Easter weekend

For us Easter Bank Holiday weekend was an opportunity to spread the normally hectic 2 day weekend over 4 days, with the added opportunity of doing some little extras. Among the extras was an evening meal out together Saturday evening, just Suzie & I, to celebrate our 24th wedding anniversary. Karen came up from Canvey Island and stayed over Monday night and as I write this the 2 should be having a girlie day in the Derby Westfield Centre shops.

Saturday morning I looked out to find 2 burly chaps stomping round our front garden. Turns out that they are from Virgin Media and trying to sort out our telephone connectivity problems by laying some new cable out in the street. Did they do it? Who knows. They were around for about ½ hour or so before there was a snow flurry and after sitting on their van for 10 minutes waiting for it to stop, they disappeared. No sooner gone, and the snow stopped falling. All I know is that we are still on a temporary phone line patched into next door’s connection. I really do wonder how these telcos make any money – so far they have been out on 3 visits and it’s obvious that at least one more will be required in order to finish the job.

Sunday was fun – Andy was given a Lamborghini driving experience by his girlfriend for Christmas, so Suzie and I took them down to Bruntingthorpe in Leicestershire where he’d chosen to do it. It was a bitterly cold day, especially bearing in mind the amount of standing around that goes on at these events. First he had a Bonus Ride (which everybody was getting) to learn the track – this was in a Subaru Impreza. Then a wait for his turn behind the wheel of a Lamborghini Gallardo. 5 litres, 500bhp and 4 wheel drive. Only 4 laps but he was super impressed. So there he is, not yet 21 and he’s track driven a Lotus Elise at Rockingham, a Ferrari 360 at 3 Sisters and a Lamborghini Gallardo at Bruntingthorpe – not bad, not bad at all.

Other news – in between the snow flurries I managed to give the grass it’s first cut of the year. Washed and waxed both my and Suzie’s cars. And treated Suzie to a new Deep Fat Chip Fryer as an anniversary present – I really know how to treat a woman! Popped in for a couple of quick visits on Mum & Dad (Saturday and Monday). Dad’s getting deaf and that’s making conversation difficult. Mum wasn’t too tired, which is good to see, but she’s still running round too much for Dad. He doesn’t realise just how demanding he is being at times so he got a few words of home truth from me on Saturday. Suzie’s sister rang on Monday and caught Suzie in the mood to speak her mind, which she duly did. Suzie is most upset by her Mum & Dad forgetting our anniversary and continually going on about poor little Janice simply because Janice got caught claiming benefit while she had money in the bank. She’s never worked a day in her life yet she leads a life style that would keep Heather McCartney happy and has more savings than we do after 24 years married and with both of us earning. We feel we have honestly earned our life style, but, Janice manages to sponge more out of her relationships with her lady friends.

Mark is enjoying a break from his studies by getting in some snooker and poker evenings with his old school mates while they are all back from uni as well as spending some time with his girlfriend and fitting in some driving lessons. Apparently he has a date for his driving Theory Test, but he’s not telling when it is.