Gateway

Normally I speed by this old chateau entrance as I'm going to or from town. Today the police were hauling a car out of the ditch, so I had the chance to stop right by it and take a quick snap.

The fact that I was in the car will tell you something about my day.  In short, the car is fine.  In long, the noise the car was making was even worse this morning so I didn't want to risk the drive into town to a garage (I've had a suspension completely collapse on me before - and it's not fun).  So I called the breakdown folk, and just before the guy pulled the car onto his truck I suggested he listen to the noise.  Oh that, he said blithely, that's just a pebble stuck in the brake mechanism.  And so, with a deft bit of fiddling behind the car tyre, and a bit of rolling the car back and forwards, the noise was gone, the car was fixed, and I was left feeling slightly foolish, but also giddy with joy at the money I had 'saved'.

Having spent the first part of the morning making all sorts of plans for lifts, car hire, garage appointments, etc; I spent the second part undoing all that.  Then off to pick up the liner for the pond, and on with some garden work. So, to the tune of Law in Action and the Archers, the pond is lined with carpet and felt and ready for the big plasticky thing tomorrow.  (Obviously, it has poured this evening, which just feels like a waste as tomorrow it will not rain and I will have to fill the pool from the (metered) water supply.)

Some legal work too, some boring housework, and today feels like a bit of a bonus day really given I thought I'd spend the day on buses searching for a hire car.

Later, the Head at the primary school had a surprising and slightly scary letter, which I hope I have reassured her about.  I suppose if the only thing I can do up there is leave her to worry about the pupils and not legal nonsense, then that's something.  More legal nonsense from another avenue later and lots of research on another jurisdiction.

CarbBoy has had his first brush with a mobile issue at school (ironically on the day he cracked his phone screen too) - he was part victim and part witness and happily his teacher didn't seem to have been told about the big fight that he was part of after one of our neighbour's tried to beat up CarbBoy's best pal.  I have to say I like his principal teacher a lot.  She has sorted this whole thing out without telling the parents, and I think that's appropriate in this case (obviously CarbBoy has told me, but then we have a deal on these kind of things). Now I have to make sure I don't mention it to the neighbour's parents...

On a more positive note, his basketball coach told CarbBoy he was the best player on Saturday.  I'm liking her more and more.