Mother: "Alex can you pop me into Harrogate to pick something up?"
Me: "Yes, no problem."
We park on a yellow line up a sidestreet that I reckon will be OK with me in the car.
Me: "How long will you be?"
Mother: "20 minutes."
Me: "OK, but no longer because I'm on a yellow line."
Mother: "Don't worry, I only have to go to one shop.
So I sit and wait. 30 minutes pass, no mother. 1 hour passes, no mother. This is ridiculous, 90 minutes pass and no mother. I could go on but you'd only get as bored, as I did. Some of the things that went through my head were: Has she forgotten where I'm parked? Is she ill? Has she gone home? Is she waiting for me somewhere else? Should I go home and see if she's there?
Three hours later she turns up and guess what, it's my fault for getting angry. Does she apologise, does she see my point of view? What do you think? So when I say I've a bit of experience of these things, I hope you understand.
OK, back to this morning's shopping. We all get out of the car at 9.30 am, I establish that they have to look in two shops, so we set up a place to meet and I go in for a blood test (with no appointment). The girls and Tom (hard-luck Tom) take the 3 minute walk into town. I finish my tests, drive the car into town and park on a yellow line. I have breakfast, keeping a lookout for the police. 30 Minutes - nothing. I see a space and park the car. It must have been a reflex reaction because I paid for a 3 hour ticket. Another half hour passes so I walk into Sommieres and look in EVERY shop in the middle of town. Nothing. So I go back to the arranged meeting place and wait. At 11.00 am they all show up. Apologise, what do you think? Jan then pops off to pick something else up and is another 23 minutes. In the time it has taken these women to look in two shops, I have had a blood test, eaten breakfast, looked in every shop in Sommieres, read a newspaper from beginning to end and got thoroughly pissed off.
***
Jan and I take Max for a walk into the fire swept hillside. It was very spooky and it was a little difficult to explain why, until Jan mentioned that all we could hear was the wind. Normally we would hear birdsong and the ubiquitous cigales chirping away. Very eerie.
***
Kevin fancies a beer and so do I. We sit down at about 8.00 pm and start working our way through some lovely Fullers that he brought to France and some Leffe wheat beer bought here. At midnight, I give in and go to bed, because I have tennis at 8.00 am. Kevin says that he will get up to watch the tennis. Do you think he will get up? We shall see.
