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Today started off reasonably leisurely, and then picked up increasing speed.

Jason didn’t start off at leisure. He had to get up at 5.30 this morning to be in London for 7.00 to sit a long, horrible and tedious exam.  An exam he had to pay for, and which if he passed would make him number one superstar in terms of would be employers slavering to get their mitts on him.  It is an investment in our future.  Having it would take him through the glass ceiling he currently works just under, into the realms of the big boys.

No pressure then.

He passed a restless night last night, studying too late and then spending the night wheezy and asthmatic.  He claims this was brought about by a surfeit of Derek. I claim it is stress.  I only claim this under my breath. Quietly. When he is not looking.

Derek is saying nothing.

The children and I got up quite a bit later than 5.30, to my eternal and everlasting gratitude.  We breakfasted and then pottered off to granny and grandad’s.  Tilly needed to be at her friend’s house at eleven o’clock this morning for a day of teenage maundering.  The rest of us wanted to go to Liberty London Girl’s mama’s garage sale and a) meet Liberty London Girl who is an all round top bloggess and extremely lovely person, and b) find treasure.

It turns out that LLG’s mama does not live very far from us, which was why we had decided it would be a nice thing to do this morning.  The sun was shining, the birds were on the wing, tra la, and all was good.

Granddad took charge of Tilly.  Granny and I set forth with the TMs (trainee murderers) in tow.

It was a lovely drive, and we received an equally lovely welcome when we arrived.

The children were entranced by the dogs, particularly Billy, who deigned to let them treat him like royalty.

In the background is Maudie. She suffered their attention from afar, but was mourning the loss of her mama, who was too busy serving people to have time to attend to her every whim.

Posetta Baddog was out of bounds to small children as she has a tendency to bite (I sympathise with her on this), but we promised Tilly, who was devastated to be missing dachsie related shenanigins, that we would take a picture.

Here is LLG, shrouded in dachshound:

I am in love with Posetta’s eyebrows. She has clearly stolen them from Denis Healey, and I think they look far better on her than they ever did on him.

In between dog bothering, and chatting we purchased treasures.  Granny came away with an armful of books.  Oscar was exceedingly pleased with a bicycle pump. He claims it is so that he can help Tilly pump up the tyres on her bike, but so far all I’ve seen him do with it is use it to make farting noises with, but he is delighted, so I shall not quibble.

Tallulah bought a particularly fine handbag, embroidered with birds, which she proceeded to stuff with all the belongings that had been in her previous handbag, right there and then.

Sasha (LLG) had very kindly put aside a Bridgewater cereal bowl for me, knowing my predilections already.  I also bought a rather lovely tea cup and saucer:

which I am terribly pleased with.

After that we ate lots of banana cake, chatted to some charming people, and then left before the natives got restless and the TMs disgraced themselves.

On the way home we popped into a very strange shopping village type thing called Heart of the Shires.  Someone had recommended it to me as a good place to purchase Bridgewater, so we stopped and had a look.  There is indeed, a magnificent cook shop there, stuffed to the rafters with all kinds of culinary things you never knew you needed, including Bridgewater.

Other than that, it was an odd place, full of strange little delis, gift shoppes and boutiques selling things you would never normally buy except in airports when you are very jet lagged, all at exorbitant prices.  Oh, and a pet shop that sold enormous sacks of hedgehog food.  Not something you come across every day. Perhaps Northamptonshire is stuffed to the rafters with voracious hedgehogs.  I am agog.

We were going to have a sandwich and a hot drink before we left, but the one place which stocked both made us gasp when we read the menu to find they had cheese sandwiches for £5.99.  This was cheap compared to their most expensive sandwich was £8.00.  It claimed to be a meal in itself.

It would have to be.  I am no stranger to excess, and I do love a bit of luxury on the food front, but I quibble at £8.00 for a sandwich in a restaurant that had wipe down menus with typos.  I may be a snob, but I really didn’t feel that if I had paid the £8.00 I would have been delighted with what I had purchased.

We left, bemused.

Just as we were leaving Jason called to say that he had passed his exam. Yay!  He also called to say that his train was not going anywhere as there had been a points failure at everywhere north of Luton.  Boo!

Eventually he went from Euston to Kings Cross to see about getting a train to Leicester (he was coming into Rugby originally. We are equidistant from the two).  Everyone else had the same idea.

Sadly everyone else who had been stranded at Euston had the same idea. Eventually, sick of waiting on a crowded platform in the broiling heat he gave up any ideas about coming home in a straight line. First he went to Luton.  Then he went to Bedford.  Finally he came to Leicester, where I picked him up, after he had called me at every juncture to see if I could pick him up from wherever he had landed next, just in case he couldn’t get any further.

I spent much of the afternoon poised to leap into action. Then when I did pick him up from Leicester I had to drive him over  to Rugby to get his car.

It was a long afternoon.

Now he is asleep on the sofa, while I cook tea and then go to pick Tilly up from her friends.

I’m off to London in the morning with Andrea.  Thankfully she is doing the driving.  I am very grateful.

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