My dear Family & Friends, 12 July
This seems to be the week that I annoyed a few people. First, I annoyed a farmer on Tuesday while walking the dogs across farmland on public footpaths on the outskirts of Warwick. I had scoped out a circular route between Warwick and Leek Wootton on my ordnance survey map, and set out on the assumption that finding my way would be easy. The first part of the route took me along a tarred farm lane. My map seemed to suggest that I would need to turn right after some farm buildings. But, as I approached the farmstead, there were signs warning that I was entering private property. I’ve seen similar warnings right next to way markers, so I proceeded with caution. I reached a dead end at a gate leading a very pretty stone farmhouse and beat a hasty retreat. When I stopped at the last way marker I’d seen to consult my map, I heard someone shouting behind me. Given that I was in the middle of farmland with nary a soul about, it didn’t take much to come to the conclusion that the person was shouting at me. In his opinion, I was either a gypsy casing out his farm to steal his farming equipment at night, or a diesel thief looking for his tanks. (Stealing diesel and heating oil in the dead of night has become a lucrative business for brazen thieves taking advantage of the rocketing oil price.) He was also somewhat ticked off that Edgar and Hazel were not on lead. I shouted back that he had mistaken me for someone else and took a different path, but it quickly became apparent that that wasn’t the right way either, so I turned back again in the direction of the now very annoyed farmer. A heated conversation ensued which involved me pointing at the map, and him pointing at the way markers. He eventually conceded that I was neither a gypsy nor a diesel thief, and pointed out my map-reading error and the correct way to me. We parted on civil terms, but I still wanted to tell him that he was an uptight tosser. A short while later it started raining – really chucking it down – which only exacerbated my now foul mood. I followed that footpath onto a golf course where the way markers eventually just seemed to peter out. I retraced my route for a few hundred metres to another footpath I’d seen that crossed the golf course and took me back to my car along a different route to the one I had planned. I was half expecting someone else to challenge my presence on the golf course, but I only received polite half-nods and a few smiles.
The other people who got really annoyed at me were the owners of Bayton Lodge, the quarantine kennel where our animals served out their six month prison terms. It seems that someone pointed out the criticisms I’d made about Bayton Lodge on this blog. You will recall that we were unhappy at Edgar’s condition when we arrived in January, and were extremely pissed off at the lack of proper bedding for the dogs. They say they found my comments by searching on Google, but I’ve been unable to replicate their searches. Anyway, Lucia received an angry call from Lorraine with her husband Dale breathing fire in the background. You may also recall that I was waiting for our animals to be released to tell them how I really felt about the bedding and Edgar’s condition – but, when the time came, I just wanted to be done with it and, so, said nothing. Well, guess what? Now they know how we felt. (They seemed to miss the inherent compliment in the blog where I said they were better than all the other quarantine kennels we had seen.)
I really don’t have much more to report from the week. The weather has been continuously crap. It’s like Cape Town in winter, only a bit warmer. (In fact, the winter weather when we arrived in January was much more pleasant, if a touch cold with -3C morning lows.) I’ve been revising some of my Portuguese grammar lessons in lieu of doing something outdoors and in anticipation of our vacation at the end of August. I’ve been watching the weather forecast for Faro near where Barbara and Terry (my sister and brother-in-law) live, and it shows nothing but little suns with highs in the late 20s and lows in the high teens. I’m really looking forward to some sun therapy.
With nothing much happening, I’ve had few extra pictures of our life to put up on the web (at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/llewellynijones.) Two of them are pictures of me vacuuming Hazel. She just loves it although Lucia isn’t sure that it’s just the attention she loves. Edgar too isn’t as frightened of the vacuum cleaner as he used to be. The only problem with desensitizing the dogs to the vacuum cleaner though is that they no longer leap out of the way when I’m trying to clean the house. Now they need to be prodded.
Love, light & peace
Llewellyn
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