Footballers for Louis and curtains for Grandad

Norman wakes me, letting me know he needs to go out, just after seven o'clock. It is a dry clear morning when I open the patio doors to let him into the garden, I can just make out the rabbits scurrying towards the hedges in the field beyond my garden in the dim, early morning light. Although  there are kippers in the fridge, I don't feel like a cooked breakfast this morning, so use the last of the smoked salmon on rye toast with cream cheese, poor Normy makes do with dry dog food. After coffee, I shower and dress and then peg out yesterday's white washing, before putting a basket full of coloureds into the washing machine and then walking Norman as far as the little wooden bridge. Carr Lane is still very muddy and between the farm and the bridge there are huge puddles, nevertheless we manage to find a way through and stand on the bridge looking west, down the drain towards Beverley and the gently rolling hills of the East Yorkshire wolds. On the horizon there is a strip of pale blue sky, and as the weather is coming from the west, we could have sunshine within the hour. As we make our way back home, I notice lots of finches in the hedgerows, mostly chaffinches but here and there a flash of scarlet from a bullfinch and the yellow of a gold finch. The girls from the farm have planted bulbs on either side of the path beyond their gate, I could well be wrong but they look like onions! In order to walk off some of the mud, we take a stroll through the village and chat with an old lady with a mongrel which she says she got from a rescue centre. Like Norman he will be sixteen in April. When we return home, the sun has broken through the cloud and I determine to clean the Chrysler, before collecting Louis at midday, but first I knock up a batch of sultana oaties and put them in the oven on the timer for thirty five minutes. Although the back seat is covered by a blanket and old towels protect the floor, the terriers still manage to make a mess and it takes a while to vacuum and clean off all the dried mud and paw prints. The oven is bleeping when I return indoors, but fortunately the oaties are just the right side of well done. After giving Norman some biscuits, I drive to Sarah's house and collect Louis, he wants to go back to Northpoint for some more Click brick footballers and when I say that he had some on Wednesday, he says he can buy these with this week's spending money. First I need to call at Morrison's to do some shopping and to use the Polish hand car wash, which is next door to the supermarket. In fact we have the car washed first, Louis taking an intense interest in the division of labour, as we progress through stages of washing, spraying, shampooing, polishing and finally drying. "Do you think they get to swap jobs", he asks, "I expect so", I reply, but am proved wrong when Louis checks with a man who wipes the insides of the door sills. "No", the man says, "we tend to stick to the same jobs, every day". "I would bags being the sprayer man", Louis asserts with confidence. "It would be nice, at least once in a while", the chap concedes, and then it is time to drive off and I drop some change in the tip bucket as we leave. Louis wants to ride in a trolley while I shop and somehow I manage to lift him into the seat, in fact it is well worth the effort, otherwise he would take off on his own in pursuit of toys or comics. As it is half term, we meet several of his classmates, who are shopping with their mums or Nana's, Louis is very well known, but all the kids seem to like him well enough. We are eating Mexican tonight, Alice loves spare ribs, and I am going to make nachos, tortillas, and a vegetable chile for me, I have most of the stuff, but need Jalapeño peppers and grated cheese for the nachos and a pack of ready made tortillas. We chat while I shop, and modify our plans, the shop in which we bought his Click brick players was Boyes, and they have a store in Beverley, so we will try there first. We park round the corner in Minster Moorgate, a few feet from where Andrew and Sam used to live when they were first married, and then walk the two hundred yards to the store in Wednesday Market. Louis is in luck, they have a box in the toy section and I also spot some new curtains in red in their winter sale which will do for the front room, they are fully lined and exactly the right size. Immediately we have completed our purchase, Louis wants to go home and assemble his footballers and as our parking space is limited to an hour, it isn't a bad idea. On our way back, I show Louis Andrew's old house, and whoever has bought it, has spent a lot of money doing it up, but this area has become somewhat gentrified over the last ten years. When we arrive back in Tickton, I task Louis with laying out all the pieces, while I bring in the washing from the line, it is just about dry. We set up our assembly line again and within half an hour the players are all put together, it is easier the second time. Then Louis "helps" me to put up the new curtains, it is straight forward enough, we bought a pack of plastic hooks in the store. The curtains fit well, but look somewhat rumpled, but the instructions says the creases will drop out within forty eight hours. It is now time to return to Sarah's house and Louis, Norman, his basket and food and I and my overnight bag, climb into the gleaming car and drive back to town. After unloading everybody and our bags, we I make the chile in Sarah's pressure cooker and then leave it on a low light while Louis and I take Normy for his evening walk around Seven Corners Lane. As we come out of the house, we meet Jan Morrison who is also taking her dachshund, Toffee, for his evening walk. The two dogs say hello and Louis chats to Jan, the differences in age between dogs and humans is comparable, Toffee's two to to Norman's fifteen and Louis' five to Jan's seventy five, notwithstanding differentials, everyone gets along very well. We part company at York Road, as Jan heads off into town and we progress round our loop. We return home for alf past five and Louis plays while I make dinner, I lack my usual fluency in Sarah's kitchen and dinner isn't served until six fifteen, the nachos are a little spicy for Louis' taste, but he demolishes his fair share of the spare ribs. At seven, Alice takes Louis to bed while I clear away and wash up. Sarah phones from Harrogate at eight to ensure all is well, I reassure her and she enjoins me to make sure that Alice gets up for seven in the morning, as she has a Saturday job at the hairdressers across the road and starts at eight. Later I read a few pages of my book and then go to bed at eleven..