Actually it wasn’t that bad!
I was driving over to Hamilton today to meet Billy Kent. He was married to my distant cousin, Margaret. Margaret’s mum and my mum were cousins, so that probably would have made us second-cousins. Margaret died about two years ago.
I got a Christmas card from Billy last year saying that we should meet up some time. He put his phone number on the card and for once I put it into my contacts. In February we had a phone discussion and decided we’d meet halfway at Starbucks in Hamilton. Unfortunately every day he suggested didn’t suit me and all my suggestions didn’t suit him. It was beginning to look as if we weren’t going to have this meeting. However, last week we did find commonality and that day was today.
Scamp and I had visited Billy and Margaret’s house for dinner many moons ago and I they had visited ours. I really think it was Covid that broke the bond between us and it was difficult to rebuild it. Then Margaret died. So, in a way, this was the rebuild beginning. Although I wasn’t sure if it was the same person I was going to meet today. Thankfully it was.
Over a couple of mugs of coffee, we just blethered like two auld guys do. Telling stories, some of them slightly exaggerated and some just stories. After an hour and a bit we were both talked out and it was time to go our separate ways. I enjoyed the experience and we said we’d do it again. I think we will.
I’d arrived a bit early and it was beginning to drizzle. By the time we were leaving, it was bucketing down. I think they were even throwing down the buckets as well as the rain.
The motorway was treacherous with standing water making driving a bit risky, but I got home ok. I stopped at M&S to pick up some things for dinner. My turn to cook and it was to be fish risotto made mainly in the oven.
Since I had some time to spare in the afternoon I re-started work on the giant 3D Lego jigsaw. The first section from last week was easy to visualise. This one, not so much. To make things more complicated, some of the parts were made as mirror images of each other before being joined together later. I’m glad there was a QR code that I could scan to see the construction in more detail. That was a great benefit. Hopefully this present section will be completed tomorrow. I should also photograph the sections as they are completed.
PoD was a picture I saw while I was building the Bonsai. It’s a Poinsettia plant that sits on the window ledge of the back bedroom. Beautiful colours that contrast so well.
I’m hoping to meet Alex tomorrow for a walk and a blether.