3.30am. Panic …..I leave tomorrow and nothings done!
I’ve been on this computer since 11 last night, after a hurried drive to Taunton and back to see Dad before I go. My typing still gets no better, its even worse! So it’s bed for me for a few hours sleep. Kirstie is up again for an emergency so we pass, like ships in the night, equally tired but for different reasons. Ah, a bed waiting for me that’s nice and warm.
Without another vet (allowed to practice) in this place, who even wants to do farm work, then she is going to drop or we just have to give up farm work and lose the very reason why we both chose this profession in the first place. I sleep till 6 but Kirstie is now back so its my turn to make the early morning tea, kick Morgan and Gen out of their beds and let loose 3 wild Springer Spaniels , Mollie, Snipe and Hector to scurry off across the fields amongst the welsh mountain ponies. Damned things, just eat my aeroplanes and too small to ride.
Replacement carburettor for the cub in Darwin has been on ‘walkabout’ and so still not on the engine due to one digit wrong in the post code box! Still no insurance for China found in UK, Australia or USA. Overflight clearances still not confirmed for Malaysia and I still have no visitor’s visa for Indonesia. It is still being processed at the embassy in London. Cutting it a bit fine but that one is to be collected on the way to the airport!
Our Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Williams, voiced my parents opinion yesterday that parents in this country are neglecting the bringing up of their children to respect law and order. Mum, I can hear you now. Genevieve will not be neglected to today, however, as she is only too well aware of Dad’s departure. Off to Cardiff to buy her a birthday present ….not a pink doll or a catapult but a computer! A sign of the times. Between arranging a birthday party at the local holiday camp and being on the phone tying up loose ends I have the job of preparing the new web site, co.uk, on more serious stuff to be launched this week. Detail of some of the meatier stuff must wait until my return to the UK
At 2.30pm and we are all off to Porthcawl for a party with 20 or so of St John’s pupils, most from Gen’s class. On route a baby Tawny owl is in the middle of the road. Quick, no injuries, into the boot before the fox gets her and she can be reared for our wood and my 3 year old empty owl boxes! (so far only yielded one field mouse nest , a chaffinch’s nest and a hornet’s nest!). 30 minutes of kids’ screaming and laughter and I am back in the car to get on with my preparation for the tip. But 30 minutes plus 1 and I am asleep, with the windows wide open. I awake freezing as it is raining sleet and blowing a gale. I‘m getting far too old for all this.at least I can catch up on some sleep and give these hips a rest at Heathrow before the flight.
5.30pm and Rob arrives to give crash a course on GPRS (mobile) and transfer of film etc to UK …. Wow what a price!!!! He expects me to remember the button sequence! I then conjure up some Champagne to celebrate a birthday and/or Dad going away? Back to packing…. absolute minimum and weighing for the lightest clothes hidden amongst, now, the present wrapping paper, strewn now all over the room. Bed by 10 for a 5 0’clock start.