Loving that rain ... Friday 18th Oct

Today Mrs P has taken a day’s holiday, and the youngest has an Inset (teacher training) day, and so his school is closed. Only the eldest has to go into school today, something she is not thrilled about. So it is that mid-morning, Mrs P, the youngest and I climb into the car and set out for Chester. We have a few things we need to pick-up, and have promised the youngest lunch at Nandos if he comes along. He is not at all keen on shopping and so needs bribing to accompany us. His view is you go to one shop, buy what you need, and then go home. Mrs P likes a bit more of a look around, and I’m somewhere in-between.

I park a 10 minute walk outside the city centre on a side street, as I object to the extortionate cost of car parking in towns in general. We’re all capable of walking into town from there, so there shouldn’t be a problem. As is usual for Mrs P and me we split up and agree a time to meet up again. So whilst Mrs P visits M&S, etc ... the youngest and I take a look at laptops and mobiles, with a view to what possibly to get him for Christmas. Once back together we head to Nandos, and it’s the first time we’ve been into this particular location. To be fair we are pretty au-fait with Nandos and what it offers, which is basically chicken and chips, which we like. To the point that, none of us really needs to look at the menu, we know what we want to order. The food is good and being a lunch time the clientele is mixed though mostly young, and I suspect most are students. If students these days can afford to eat out at lunch time, they must be a lot better off than I ever was.  

When we come out we have one final stop to make, which just happens to be the farthest we’ve been from the car, and it has started to rain! So there is the problem that it’s raining, Mrs P doesn’t have an umbrella and I’ve parked too far away. To be honest our mood is lightened by the fact that with the rain my shoes have become very slippery, on the various surfaces of Chester’s old streets. This means Mrs P has to cling onto me to stop me falling, or doing some geriatric impersonation of a Moon-Walk. In fact the laughter quite takes her mind off how wet she is getting.

Yours believing laughter really is the best medicine.

Jay