Deliveries

When we left Scotland on our journey south family and friends were convinced that we'd find no one to talk to and would quickly become hermits. Fine chance ! Yesterday was typical of how we now spend our happy retirement days and a lack of someone to talk to is not an issue. At the crack of dawn the long delayed range was finally delivered. It arrived , unannounced, on the back of the biggest truck in the universe . The driver, despite seven separate attempts, was unable to manoeuvre it into the driveway. He then parked the leviathan outside the gate, flashers blinking madly away, handily blocking the lane to passing traffic. Why is it shipping companies send out heavy loads with only one person to deliver them? Despite the vehicles enormous size it did not have a hydraulic lift and the thought of the driver and yours truly manhandling a dead weight to the ground without serious injury was risible. A spate of hasty phone calls and the kitchen fitters, joiner and builder all showed up to help unload the hefty device. It took eight people to shoulder it down from the back of the lorry and carry it into the kitchen where it now sits forlornly drapped in dust sheets.

In the afternoon the matresses for the new beds arrived. Madame Bay after the chaos of Christmas has for some time been worried that we might not use matresses in Scotland. Her relief when she sees them later today will be palpable. Even more surprisingly at six, just as I was considering opening a bottle of sanity restoring Pomerol, a truck with four Anduze pots turned up from the pottery. All the while the house is echoing to the sound of hammering, sawing and drilling. Some people say that you should live in a house for a year before touching it but experience has taught us if you don't do it in the first year you never will. Wilf and Digby spent the day in the garden contentedly observing all this activity. The range delivery man warranted a few barks but the others were greeted with uninterested silence . The kitchen fitters with their jaffa cakes are the only people the boyz are currently interested in.