Carpets and suchlike

Not much action in the blogosphere lately as there’s little to write about except the weather. However, as arctic conditions are forecast to be with us for the foreseeable future, one must press onwards and upwards. After all, like it or not, we are British and along with the stiff upper lip, everything else remains frozen.

All is weather related. For a start, I had to get the man-child back to the land of the sheep in time for the commencement of second year examinations. The window of opportunity was shrouded in ice and sleet so a trip to Swansea looked out of the question. Maybe, Salisbury was a better point of exit? Salisbury may not have much to recommend it, apart from the obvious, but it does have a railway station at which direct trains to Newport stop. Quite a coup really given that catching a train to Wales from Poole involves registration for the Duke of Edinburgh’s gold award. Naturally, the lad wanted door to door travel laid on and a major sulk ensued. Is this the same person that has traversed the length and width of the sub-continent without a whinge? Who can say? Anyway, getting out of bed at the allotted time was a non-starter as was packing a bag or six; which meant, along with slow driving on precariously surfaced roads, we missed the train for which tickets had been pre-booked. Our student of business management had incorrectly written down the reference number for said ticket so was unable to retrieve it from the machine and thus unable to obtain a replacement, refund or anything else beginning with R. I left him at the station with cheese and pickle sandwiches and skidded on back to Dorset.

Meanwhile, there had been an incident with a cup of tea, which was most unusual as the majority of accidents indoors seem to involve red wine. Two years’ worth of spillage has latterly been covered by a small sheep-skin rug purchased in the sales. Accordingly, I moved to the other settee only to chuck a mug of Darjeeling over the only part of the carpet thus far unblemished. The apparently fortuitous positioning of the next to useless Radio Times only served to separate the ensuing stain into two distinct blobs. A very nice man arrived from the insurance company with a number of carpet samples. I was all for the black feeling it would enhance my current ‘shabby chic’ décor. The carpet man was not in agreement feeling, I suspected, that I was more shabby than chic. Looks as if it’s going to be beige again then.