Thursday May 26th 2022

10:00 Lois and I drive the approximately100-mile drive to Headley, Hampshire, to spend a week or so pet-sitting for our daughter Alison and her husband Ed. Ali and Ed and their 3 children are going to spending a week near Hay-on-Wye on the Welsh border, taking the family's Danish dog Sika with them, but leaving behind the 2 cats Dumbledore and Otto, and also leaving their tank of tropical fish. Makes sense!

We arrive about 12:30 pm. the kid, and Ali, who's a teacher's assistant, are still at school and Ed is working remotely online in his office, so he waves to us and we let ourselves in at the back door. As usual there are various workmen doing jobs around the house, a painter, a glazier and somebody else who we don't know what he's doing - what madness!!!

as we arrive, a painter is busy painting the front porch and door

14:00 Ed is busy with business calls, so we have lunch from some food we've brought with us, and then make ourselves at home in our bedroom, which overlooks the so-called grass tennis-court.

we are left to our own devices, so we make ourselves

at home in our bedroom, which is nice

15:00 Ali comes back from her job and starts on her various duties.

Alison fine-tunes her arrangement of the family's clothes

on her complex system of drying lines...

...and adds water to the bees' "drinking fountain"

- how kind she is !!!!

Lois and I make friends with some of the pets - we don't have to worry about Sika, the Danish dog, because he's travelling with the family to Wales, but Otto the cat will certainly be depending on us for his 2 meals a day, that's for sure!

Otto the cat puts in an appearance

behind one of the giant flower pots...

...and also Sika, who wants us to throw a log

for him to fetch. No chance, Sika !!!!

16:00 The children come home from school - Josie (15), Rosalind (13) and Isaac (11). Unfortunately both Rosalind and Isaac are suffering from colds at the moment, which is a pity.

Alison and Lois with Josie (15) and Rosalind (13)

Alison with Rosalind and little Otto

our grandson Isaac - he has a bad cold, so he won't

be doing his usual Thursday evening soccer or singing.

Poor Isaac !!!!!

I always feel like a bit of a freak here, because of my height. I'm only 5 ft 10.5 inches, so not a giant, but I'm sure I'm a good 6 inches taller than anybody else - what a crazy planet we're living on !!!!

this is me, trying not to look too tall,

and acting all casual-like, as if it's perfectly normal to be 5'10"

- what madness !!!!

Oddly for Lois and me, we don't watch any TV this evening. We chat with Ali and Ed about house-hunting, and the kids come in and do bits of homework. Rosalind has a project on how the Nazis manipulated media to put across their propaganda. Lois and I tell her about Leni Riefenstahl, the film director, that Rosalind hadn't heard about. And Isaac was doing his piano practice in the same room - they have a facility for a silent piano so he presses down the keys but there's no sound in the room - and Isaac can hear what he's playing via headphones - what madness!!!!

[That's enough madness! - Ed]

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!