few weeds that had grown up through the lavender and then walked all over the lawn in my spiked shoes to aerate it. I cleared the gutters on the shed / Callie’s palace and run. I checked the electrics in the shed were fine and generally swept away the cobwebs which had accumulated over the summer. We gave Callie’s duvet a good shake and hung it over the whirly-gig whilst we swept out her box and run. I checked her water valve on the water bowl was working correctly and I even re-tuned the radio as it seemed to have gone a bit off station (it’s tuned to BBC Radio 4).

We felt we deserved our cup of tea and slices of cake when we’d finished. After the swift snack we decamped to the shower where I made up for my lethargy in the face of libidinous attentions yesterday evening. We sat and watched last night’s Dr Who (I still miss Matt Smith. Peter Capaldi is just wrong in the role) and then took ourselves off to Leeds. It’s a dirty job but someone’s got to do it! 

We arrived in Horsforth at our appointed time and were greeted at the door by an excited Angela, holding the baby and telling me that we were going to be babysitting them tonight. What? She was followed by her Mum who, I could tell, was not best pleased at her daughter dropping the bombshell on me without a bit of pre-bombshell softening up. She apologised for Angela’s presumption (good recovery there, I thought) and explained that Amy –their usual baby sitter had phoned about an hour ago dropping out of tonight’s session. Jane had spoken to Phil, in Angela’s hearing, that she would ask me and Laura (when we arrived) if we could help out. This was the reason for Angela’s gleeful greeting when we pulled up.

I rescued Sophie from her big sister’s grasp and pretended to consult with her. Angela, though had already moved on and was busy cuddling Callie, who had been brought in from the car by Laura but was now engaged in horseplay with my niece. Sophie was oblivious to all this and just gurgled at me, muttering something in pre-speech. She seemed pleased to see me and smiled and chuckled as I spoke to her.

To be fair Phil came into the hall and greeted me and Laura properly and launched straight into the babysitting dilemma. I cut him off and asked until what time? He promised no later than 11pm. I said if he was then we would be spending the night and expecting a lavish breakfast. It’s not far from Leeds to Sheffield but I was buggered if I was going to drive home past 11pm having been duped into babysitting when all we had expected to be doing was have Sunday Tea!

They had a Roundtable thing which promised to finish at 10.30 but Amy had cried off this afternoon claiming to be ill. She hadn’t wanted to pass on whatever she had to the kids (or the family). It sounded pretty credible and as she is a usually reliable 16 year old, they were inclined to believe her and thought about asking me and Laura as we’d be here already! When explained like that it seemed churlish to decline.

Tea was as you’d expect; a large salad with hot new potatoes and three different meats (one of which was a large trout), as many pickles as you could squeeze onto your plate (including some German gherkins Phil had got from Reinhardt over the summer, when they went down to Neustadt) and three different options for dessert. I like this kind of tea. When there are only two of you it seems a bit mad to go to town over a large spread but with six and a half of us it makes sense. You can eat and eat and not worry about the calories or anything unhealthy (apart from a couple of Jane’s Olive oil based dressings). We ended up sitting around in the lounge feeling well and truly stuffed.

I asked if they were having a second meal at the Roundtable thing but it turns out not to be a meal but a fund raiser of some sort. Phil did explain but I was involved with Peter’s tablet and downloading our whale footage from Australia from my phone so I missed quite a lot of what he was saying. They toddled off at about 7pm after putting baby Sophie to bed first, which was a disappointment; I was looking forward to be a surrogate Mum for an hour or two. I had taken turns, with Angela, to give her tea whilst we were having ours. She is putting on weight and seems a heck of a lot bigger than she was before we went to Australia.

The kids, both the little ones and the adult ones, played some card games before they hit the charp at 9pm. They often play card games with us. They like learning new ones and I taught them both Hearts, which they took to with gusto. Peter won thrice, Angela and Loll once each and I won nary a one as I kept trying to shoot the moon and failing miserably each time. They were very good about going to bed and we had them both settled by about 9.15. I was expecting to be let down by Phil but obviously my telepathic doubts about him had filtered through the ether and he and Jane pulled back onto their drive at 9.50!

They were profuse in their thanks (again) and we left just after 10 o’clock. I pulled onto our own drive at just before 11 and took Callie for her last walk of the day whilst Laura said she’d have some hot chocolate waiting for my return. We did the short walk and didn’t hear any owls at all; we also seemed to avoid any rain as the sky had become quite clear with a waxing gibbous moon, bright enough for me to not need my torch. Back home we had our drinking chocolate and hit the charp tired, but full of the joys of being temporary mothers. It’s great to be able to give them back!