Back in Salisbury

It’s been another busy week back at the salt mine. Lots and lots more teaching, although this week mostly the mature first year students and the post grads. I very much prefer working with these people to the 18 year olds. With the older students, even if they don’t immediately understand why they need to know what I am telling them, they have enough experience to be aware that if I think it important enough to come and teach them about it, then they probably do need to know about it! I’ve also been doing follow up sessions with some of the students I saw at the very beginning of semester. They seem to be pleased to see me - largely because it all seems much more difficult when they come to do it on their own than it did when I was there with them!!

But I’ve now come to the end of the really intensive teaching. There is none in my diary for this coming week, apart from a couple of 1-2-1s. And for the next few weeks only one or two sessions a week. And then it stops until after Christmas when experience suggests it will pick up again - although not quite as intensively as in October.

In the meantime, we are back in the Swan@Stoford near Salisbury. Some time ago, The Builder’s mother mentioned that she and Mick had for quite some time been pondering the possibility of having their rather bedraggled patio restored. But Mick would never actually go ahead with doing anything about it and then latterly decided that there was no point - they wouldn’t get the use out of it. At no point did either of them think to mention it to The Builder, who would merrily have done it for them, or even to his brother Peter who would have given it a shot. On the occasion Gwen told us this, both The Builder and Peter were there and so was I. We decided that the patio was now really too dangerous for Gwen to use with a walking stick and in any case the fence was falling down. So we organised a weekend to do it.

The Weather Dogs were in excellent humour yesterday. It didn’t rain, the wind was light, it wasn’t hot and there was intermittent sun but not unrelieved blazing on the head. Peter had got paving slabs and cement and stuff. The two of them worked amiably together (they don’t absolutely always get on!) and made steady progress. The slabs were laid and the actual patio bit of it was very nearly done by the time Gwen called us in for chicken stew. After lunch the boys went and got the fencing panels and stuff and finished laying the slabs. Then Peter went off to meet his lady friend, and I transformed myself from supervisor into Junior Carpenter’s Mate and helped The Builder put the fence posts in, he erected the fence and in the course of a single day Gwen is now the proud possessor of a mighty fine new patio. It looks absolutely great!

We had ham sandwiches and cake for afternoon tea and then came back to the Swan along circuitous back routes and sat and watched telly until just after half past eight.

Although we had had a substantial breakfast, a substantial stewy lunch *and* afternoon tea with sandwiches and cake, we did not feel that this would actually last us until breakfast time on Sunday, so went down to the bar at about quarter to nine for supper. I had absolutely lovely haddock fish cakes with baby potatoes and carrot and cabbage. Really it was an entree with the potatoes and veg added to make it a nice, small main course. We shared a bottle of wine. It was all very civilised. It is a very big advantage, staying in a pub. You have wine and food immediately beneath your feet, there is no travelling time if you want to eat or drink and nobody has to drive back.

Speaking of driving - we are coming to the conclusion that there is absolutely no point trying to come down to Salisbury on a Friday evening unless we can leave early in the afternoon. It doesn’t matter what we do, which way we come, how many motorways we avoid, we still end up being delayed. We were held up twice and diverted once this trip and didn’t get here until quarter past ten. Normally, we leave early on Saturday morning, but that isn’t helpful if you need to be here fairly early on the Saturday. I think in future we will come half way and stay in Tewkesbury or Gloucester or wherever, which gives us only an hour and a half or so to get here on the Saturday morning.

It is now Sunday morning. It is raining. We are about to go to breakfast. Oh - and the clocks have gone back. We are now back on GMT.