Yesterday we spent far too much time continuing to take the vacuum cleaner apart, cleaning it up and putting it back together. It’s the old, time-honoured method of fixing a machine with a problem: take it apart, put it back together and hope it works. Once we had the correct screwdrivers, taking it apart was relatively easy. Cleaning it was okay, albeit rather dusty. Putting it back together, however, was a minor nightmare. We followed all the instructions but pieces that were supposed to slide onto place would not do so with the ease that youtube videos suggested they should do.
And we had to get to get it back together before Grandson Number Two came round today. An inquisitive three year old who thinks he is an investigative scientist cannot be allowed anywhere near bits of a dismantled vacuum cleaner.
Eventually we had it almost to rights, squirted it with WD40 (magical stuff) and left it to marinade while we had a cup of tea. After that it worked. The disgusting smell appears to have been eliminated. Huzzah!
Today the small boy was deposited with us as usual. Among other activities he “helped” me plant alyssum flowers in the large plant-pots on the front garden wall. He had a fine time poking around with a trowel and later told his mother he had planted flowers in mud. Fair enough!
We also spent some time blowing bubbles in the sunshine in the back garden. It seemed like a lovely day! By the time his mother came to collect him it was pouring with rain. After Phil had gone off to chess club this evening, I walked out in the evening sunshine. At one point it tried to rain again but the evening sun prevailed. That’s the kind of day it has been.
Granddaughter Number One had to travel to Preston today. Mostly she works from home but once every few weeks she has to show her face in the office in Preston, a fairly complicated train journey away. This was made more complicated by the train she intended to catch into Manchester being canceled and the next one reaching manchester just too late for her connection to Preston. Her return journey had similar complications: Preston to Manchester was delayed, Manchester to home seemed okay but the passengers were told to get off and move to another train on the next platform which was scheduled to leave later than the first one but would in fact go first. That’s the kind of day she had. She will be relieved to find that Transpennine Express has been renationalised today!
When everyone was having a Big Lunch, mostly out on the street, as part of the coronation nonsense, I thought it was a recent invention, in fact a “thing” for the coronation. Now I discover that the idea has been around for a while. Here’s something I found!
“Imagine a summer's day on which millions of us, across the land, sit down to have lunch together – in the middle of our streets, around our tower blocks and on every patch of common ground. A day to break bread with our neighbours.
That was our vision here at the Eden Project back in 2009 when we invited ordinary people to do The Big Lunch in their neighbourhood for the very first time.
More than a decade on, some 6 million people around the world take part in the annual event each year, joining together in all sorts of ways, from inner city street parties to rural get-togethers in someone’s garden. With them they bring bunting, trestle tables, food, drink, music, three-legged races, talent shows, laughter...
But behind the decorations, the games, the cakes, something really important is happening: people are actually coming together, often for the first time in a long while, to make something happen.”
There you go. A bit of community stuff I’ve not joined in with! Oops!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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