It would be fair to say that I was really looking forward to going to the gym this morning. After a week in France and not going much the week before that, my body was complaining about the lack of workout. So, having walked all the way there in anticipation I left miserable and vowing to cancel my membership in favour of somewhere closer to, and in the general direction of, town.
The harsh reality of a sign proclaiming there were no towels because of a broken down truck was devastating for someone who walks everywhere. For about three years, there’s always been a towel for me. Today I walked in, saw the sign and left again. If there’s no towel, I can’t have a shower. If there’s no shower I can’t really work out.
At home, I looked up the always open gym not far from the Woolmead. The terms are good because there’s no pool. I wrote to the manager and will go and have a tour before committing to leaving Nuffield.
It’s not just the towel thing either. There’s a list that the towel thing is merely the final piece of straw. And, anyway, how come they don’t have a day’s overlap of towels for this kind of ‘just-in-case’ possibility? Probably a money saving thing.
Or Brexit. Yes, I blame Brexit.
That little annoyance out of the way, I went into Farnham to shop.
I’ve been trying to buy a replacement head for my Vileda mop. This should be easy. Generally I buy them from Waitrose but, for the last month or so, they haven’t had any. They’ve had plenty of other Vileda products just not the detachable/attachable heads that I prefer. And today, there were still none. I could have bought an entire mop with a replacement head attached but that seemed a bit ridiculous.
Following Waitrose, I went to Robert Dyas, thinking surely they’d have what I was after. I walked into an empty shop. The staff said good morning. I went to the back where the mops and general cleaning tools are located. While they had just about every Vileda cleaning tool available, they did not have the replacement heads.
I turned around and walked out of the shop. On the way the staff asked if they could help me. I told them that they didn’t have what I wanted so, no, they couldn’t.
As soon as I returned home, I bought two replacement heads from Amazon. They will arrive tomorrow. Rather than online being the death of the High Street, I reckon the High Street is its own worst enemy. Besides, the big out of town supermarkets already killed the High Street so the body is merely twitching.
Mirinda left for work at about midday (not returning until Thursday) so the girls and I settled in for lunch then a walk in the park.
In the park we had a bit of fun with the giant Daisy and tiny, fluffy Harley who wrestle all over the place even with what appears to be a catastrophic size difference. Daisy also teased a bunch of young teens who were enjoying a walk through the park when what appeared to be a small horse ran up to them. It was very funny. Daisy particularly enjoyed the squeals.
Back at the house and in the sun and warmth (not unbearable heat) I planted the four zinnias that Mirinda had obtained from the garden centre yesterday. I put them around the staddle stone by the gazebo.
She deliberately bought three yellow and one red because she knows how much I dislike symmetry. Such a loving, caring wife.
Something I noticed this morning while typing in Starbucks, was an older blog entry, dating from this time last year. It showed the hydrangeas down Carmen’s Sweet Escape, at the side of my office. Well, they are seriously much bigger and brighter now.
And it’s still only two plants.
