Giant cushion

Mirinda has decided that we need everything giant-sized. She bought a yoga mat a few days ago which turned out to be an exercise mat. While it’s obviously very comfortable, being three times as thick as a yoga mat, it is massive. It actually makes the extension look small. It’s also bright yellow. I reckon the problem will be staying awake while lying on it.

At the same time as buying the mat, she also bought two dog cushions for the girls. Emma, in particular, has taken to lying on a cushion rather than the floor tiles so, Mirinda thought, we should buy her her own rather than use the old ones off the lounge. And so she could lie on one by the dining table or in front of the telly, depending on where we are situated in the room, she ordered two.

The cushions turned up today. And they are big.

If you imagine a ten year old child lying on a king size mattress then you’ve pretty much got Emma on these cushions. Not that she’s complaining and, actually, she has taken to them very quickly. Even Day-z finds them comfortable and snuggled up to Emma at one stage tonight. Not that there’s any real need to snuggle. There’s enough room for another couple of dogs at least. I’m fairly certain that Rodney would fit on one.

There was no such luxury for me today. Having visited Waitrose then walked Mirinda to the station (she caught a late train in this morning) I then had to rush home in time to meet with Chris the Gardener. As it turned out, the rush wasn’t necessary.

Chris had arranged to be at the house at 11 to discuss his next big job (converting the section down the side of the office into a bark chipped avenue). The hour came and went…and kept on going down the road and into the midday traffic. Given I didn’t want to miss him, I set myself up at the Shady Bed (henceforth to be called The Garden of a Thousand Yaps) and started weeding.

By lunchtime, I decided to eat, thinking I’d give him a call afterwards to find out what was happening. I didn’t have to ring him because he called me to say he’d been held up by an idiot and would explain when he arrived in about 45 minutes.

I think I’ve mentioned before how happy Chris is. He is a naturally jovial chap, seeing something to smile about in just about anything. He wasn’t smiling today. A young guy he had working for him had poured the wrong type of petrol into his whipper snipper, causing it to die.

As Chris explained, if the kid had apologised and said it wouldn’t happen again then maybe it would have been okay, if somewhat annoying. However, what the kid did was to make excuses and, basically, blame Chris for it. After staring bemused at him for a short while, Chris told him his lack of expertise would no longer be required.

So, having rid himself of the idiot, Chris then had to fix his equipment so that the job they were working on could continue.

When telling the story, Chris actually swore, something he rarely does (in front of clients, anyway) so I figured it really got up his goat.

Anyway, he was pretty much over it and back to his jolly self by the time he was strolling around the garden with me. He was very pleased with the progress of the Wildflower Patch and the lawn. He marvelled at the new plants establishing themselves in the Crazy Bed and generally cheered up…even after I’d told him what we wanted him to do next.

He’s planning on starting on Saturday next.

After Chris left, I took the girls for a walk then settled back into weeding in the glorious sunshine and gradually cooling afternoon.