WELCOME TO MY DAY..

IT IS NICE TO HAVE YOU SHARE IT WITH ME...

Well, all those jokes you've heard about the English summer? You'd better believe 'em, folks! It is still cold, though the rain is clearing, and we have seen some sun now...and remember, I left my COAT home!!
Getting clothes dry is our main problem since the flat we are staying in has a washing machine but no dryer, and we haven't found a laundrette yet..or rather I DID, but then couldn't find it again and had to lug the dirty clothes home again.
But the owner sent a vacuum cleaner around today, and I cleaned the main parts of the carpet...as soon as I can work out how to get the brushhead OFF, and the crevice tool ON, I'll do around the edges as well!

We have a phone now, and know our phone number, but the number appears to have been wrongly listed as a company and a supermarket, so life is far from quiet! . And noone has been able to do the 20 minute drive to collect my dressing gown yet from the hotel...hmmm...okay for me to come halfway around the world, but too far to drive from Bradford to the Village of Tong!
Might be a lesson in there for me, I'd say!

You might remember I had a car and hotel booked. but son's fiancee's sister had a flat, and her uncle had a hire-car agency..so son insisted I cancel both bookings....
But the flat had no active phoneline so I settled in the hotel for the weekend...
and then son saw the kind of car the uncle had made available for his fiancee, and said, "NO Way!""
But son was anxious for me to get wheels, and the wedding is 35 minutes drive away and everybody is SO busy.. so today he called a hirecar firm I had found ..and shortly thereupon a nice shiny Mondeo arrived,. NOT airconditioned and NOT automatic, but son keeps impressing upon me that when one is travelling one has to make do..
And then he left, insisting that I spend the day making friends with the car, collecting my dressing-gown, and become familiar with the route to the wedding..from Leeds to an obscure Bradford Lane...
And it wasn't until I was quite hopelessly lost, and had been driving for four hours, turning my windscreen wipers on in mistake for my indicators , that I called him the first time....
(he had programmed his number into the mobile for me!)
And he told me to look for Lister Park, whihch was easy to find, and that the Hotel Dubrovnic was right nearby!
And it wasn't until I was even more lost, and the car was smoking,that I stopped in a street with no streetsigns whatsoever, and called him again..
And this time he and his brother-in-law elect actually came to look for me,glad to get away from the bridal house where things were becoming rather tetchy and tense and I had found a Pakistani Offlicence where the owner could translate my whereabouts into the mobile for Imram....
and they eventually located me in most unexpected part of Bradford, and found the car had no oil..

And they phoned the hirecar company who told them to put oil in it..that it had obviously been forgotten..
And Imram went for oil while Dave/Daud stayed with me and smoked forbidden cigarettes...
And then we went to book in at the Hotel Dubrovnic where the second wedding is being held and Daud was going to direct me back but Imram decided they had better show me the way in reverse, he driving one car ahead back to Leeds , and Dave driving me while I followed it all on the map...
Well, I didn't, as it happened...not real good at mapreading...but the problem was that the Mondeo kept heating, even with the oil, and was smelling and smoking rather badly..
So the son told me to phone the hirecar company and insist on a replacement car...then he went to get his preweddintg haircut!
And I did that, and the manager was extra nice and sent me an almost new Astra with air-conditioning....
And the delivery mechanic smelled the Mondeo and said it didn't smell like oil..more like clutch or brakes, and that he hoped I hadn't driven it far in THAT condition, but it was past closing time, and he was anxious to get away.....
Amd when I'd put my dinner in the oven, and made the salad (daughter hadn't shown up from London yet), I thought I'd do a quick trip into town and back to make sure I could get in and out of this maze to and from the hairdresser ....
And the Astra was parked almost up to the brick wall of the building, and on a downward slope, and I couldn't, couldn't, COULDN'T get it into reverse, and each time I tried it drove or rolled closer to the wall.. so in the end I eased it right up against the bricks and started grabbing likely young males to put it into reverse for me or push it back up the slope...
and nobody could...so I rang the AA number I'd been given......
and THEY said it wasn't listed with them, but it was new enough to be under Vauxhall warranty still, and gave me another number...
and a nice, tired man came and put it into reverse first go..and reparked it so it wouldn't drive into the wall no matter WHAT I did.. and he showed me the little ring thing you lift to put a Vauxhall Astra into reverse...
and suggested the delivery lad should have done that already!!

And I am thinking about the nice reliable Hertz I had organized to meet me at the airport, and about the fleet of Mercedes and Jags the bride's family is using.....which, of course, I can share if I can just get to the Bradford house ....and I am missing my Laser Ghia just SO much.
but even I couldn't get HER into my suitcases!!
Though anyone carrying them is going to think I HAVE!!!

And apart from my dismal orienteering on the road today, I've also broken my own longstanding record, set in Brisbane in 1979, for how many times I can get lost walking in one day!
The flat is in Kendall Bank....there is Kendall Close, Kendall Walk, Kendall Court, Kendall Grove, Kendall Lane, and Kendall every-other-thing..all within a square mile or so with Kendall Bank sort of in the middle..and I know every inch of every Kendall now..
Australia, with its planned streets and geometric layouts is very poor preparation for walking the English cobblestones...believe me, when I finally worked out how to get to my front door, the three flights of stairs, even with groceries, didn't seem as steep as usual!
But I will be one pair of shoes lighter on the homeward journey...the blue suede wedges which behaved so badly today are now in the bag which serves us as a trash bin!
And IF I had a bowl or bucket, my poor feet would have been soaking in it!!
But I bought a pack of those plastic icecube bags the day before, and some of those had set nicely.....
To improvise is to maybe survive!!

Daughter is seriously missing her five children, despite her determination to rage every possible minute of this trip.
We heard a two year old having a cry yesterday, and I didn't have to ask how it twisted her heart about.
So we used ICQ to message with my husband, and HE rang HER husband and relayed messages between us all...mostly hers were of the of the "Come home as planned with no extensions" variety, which means she and whoever is driving her will have to leave the post-wedding get-together to take her to the bus... and that she will have to take her suitcases to the wedding...unless we can change her bus trip to Heathrow for a plane..
rather hard to do when she is In London and out of touch!

For some reason, Australians have the idea the Brits don't eat all that well..that there isn't much variety.... haddock and chips, bangers and mash, roast beef and Yorkshire Pud.. and that's about it!
But I can assure you the food in the shops and supermarkets is quite superb...(and remember, I'm in Leeds, not Mayfair)...that the ordinary Brit can choose from an incredible array of every kind of food..and the readymade and ready-to-cook sections of the supermarkets are just huge..so much variety and so reasonably priced!
And the EEC is surely making an impact..French and Dutch and German and Spanish competitor products lined up alongside the brands we recognise!
Was funny to see Rosemount shiraz in the foreign wines section and French wines as the housebrand!!
But then, French champagne is the wine from the next valley, here!!

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