Friday 17th July 2015

Friday

First full day back home, and the very first job, well after the first cup of coffee, is to head to Tesco for some essential supplies. We are out of almost everything, including holibobs, so best get on with it. We are there at half seven, rushing round, grabbing stuff, trying to be healthy and so on, which we mostly succeeded in doing.

And then the biggest and best job is to collect the cats from the cattery and bring them home. This will be the second to last trip in the hire car, so Jools gets to drive there and me back. We leave at half nine, after the school run has ended, but it is still busy. At the cattery, we pay the hefty bill, and then try to round them up, which is harder than two weeks previously, but we do manage to do it whilst getting some superficial wounds, mostly from Molly.

Now is the rush to get home before Mulder’s bowels give out, so I try to be as quick as possible, but from Whitfield traffic is heavy, with hold ups at the Duke of York roundabout too. He is really spooked, and the inevitable happened as we passed Walletts Court, and he filled the basket, then lay in it. Man, it stunk to high heaven.

Once outside, we open the baskets and the cats run free, Mulder is told to clean himself up before thinking about going inside. The others seem to not believe they are back at home. Then normal service is resumed:

Meow.

The blanket is thrown out, the cats fed, and they follow us around all day like little lost sheep, asking for food every hour or so, which we give them.

We do have to head back out, into what can now be called carmegeddon. It seems that the traffic chaos caused by ferries not working to full capacity had yet more effects, and with operation stack back in place, as we tried to take the hire car back, we encountered traffic backing up on Jubilee Way. This time we got through in ten minutes, but it was only going to get worse as most of the nation’s schools would be hon holiday from today, with many more people heading for the ferry port.

We drop off the car with no issues, no damage and a wad of cash to get back from our deposit.

I take shots of the ongoing demolition work going on in the centre of town, the car park next to Burlington House being taken down, and the offices of the House itself being emptied prior to it too being taken down. It really is happening.

Now to deal with the issue of a certain high street bank that seems to have mis-laid £19k of Nan’s money. That this is still ongoing is a shocking reflection of this bank. We sat in the office of the manager for 90 minutes whilst various parts of the bank tried to find where the money was sent, after it was agreed Nan never had it.

We will still be waiting until into next week, when the money will be transferred, rather than one of those pesky checks being issued. Not much else we could do.

We go home for lunch and then more time with the cats, photo editing, blog writing and general time wasting, which is what you are supposed to do on holiday.

Wherever each of is goes, we are followed by a feline ghost, just tracking us and reminding us that should be decide to open a packet of cat food, they will be more than happy to eat the contents.

And so the day passes into afternoon and into evening.