Save or Sink?

It’s 17h30 and a half an hour to go before the ship puffs in from the UK. We could see it on the horizon half an hour ago as a dot, so that’s quite exciting. We had a super afternoon at Jean and Joe’s house, with Steve, Maureen and Scilla, and Jean’s daughter, Sharon. We ate! There was roast beef, roast potatoes, gammon, fried drumsticks, chow-chow*, coleslaw, green salad, rice, curry, green beans…and lots of it. We all ate well, even the boys had a good helping. Caleb’s appetite is back to normal. For pudding there was ice-cream, ice-cream roll, jelly, trifle and a cream tart. Then there were also Quality Streets. For afternoon tea, a few hours later, we had roast beef sandwiches, cream crackers and cheese, coconut fingers, fruit cake, marshmallows, biscuits…you couldn’t possibly have had even a little of everything, there was just so much! But it was a lovely afternoon, very relaxed. The boys sort of mucked around, played with some dinky cars I had found on special at the Emporium**, chatted to everyone, ate lots of stuff, and generally were fine.

*Chow-chow is a vegetable which looks like a big green, prickly, pear. Not a prickly-pear, just a prickly pear. It has a texture similar to a pear but tastes more like potato, and is pear-coloured, Rather a vague vegetable really, and somewhat vague in taste. Not bad, just not very good either.

**The reductions shelf should never be missed. I had seen a micro-machine car for £10.33 and thought maybe I’d get it for Caleb’s birthday, if anyone gave him money. It’s a tiny little car which also comes with a pen, and is supposed to be remote controlled by infrared. The one on the reduction shelf wasn’t working, and was marked down to 99p. I thought that’s not bad for a little car and pen anyway, even if it doesn’t do what it’s supposed to. The cashier asked if I didn’t want another one, since she knows I have the two boys, but I said I didn’t have enough money on me. So she said I could have them for 50p each! We’re going to see if we can find new batteries, because perhaps that’s the problem, and then we would have saved ourselves £19.66…

Apparently a fishing vessel has gone into the rocks – its anchor broke and it drifted, and now its hull has been compromised. At the moment its 12-ton bulk is being held up with a crane, so a decision has to be made whether to let it sink, or try patch it up with quick-drying cement. It’s of critical urgency because the RMS is now due in 15 minutes, and the crane is needed for that. Now if the crane breaks…