Today was quite a full day for us. Once we had both got ourselves up, washed and breakfasted we started to think about the bits of shopping that we needed to do this morning. We intended to visit Droitwich which is one of our usual ventures for a Monday morning – at least, the weather is enjoying quite a mild stage at the moment. We made a visit to the major Aldi store in town to buy some things that were out of stock in the smaller supermarket in which we generally shop. Fortunately, they had plenty of supplies of what we wanted and then we hit the road to Droitwich. En route, we needed to pick up our copy of ‘The Times‘ which we did at a large Shell garage on the road. Then we called in at Waitrose just to use their ATM machine within the store and then finally got to our friendly cafe in Droitwich where we had our normal ration of a large bacon sandwich between the two of us and a teapot of tea. Once we were sufficiently refreshed, we struck off in a slightly different direction to visit the Cancer UK Charity shop that we used to frequent when we took our coffee in another establishment. Here we had a quick look around and did not see anything immediately to our liking but we did pause before a large display of charity Christmas cards. Our thoughts have not really turned to this annual task just yet but we are starting to receive a small stream of cards day by day from those who are better organised. When selecting Christmas cards, I like to buy cards with a strongly religious theme for relatives and friends who would appreciate them, cards stressing peace and international collaboration for internationalist minded friends and acquaintances and a variety of cards for everybody in between. I have a particular dislike of what you might term ‘jolly robin’ type cards or those with ho-ho-ho Santas on them and try to choose cards that are tasteful and look well designed. Whilst looking around, I mentiond to Meg that I was looking for cards with a religious type theme and a very helpful lady overheard my remark and found a pack of cards with a vaguely religious theme (images of a stable) We got into conversation and she told me that she played the piano and took some piano lessons but was still a bit weak on her left hand. I explained how I had recently purchased both a Casio keyboard and an organ and was practising some simple classical pieces which I both enjoyed in themselves and were quite easy to memorise. It is amazing who you meet in the most prosaic of circumstances. After this, we proceeded along to the Worcestershire Association of Carers to see what they had in offer. I had in mind even a Christmas jumper for myself but found nothing that was remotely tasteful but I did find quite a warm and high quality gilet type of garment in a very subtle shade of blue which I purchased for Meg.
Whilst we were having some coffee earlier in the day, we had received a telephone call from the secretary of the consultant whose clinic I was due to attend this afternoon for a regular annual monitoring check. My appointment in a local hospital this afternoon was to be postoned because the consultant himself could not take the clinic for ‘compassionate’ reasons. So I texted our friends down the road and we agreed to have a little tete-a-tete earlier on this afternoon. This is because tomorrow morning, we are going to be visited by our social worker and the manager of a care agency at 10.00 in the morning and we felt that we needed to take the advice and support of our friends who are very knowledgeable in this area and know just what questions to ask and what observations to make. We were provided with some delicious little sandwiches and had the most useful of chats, in the course of which I received a telephone call from the manager of another care agency with whom we have been put in touch and who may well prove to be exceptionally useful to us.
Last night, after Meg was in bed, I updated the little website that I maintain of the quality furniture we have acquired and renovated over the past few months. I also added some paragraphs of commentary about the provenance and particular feaures of each of the six pieces and then sent the whole URL of the website to my University of Winchester friend to ask his opinion of the same. He was very complimentary about the whole of this little project but it is now at at an end given that our Music Lounge is now completely furnished and needs no further additions. I did a very quick totting up of my total expenditure on these six pieces and it comes to about £160. It is just possible that I have been remarkably lucky or else in the right place at the right time but each individual piece is worth anything between five and thirty times what I paid for it. This run of luck must surely come to an end and, of course, I shall not be putting temptation in my own way by any further searches.
© Mike Hart [2023]