just one damned thing.....

...after another

The ferry leaves on Wednesday or Sunday. Two sailings a week. Mark's massive card order is moving towards it's natural conclusion, and we are on track. On Monday, the BBC phone to say they may want to use the house as a location in a reconstruction. They can pay us £900 for two days filming. Good news, relax. My dear friend Sue will house sit, the caravan looks fantastic, the children are coming round to their new way of learning, farms have been confirmed, we have had our leaving party, and to top it all, someone is dropping extra cash into our laps. It is a good start to the week.

I am told to have faith in a dream - and then everything goes wrong.

This morning we woke up, having finally shaken the weekend's hangover (we are technically too old for that level of consumption), and decide to hitch up the caravan. We push and pull her, then, turning round, realise she has a flat tyre. We pump it up with a crappy handpump we bought from the pound shop, managing a coffe and a fag during the lengthy process. When the job is done, and we have tested the lights are working, Mark revs up the car for the caravan's maiden voyage on the Merc. I rush to get my camera. As I do so, the car dies. I literally run out of the gate to hear it's apparent death throes.

We think she has run out of gas. Mark goes to buy some on his bike. No joy. He buys some more, and some more, but to no avail. We learn the worst thing you can do with a diesel engine is let it run out of fuel, and it seems we have committed the sin. Dan tells us it's air in the pipes, fixable. We follow his instructions, but still it won't work. The guy at the garage it was booked into for a service doesn't want to know. The Green Flag can't fix it.

The man in the shop can't make the number plate, I walk into a lamp post, a virus tries to invade my computer. I am too scared to book the ferry ticket, lest the ferry has stopped running. the day is fast becomming a jinx.



Later, Rennae offers me words of kindness. It is a good thing, she says, it could have happened on the way to the ferry. On a mountain top in Spain. I can see this. It has occurred to me also. It is a blessing in disguise.
Sometimes it is important to look at the larger picture. Things are not always as they seem.