A really down day

Today I awoke with a delightful sense of anticipation that I would be going to the post office a little later, and nine o’clock was at the box. Lo and behold, the box was empty, not even so much as a postage stamp graced its inner walls. I thought maybe they hadn’t finished sorting the post yet, but actually they had. The ship only brought four bags of mail, so it was sorted on Saturday already. You can imagine the disappointment! I thought it would be a sure thing that at least our cable would arrive. Nick was sensitive to my disappointment, so when I suggested we go out to lunch, he was quite keen. We went to Argees in the market, which was very nice (the highlight of the day). Then we went to the Rose and Crown to have a look at paint colours to decide what we’re going to do with the upstairs landing and stairway passage. They didn’t have much in stock, so we’ll have to try again next month or so. So then we went across to Queen Mary’s to look at carpets and rugs – we want to get something for the bottom of the stairway, in front of the bookcase, because the boys like to sit there and look at books. Found something quite nice and suitable, but didn’t buy yet. Did find a set of three hand-painted ceramic pots for £3.25, which I bought for the bookcase. Then down to the Emporium to see what material we could use for blinds or curtains for the two windows, and found that they are quite low on stock and don’t know when they will next get material. There was one material that was quite nice, but there wasn’t enough. So we don’t have any plans at the moment to continue with that. Bought some weed killer and gardening shears, then went home. Put the boys down, then I finished off with masking taping some window frames – I had run out of tape previously and thought I might just try painting without tape, but then reconsidered. Then set to work painting, only to find that I had hardly any paint left – I hadn’t realized how little I had when I finished off on Saturday. Had to therefore go back to town, this time walking, to Queen Mary’s again. They didn’t have any more white enamel. Across to the Rose and Crown, nope, they don’t sell enamel at all. Down to Solomon’s, they didn’t have it in anything smaller than 5l and quite expensive, so across again to the Emporium, and same story – nothing smaller than 5l. And that was that. Walked back home, now very hot and bothered and frustrated. I have to now leave all the masking tape on and the paint job incomplete until they get more paint in. What an absolute nuisance! All in all, it was not a fun day.

We bumped into a lady on our town excursion who had come in for a cup of tea some time ago, Esther. She is probably in her sixties, and she was pushing a pram with quite a littlee in it. She says this is her grandson, he’s four months old, and his parents left today to go work in Ascension, leaving him in his granny’s care. I thought, how terribly sad, they will probably not see him again for at least two or three years. There is no work for them on St Helena, so they are forced to go elsewhere, but imagine going off and leaving your little baby, even if you know and trust the caregiver. We have some new neighbours for a couple of weeks. The house next door to us gets rented out as the need arises, and currently the ENT specialist and his wife are there. They will only be on the island for two weeks though. And we got a fish delivery while we were eating supper, two bullseyes, which have gone straight into the freezer, heads and all.