It's a small, small world

There is a lady who regularly catches the 07:10 bus to Sheffield from the Chesterfield Coach Station. There often isn't time to say much more than a cheery "Good morning" before the bus turns up. But over the past few months we've had little conversations and gradually got to know a bit about each other. There are other people too who often catch the same bus and we chat too, when there is time and when they are there. Julia gets on a stop earlier than the coach station. She also has a bus stop friend, who sits with Julia and me on the bus. It's all quite friendly.

Anyway, I was waiting at the coach station yesterday morning and the lady (I don't know her name) was telling me about her activities the previous evening.  The subject of where we both actually lived came up.  I said we lived in Tupton, on Bridge Street.  "Oh," she said. "My sister's ex mother-in-law used to live on Bridge Street. My sister got on with her very well and kept in touch after the divorce until she (the ex mother-in-law) died."  She then imparted lots more information about her sister's ex mother-in-law.

The story she told sounded remarkably familiar. I felt almost as though I knew this elderly, sickly, infirm lady who sold her lovely house when she took poorly after many years of heavy smoking, moved into a sheltered bungalow around the corner and then died nearly a year after.

And I did, although not very well.  The sister's ex mother-in-law turned out to be Audrey Hallam, from whom we had bought our beautiful house, ten years ago this April.

It is a very, very small world indeed!

The plasterers finished up on Tuesday, leaving the walls looking beautiful.  We are delighted with the plasterer, though less delighted with his apprentice who was supposed to clean everything up, but who managed to sweep a great deal of rubbish under the carpet.  I wonder how long it will be before he realises that it is usually much, much quicker and considerably easier just to sweep up than it is to hide rubbish under the carpet (or anywhere else for that matter!).

We have been waiting for the new plaster to dry properly before The Builder starts decorating it.  I think he is hoping to make a start on the ceiling today.  The front wall isn't quite properly dry yet, but I think wall and alcove (and porch) decorating can probably commence next week. It will be nice to have the lounge room back up together again.  It's looking a bit forlorn at the moment. And the dining room is also out of commission because pretty much everything that is usually in the lounge room is piled up in there.

I'll try and get some photos of the state of play in the house this weekend.  It's been pretty much impossible to get decent pictures this week. I haven't been home during daylight hours and the photos I've tried to take using lamps, lights and flash haven't been worth keeping!