A real bugger of a job this morning, digging out a flowerbed. I had to pickaxe away about 3 or 4 inches of heavy clay + rock, shovel it out, wheelbarrow it down to the river, + then when the whole bed was finished, refill it with topsoil. The pickaxe work completely wrecked my left hand, so that it was covered in blisters, but it certainly felt good when I stopped. Sue gives us a tea break during the morning, which is nice + much appreciated, especially by me. My tea consumption has absolutely rocketed recently.
In the afternoon, we had a lift into town with Sue to do a bit of shopping, + to dispose of some beer bottles we collected. However, we discovered one only gets 6c a bottle, so we shan’t bother with that any more. When we returned, we moved our stuff into the garage – I’d helped Wayne to clear it for us yesterday afternoon. Once it was all set up, it was very cosy + comfortable, + we don’t have to worry about the rain anymore. A night off work at the Cascade, so we treated ourselves to bangers, mash + beans, with grapefruit for a starter, + with beer; + banana custard for pudding. Bliss.
Never been much of a one for manual labour, as demonstrated by the blisters on my hands. But I was there to do whatever was needed – we needed to keep Sue and Wayne sweet – so no complaints.
You will have noticed – you could scarcely have missed it – regular items in our diet, and I suppose bangers (sausages) mash and beans is one which recurs time and time again. Scarcely the healthy option, it’s true, but one which was easy, and provided true comfort. And is, incidentally, a dish to which we return, on a regular basis, even now. Not sure that bliss describes our reaction precisely nowadays, but always a pleasure. We now call it the Beano dinner – named after a kids’ comic here in England, in which, I think, it is depicted with a mountain of mash with sausages poking out.
Leave a Reply