Yikes – I’ve overslept!

 

I dimly remember MTL rising about 6.30am and saying

 “If I were you I’d have a lie in.”

I drifted downstairs at tennish to find no husband and no car.  The calendar revealed  he had an appointment at the Warfarin Clinic at 9.30am (so that’s alright then) and I had an appointment at 11am – absolutely NOT alright then.

An abject phone call to my therapist earned me forgiveness and a postponement so I could breathe again.

 Yesterday was lovely and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.  The three of us had a faintly bone- shattering bus ride to Taunton, in grim weather, but everything brightened when we discovered Margaret – our fourth member, in Debenhams – having trained from Cheltenham.

 After a long coffee and catch – up we found the fashion floor – not as straight forward as you may think with four highly informed opinions which tend to differ where geography is concerned.  Joy wanted to find ‘Jake’s’ (translated - this turned out to be Jacque Vert aka Jack Green the fashion brand) to get an outfit for her grand –daughter’s wedding in October.

 We found a pretty floaty number in different shades of aubergine but there were no trousers and Joy was determined to wear trousers.  The four of us flitted from rival firm to rival firm taking stock from hither to yon.  (I did apologise to the assistants but they seemed glad of any activity on such a beastly day).  In the end we had to admit a temporary defeat and crossed over the road to the County Stores for lunch.

 Once we were sitting comfortably with a bottle of wine- and later food, the time passed pleasantly with photo swapping and presents for the birthday girls.  Margaret never allows us to forget that she is the youngest –actually ten years younger than Jackie so we were shocked to hear she had had a fall.  The day after travelling from Scotland she and her husband had been at a nursery and Margaret went to the car to put a plant in the boot- plant in one hand, keys in the other.  The next thing she knew she was on the ground and when she finally managed to get to her feet held her hands aloft crying,

“Where is the blood coming from?” (My telling her of the experience with the Lady Macbeth dress, see Le Weekend Part 2 - reminded her she had felt exactly like Lady M.)

In fact the wound was under her chin, she had to go to hospital for stitches and found she had dislocated her jaw. The medic got her to make extraordinary grimaces and all went back in place.  Had it been me I would have got them to gather up the slack at the same time as the sutures, but that’s just me.

 Her presents for the girls were those crystal things that you can hang by a window and they sparkle in the sun - in the shape of a tiny angel and a drink mat each with a sparkling design.  Such pretty items.  No-one seemed to mind that we had been sitting there for hours but eventually it was time to brave the deluge and part.  Hugs, kisses and – inevitably Margaret’ tears and we experienced once more, the sweet sorrow of parting.

 The journey back was bad –crawling through Taunton and visiting every nook and cranny of West Somerset.  Only one 7- seater taxi awaited us in Minehead.  One of us – who shall be nameless, said we shouldn’t take that - it would be too expensive. So like Ninnies we stood for 20minutes until one of us rebelled.  By the time he had dropped three of us the total cost was £4 which is incredible value.!!!!!

 

I had just changed into something comfy and the phone rang.  It was Jackie distraught because she had lost the bag with the present from Margaret.  As I said to MTL,

“She’ll be heartbroken if she has lost it”.

Ten minutes later the doorbell rings – it’s Jackie with a happy smile on her face.  Her daughter seeing the distress on her mother’s face rushed her down to Minehead and the bag was safely found in the taxi.

No wonder I overslep