Friday 8th March

Friday 8th March

Such a contrast this morning from yesterday's walk on Grouville beach, from fog, heavy rain and driving wind to calm mild and positively balmy conditions, appreciated by both jess and myself!

So, there you have Mum's day in 3 photos....doesn't she lead a hard life....so hard that she can only manage to type the first two lines of the blog these days!! Holding all those tennis rackets does make her arms tired....poor thing.

Well anyway, the rest of the family had a normal day of work, rest and play. Boys decided that we needed a "easy way" from which to terrorize magpies, which have started the year as they finished last and are already  finding ways to eat all the bird food so carefully put out by Dad. Rather than do like normal hunters and erect a camouflaged hide in the garden, a large piece of board has been placed in the (open) kitchen window with a small "door" in it from which to aim the gun....said board has instructions drawn on it with diagrams of all the types of prey that are considered "fair game"...rather than crows and magpies (as per normal) we have cartoon drawings of various birds on the endangered list, as well as other animals....no one can say that we have lost our sense of humour.

Dad went off to town early this morning for "meetings" (yeah, we know.....) and apparently remembered at 11:30 that he was supposed to be at an important lunch in an hour that he had forgotten about....  the situation wasn't helped by the fact that he had worn a smart open neck shirt....but now realised that he needed to be better dressed. He rushed off to a suitable shop to purchase a tie to match the shirt....only to arrive at the meal to discover that, these days, it seems quite acceptable to be "tieless"...half the people on his (top) table were tieless as well! Ho hum.....

Tom was obviously feeling the pressure of having nothing to "take apart" today (the digger still is minus the starter motor and the RIB is waiting for new propeller) so he decided that the ride on mower needed a "good sort out". Off came the mower deck (that's the bit underneath that spins around cutting the grass to you non-gardeners) and the mower blade was discovered to look more like a banana than a nice straight piece of engineered steel. The mower blade was taken down to a friendly workshop in Grouville and placed in a vice and "hammered until straight"....Tom then had the audacity to ring dad and ask "did you drive the mower over a big rock last year?".....Dad (who was in the kitchen with the friends in the above picture at the time) responded by saying "No....but YOU drove it on to a big rock last year, don't you remember?". Tom had to admit that actually he did remember now that he was reminded.....Everyone in the kitchen looked a little surprised, and then Dad realised that they all thought he was talking about one of our boats being driven "on to a big rock last year".

Boys all out tonight...although Jack in starting a new tour tomorrow (tour being firemanspeak for the next set of workdays...2 days and 2 nights)...so he'll be home earlier than the others. Bex has old school friends around reminiscing about the good old days at Beaulieu, and Ma and Pa have been down to the Breakwater Cafe for supper.....they always come back extolling the virtues of a relaxed atmosphere....and the excellent food. Dad's diet starts tomorrow (again)