I couldn’t really call it anything else today, could I? God Bless you your majesty and thank you for all you did for this Country and Commonwealth in your 70 year reign. You will be missed!
The Rambler goes for a ramble. A few weekends ago now, on the Friday evening my wife said to me, ‘The weather is supposed to be nice tomorrow; we could go for a walk. Have you got any books with local walks in them?’ Have I got any book of local walks? Only 3 or 4! So we browsed through them looking for walks of about 5 miles, a good distance to start with.
We found a few and then decided on one just to the East of Bedford, near the village of Willington. Started of late morning in the car park of a Dovecote, which was apparently built in about 1540 something and is home to about 1500, yes 1500 pigeons.
The walk took us across the fields towards Cardington, which is home to 2 Airship Hangers, one of the being built in 1916 and later enlarged for the R101 Airship the other was moved there in about 1919.
My book, which was printed in 1990 turned out to be a little out of date, funnily enough. We came across a new Woodland that had been planted for the Millennium which obviously wasn’t on the map and then a lake. This is just a gravel pit that has been excavated and then filled to form a lake. It was the watercourse and the bridge crossing it that were the give away that it was new as the lake would have been just on the edge or just off the map had it been there when the book was written.
Still, it was very pleasant and we got back to the Dovecote at lunchtime, so we sat outside and ate our picnic. At 5 miles it was just long enough to be worth doing but not too long to start getting fed up. This all bodes well for more walks around other interesting places not far from home and probably slightly longer, let’s wait and see!
Thought this bit might get a bit busier than it did. I came home from work one Friday a few weeks ago, have not been feeling too well all day, so the Wife said I should do a Covid test. Negative!
“Yeah but a negative test can sometimes be positive” she says! So Saturday morning not feeling any better, probably worse, I did another test. Positive! So that was me banished to the loft for the day, the spare room for the night and all day Sunday! Monday morning before they went to visit grandma both Wife and Daughter tested positive. The Whole house infected!
We decided that as we were all positive that there was no point in us isolating ourselves from each other and we just milled around the house as normal. To be fair, we didn’t have that much close contact, we would be in the lounge together or in the kitchen getting a meal but apart from that. I was still banished to the spare room, which was cool as I didn’t feel like I was excluding anyone or myself if I just went to lie on the bed to read.
So Thursday I did another test, still positive, just, very feint line. Feeling much better, as was the rest of the house; we were still keeping ourselves to ourselves and just mixing as and when we needed to. Come Saturday I was negative, the other two were still positive so I kept out of their way.
Bless, my daughter had to have a Zoom second interview for a job, which she feels is maybe why she was pipped for the post, and I of course got the blame, didn’t help that the first interview was a Zoom call as well, due to a rail strike. Thankfully by the Monday all was well with the world, some of us went back to work as well as our rooms! As a postscript, the bed I had to sleep on definitely needs a new mattress!
The other Saturday was interesting! Daughter’s boyfriend is after a new car, after someone collided with his old one and it was written off. We are heading over to Stevenage, about 15 or so miles away (Funny thing is Tranmere were playing Stevenage the next week, but at Prenton Park (don’t even go there!)), we were just turning into the road that the dealership is on and my battery warning light comes on, great!
That means that my alternator is not working and the battery is not being recharged and the car will only keep going for as long as the battery holds out. We look at a car, even test drive it but decide to go to nearby Letchworth to look at another. We have lunch and then travel towards home to go to Dunstable to see another. Half way there as we are passing through Hitchin, about 10 miles from home, the car dies!
Thankfully it was 40 or 50 metres short of a roundabout and on some hatching at the side of the road. I’ve been a member of the RAC for over 30 years; I’ve called them out once. Two or Three years ago my Insurance company told me that my car insurance had RAC cover with it, so I didn’t need to have separate cover.
I rang the RAC and told them that I no longer needed my membership, I was convinced into keeping my membership but cancelling the breakdown cover, this would cost me just £5 per year and would benefit me if I ever needed to take out breakdown cover again.
So I’ve broken down, I’ve rung the RAC, long and drawn out automated call and then I speak to a person, only to be told that my cover had expired and they had no record of my vehicle on their system. They could come and rescue me but it would cost me and they told me the price. I then explained my tale of keeping my membership but not the breakdown cover, was passed to someone else and it transpires that the cost of recovery was half.
Told them where I was, paid the fee and then sat and waited.
We only waited just over 20 minutes, the guy turned up (he’d been past us twice whilst I was on the phone) made a temporary fix with a replacement battery and followed me home, swapped the batteries again and was on his way. We swapped cars, took my wife’s car and off we went to see the car we were originally heading for. They saw it like it, but as it was close to closing time by then, a test drive was arranged for the following afternoon. Drove home, drama over, had a cup of tea!
Upshot was, I took them back the next day, they test drove it, liked it and bought it. Me, I rang the insurance company on the Monday to query this whole RAC membership thing. Apparently my wife’s car is covered by the insurance company for that car, but the insurance on my car is with a different company and so that car is not covered!
Getting fed up with James Bond yet? I’ve read a couple of non Bond books in between ‘Goldfinger’ and ‘For you eyes only’, just to break up the ennui. Found a couple of good ones in book exchanges and charity tables on holiday, Drowning Ground by James Marrison and then Slow Horses by Mick Herron, which it turns out has been dramatised by Apple TV. Snuck in a quick Jo Nesbo as well, ‘Police’ also on the charity table in Morrisons. But I’m back on the Bond now ‘For your eyes only’ which is actually a collection of 5 short stories, including ‘A view to a kill’ ‘Quantum of Solace’ and ‘For your eyes only’.