Lighthouse

Nothing to do with Hobbits or Middle Earth. We had a telephone call yesterday to say that Cag's anniversary present was ready for collection. So braving the showers we managed to get to the shop.

It's just unusual, we've never seen one like it before.

Of course, the phone was 'red hot' as soon as we got home, but that's only to be expected from someone who can't keep a secret.

Anyway, Cag's happy and that's what it's all about.

I've taken to shopping at night. There's a spare hour between finishing the washing up at 8 o'c and the start of the main programme of the evening at 9 o'c. The ASDA Walmart is only five minutes away, with 24 hour opening, so I thought I would give it a try.

What amazed me was the age of shoppers at that time of night. Mostly in their early twenties, bright young things. I felt quite at home.

But seriously, I normally shop in the afternoon and it's a frustrating waste of an hour. In the evening I got every thing I needed, in half the time, with a quarter of the hassle.

Think I will risk some after shave on my next visit. You never know. Might strike lucky. Ha ha!

It was a day for looking up. Early this morning to watch the drizzle, wondering if the promised fine weather would make itself known. Mid-day, to watch the great silver birds chase each other across the bluest of skies, when it finally arrived. Then the afternoon was spent looking up once again................ painting a ceiling.

The end in sight at last. Lights up and working. Just some minor touching in with a small brush to finish the job. On and off it's taken two weeks. Something I could have finished in a couple of afternoons a few months ago, but that's the way it is from now on. So I must be patient.

There was a disaster in the day. I knocked over two glasses of wine. One a rather quaffable Rose', Cag's choice, the other, an interesting red Vin de Pays. I tried to throw myself under the tumbling glasses, mouth open in anticipation and desperation, but to no avail!

The Rose' hardly left a mark but the red has left a trace. Now I know the best way to remove red wine from a carpet is to pour on a glass of white wine and sponge off, but two glasses wasted in one day was all I could stand. I wasn't about to waste a third.

Luckily the carpet is dark and old, so I was not too bothered, and besides, people will be looking up, noticing the new lights and freshly painted ceiling. They won't have time to look for a fading wine stain. When you have a dog, who does not know how to wipe his feet, and a slightly leaky mother living with you, a little stain on the carpet is the last thing you worry about.

I've been feeling a little guilty today. Two of Cag's sisters and a brother-in -law have been working at the house in Torquay, bagging and stacking, getting ready for when we finally arrange the sale of the house.

It was a 9 o'clock start for them, an engineer was coming to dismantle the stair lift. Then later in the morning a Red Cross representative came knocking to collect all the equipment that had been supplied to my parents to make their lives easier.

As soon as the stair lift was out, they started bringing everything that was movable down from upstairs ready to be sorted. Some for the sale room, some for charity and some for the skip. They phoned just before they left. It was 4 o'clock.

I expressed my sincere thanks for all they had done and all they were doing, but I couldn't help that feeling that it should be me there, with sleeves rolled up, doing my share of lifting and shifting.

It's our anniversary at the end of the month. I won't say which one because I have an age complex. I knew Cag wanted a ring, so I loaded the Master Card into to my wallet and prepared to be shocked.

The good news is, the choice was made at the first jewellers. The bad news, it was the most expensive on the tray................ but I expected that. Past experience played a part. It's unusual, four separate bands in white gold, randomly set with diamonds and rubys.

Of course, there has to be an adjustment to the size. Cag has such small fingers. A two to three week delay, but that O.K. Better the job is done right than rushed.

It took only minutes after we arrived home for the jungle drums to sound, or rather, a telephone call to a sister. It makes me smile, because I know my wife can't keep a secret. She's an open book, which is rather refreshing these days when so many have so much to hide.

The one thing I can be sure of, by the time we collect the ring, she will have forgotten exactly what it looks like, so she will have the same joy all over again.

It's been one of those days where I've achieved ............... nothing, or at least very little. I only have a couple of afternoons in the week when I do nothing, or rather catch up on all the things I've put to one side through lack of time on other days. Wednesday is one of those days.

The Community Nurse was visiting my mother today, so we made an early start, but that time was lost during the morning in one way or another. Then I opened the post. A credit card statement, with an entry I didn't recognise for £496.98, from a company who were completely unknown to me.

The next hour was spent taking to a machine and finally getting through to a human being at Customer Services. The department I required would phone me back............... within two working days! Note made to change card companies after they get the mess sorted out.

I did finally get down to doing some work, at about 2.30pm, and managed to wash an area of ceiling ready for painting.............. when I get time. At this rate, the ceiling, including replacing the lighting units, will be finished by September.

It really is the one thing that I find difficult to cope with at the moment. The inability to do a job, even the simplest, from start to finish, without having to come back to it at a later date. I guess that's the way it will be for the foreseeable future. The perfectionist in me doesn't like it, but I will live with it.

I've had a few days off. Only doing that which was absolutely necessary. Throw in a couple of early nights ...........and ............I don't feel any different! Well, perhaps just a little rested.

I've caught up with some snail mail that's been hanging around for weeks and answered a few queries from GenesReunited contacts about Family History. I also managed to watch the controversial series of programmes on B.B.C.3 Kill it, Cook it, Eat it. It's where an animal, a cow, a lamb and a pig, is shown grazing happily in a field, taken to a local abattoir, stunned, slaughtered, butchered and cooked, all within a few hours.

There's a little more to it than that, or rather a lot more. The programme is designed to show the relationship and the process of how a beast in a field ends up as a meal on our table. It's viewed on site by a cross section of people. They are asked how they feel about what they have witnessed, how it has effected they way they now feel about meat and how it reaches their table.

I must admit, I found it all fascinating. It was nothing that I hadn't seen before, but not as one complete process. The way a slaughter man dressed a lamb carcass before it was sent to the butchers, because that's what he did. Then the way the butchered portioned and jointed the meat to maximise the chances of selling the whole animal and not just the choices cuts.

True, only the tenderest of the cuts were used by the chef, mainly because of the need for meat to be hung for a number of days to achieve it's prime condition. The tasting was joined by all but a few. The inevitable vegetarian and one or two that had changed their eating habits after what they had witnessed.

In all, I found the programme positive and would recommend all, if they get chance, to watch the series. I understand the next in the series is about poultry. I have a sort of love/hate relationship with poultry, having eaten it daily for many years. So I look forward to the next programme with ............. interest?