An even tinier update

I had yesterday afternoon off. The Builder had the whole day off (the firm he’s working for doesn’t work Easter week). He came and picked me up at 1:00 and we trundled home to get ready to leave for Salisbury. The thinking had been that we would leave around half two or three to get ahead of the school traffic (Derbyshire schools are not on holiday this week, though Sheffield schools are. It’s very odd the way holidays are not co-ordinated in England). The only tiny flaw in this plan was that neither of us had thought to ask Tammy to feed the cat. So we waited until either Steve had had time to get up or Tammy had got home from school.

In the meantime, we got home to find a yellow lorry parked by the empty house next door and two tired looking lads clearing all the rubbish out of the garden. Hmm, pondered The Builder. I wonder how much they charge. So he went around to ask. The head lad came around to look. His eyes lit up at the scrap metal, electrical wotsits waiting to go for recycling and some of the other stuff. £50, he offered. We had to scrape it together, but we handed over the £50 and he offered to come around “tomorrow – can you move the van out of the driveway?”

Well, was my corn swaggled. The Builder agreed. Now we are not there today. We have trundled down to Salisbury. The Builder is one of the most security conscious people I have ever met. He expects the worst of people, then is pleasantly surprised when they behave impeccably. We have come away leaving the back gate open and leaving the clearing lads free access to anything they fancy in the garden. They could take *anything*. Even I, mostly inclined to think the best of people, would have been a bit wary of leaving them to it while I was 150 miles away. They have been firmly instructed NOT to take the bits of the dismantled greenhouse! I wonder if they will think to take the brick rubble in the driveway – although probably not.

So in the end we left close to 4:00. This really is not a good time to leave. Meant we hit the Friday afternoon, rush hour traffic around Birmingham and Warwick. We lost half an hour at just one roundabout. Took for ever to get here. Well, an hour longer than it usually takes. We decided as we were passing Andover that we would drop into the Salisbury city centre before heading to Bridge Farm and grab a bite to eat. And discovered that the Market Inn serves food until 9:30, which is quite a bit later than we had thought. I think they must have extended their food hours. I’m sure it was earlier the last time we called in. I think they might have a new chef too. The food has always been acceptable – but last night’s steak salad (for me) and sirloin in stilton sauce (for The Builder) was quite a lot better than acceptable. It was lovely!)

It was beautifully sunny when I got up this morning. It’s clouding over now. Watch it rain when we head into town. I’m after an upgrade to my phone and we need some birthday wrapping paper. But one of Norma’s breakfasts first