Back on the road again.

After an extended break over Easter it was back to normal again yesterday. I was back at Little Parndon School in Harlow in Essex for the third year running. But I am getting ahead of myself, there is a lot more to tell in this story!

Another reason for going to Essex was to pick up a sofa that my parents were donating to us in replacement for our old squashy green sofa which has been well and truly cat and toddler splatted. So on Tuesday 8th I picked up a big transit van from my friends at Popular Motors in Merriott. My lovely wife dropped me over there to pick it up, but she then drove off with the front door keys! I desperately phoned her from the office at Popular Motors and also from a call box later, but she had gone to do a clinic (she is a health visitor) over at Chard and was likely to be unobtainable for a couple of hours. I sat in the van on our front drive and then had a little snooze. After about two hours there was still no sign of my wife. Eventually I realised I had to do something fairly drastic, so I managed to break in through a downstairs window. If you know me then you will be more than aware that I am not exactly ideal cat burglar build, so this was quite a painful and embarrassing action and not one I wish to repeat for a while! Anyway, much later I was on my way back to Essex. I arrived at about 8.30pm and settled in for the evening with a glass of wine and some peanuts and life looked a lot more rosey!

I travelled up to Little Parndon and was delighted to see some familiar faces straight away! This is a lovely school, the teachers are wonderful, friendly and charming and more than happy to help in any way they can. It was a group of about 60+ children and they were great! Very sparky and full of laughs. The afternoon joust was not exactly a classic, as the boys team was so much better than anyone else they simply steam-rollered any opposition.

Back at my parents I now had the joy of trying to get the new sofa into the van. My parents (who were away) suggested I ask one of the neighbours for some help in loading the sofa as it was large and awkward rather than heavy. I knocked on both neighbours doors and got no response! I tried phoning some old friends in Essex, namely Sara Turner and Mick Stephenson, both erstwhile members of The Hoop Cricket Club, but both of them were already well ensconced in a couple of pubs and beyond helping me. In the end I somehow managed to manhandle the unwieldly sofa into the back of the van.

The drive home was long, wet and dark. I was very grateful to be home. In the morning my wife and I took our old sofa outside to make some room for the new one. We then got the new one out of the van - and it won't fit through the door! Amanda had to go to work so I am left here at home with a new sofa in the garden (the old one has gone to the great sofa heaven in the sky - aka the local recycling dump) and no way to get it in the house. HELP!

TO BE CONTINUED............