Once again a late arising – this time it was Val’s turn to pop out into the cold + make me breakfast in bed. Eventually roused ourselves, + popped over to see Rob, to collect a couple of films he wanted developing in town. He’d told us he was working today, but only in the afternoon, it seemed, he was just sitting down writing a letter. We took that + the films from him + drove into town (it was now near 12 o’clock.) First stop was the Mission Shopping Centre to pick up a bit of shopping, yet again. We seem to be able to spend small fortunes any time we venture out. Then, into town proper, dropping off Rob’s films + popping round to the Bargain Barn, a rip-off second-hand shop. I wanted to use my Leon Russell tape, which we’d discovered was rubbish, to part-exchange for another. The woman there wasn’t keen, the guy didn’t mind, + offered me a dollar for it. I glanced at their collection of 8-tracks, + immediately grabbed “A New World Record” by ELO, an album I’ve been wanting for years. It cost $2 – I was pleased.
It was a nice day, so we drove to the park to take some pictures, first of a nice statue called “Sails”, then the famous bridge. Able to laugh + joke with Val. Stopped off next at the information centre, then drove out to Mission Hill winery, to go on a tour, which was dullish, followed by a tasting, which wasn’t. In fact, they were very generous, + gave us a good measure of about 6 or 7 wines, plus a couple of ciders – we bought a bottle of wine for any future celebration. Then, somewhat pissed, + listening to ELO blaring out, we drove back to town, stopping at the library to discover that West Ham had drawn 1-1 with Liverpool at home, + had slipped to 2nd place.
Lazed around for a while, then Rob came in… he’d only worked 3 hrs or so, picking up props. He cooked an excellent meal: soup, a sort of cheesy stew, then we had fresh fruit salad Val had made. Played dice in the evening.
Am not going to apologise for my liking for ELO, one of the great pop bands, with some classic songs, even if they were used, on this occasion, to accompany some more driving under the influence. Heaven knows what would have happened had we run into our policeman friend. And even though I can only apologise for the irresponsibility, I do still recall the excitement of driving away from the vineyard with the music blaring.
Interesting that I should feel the need to comment on being able to laugh and joke with Val, which somehow indicates that this was rare enough to be worthy of comment. Hm.
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