Five are together again

Well. What. A. Day.!!

The first day of our escape dawned dull and rainy. Chucking it down with rainy. And I had left my coat in the car the previous sunny day. I jumped out of bed to wash my face, and when I came back someone had taken my place!

We know who his favourite is

As usual, things on the Walters holiday aren’t running smoothy. We had been getting frantic messages from Vicky re funny noises coming from her car. After several rejected plans involving taxis and trains, we settled on meeting her and Alex at Petuna Gordano services at 12.30 where Ian would take over the driving of her car. Then sometime next week we could take it to a local garage for mending. We said a fond farewell to grandma and The Clarkes and headed over the Severn Bridge. Half way across we received a phone call from vicky. Several warning lights had come on in her car, it had gone into limp mode and she had come to rest in a lay-by just off the M4, on the A46 towards bath.

We immediately veered on to the M4 while vicky informed us that she had called the AA. As we arrived the rain was lashing down and vicky and Alex were huddled by the side of the road. 

‘The AA message said to leave the car immediately and stand well back’ she said from under her dripping hood. The man would be there in about an hour. We took them, and all their belongings, into our car in case of explosion. Sure enough, she got a text after about 30mins saying Regal breakdown would be with us in about fifteen minutes. They even sent her a nice little GPS map of their location. Just off the M1, on the A46 towards Leicester. 150 miles away. 

Around this time we got a mysterious text from Chris. 

It appears that due to walking Misty and wearing a mask, Kathy didn’t see the cones, which were on the other side of the broken manhole cover. She has a nasty bruise on her arm. Chris went into Hopwood Services, where the incident occurred, to complain, but the only people around were a young boy running the KFC, and two girls in Starbucks who did not want their conversation interrupting.

Kathys sewer injury

Back to the A46 somewhere in England, and after several more phone conversations and much shouting of Barrrrth, Jason was on his way in his AA patrol van. Call me a snob but when I break down I want a real AA man in a real AA van, and not a fly by night Repair man from Leicester. Jason duly arrived and set to work. He was a big man with a red face, a Viking beard, and a Jack Grealish greasy quiff on top. He was also fabulous. In the pouring rain he diagnosed the problem (a fan catching on the radiator had caused a small hole from which all the coolant had leaked), fixed it (with his strong Viking hands), sealed the radiator (with Radweld £10), refilled it (water?), and given Vicky a stern talking to for failing to maintain proper radiator health, before waving us on our way.

Meanwhile, Chris and a bruised and battered Kathy, smelling of sewage, had set off once again. Vicky was afraid to drive her car in case it crashed and burned, so she sent her father and her boyfriend off in it, and she came with me. Two hours later than planned we pulled into Petuna Gordano services on the orders of Jason to check that his radiator wasn’t leaking. Masked, we availed ourself of the facilities, before heading off to the Chapel. As we got closer we got a text from Kathy. They had arrived, and entered using the key under the gnome. Misty had entered with them, sniffed a bit and promptly did a wee on the carpet. Chris was at this moment cleaning it up. At precisely 4pm we drew into the drive of St Pancras chapel. The rain was absolutely torrential. Hastily, we rushed down the half. Mile long path with cases, bags, wine and crates of beer. By the time we reached the front door we were all drenched. Chris was too busy to welcome us as he had his head in a bucket, and Kathy was in pain. But at least we had arrived.

Around 4.30 the rain stopped and the sun came out. We had removed our sodden clothes, cleaned up the dog wee, iced Kathys bruised limb and washed her sewage stained clothes. We took a look around the cottage and found that it was really lovely

Soon after, in the sunshine, Colette and Roland arrived. They had been holidaying in Cornwall and were to spend some time with us before heading home. Soon after that Tina, the most important person of the day arrived, along with a huge trolley of food. The very pleasant Tina was our Asda delivery driver. The sun and food meant we could complete the day as I had planned, with a barbecue. We set Ian up outside the summer house while we all chatted and laughed inside.

To be fair he did us proud. A fun filled evening of chat followed, with topics involving Coronovirus and having sacks of blood for emergency use. Vicky and Alex were to sleep on the sofa bed so that was set up, and we all retired for a well deserved good nights sleep. All of us except Misty, who wouldn’t settle and started to bark. She managed to settle OK in our bedroom though!