Marking the way

Wednesday was an odd day.

The sun shone, all day. The morning started well - Little G was feeling brighter after his first 24 hours of antibiotics, so we didn't have to cancel our playdate, so we got to spend the morning with some of our favourite people, which always makes me feel better. I knew I would have the stress of squeezing in an MOT visit to Ampthill while Little G was at pre-school, but that was about as bad as the day was going to get.

Ha. Hahahahaha!

First the electricity decided to switch itself off just before lunch-cooking time. Not the lights - they still worked fine. No sign of any problems elsewhere, and no fuses obviously blown - none of the switches had been tripped. My friend kindly helped me out by using a lighter to ignite the gas hob (I am too much of a shaky handed coward) and we got lunch cooked and eaten. We were a little bit late getting Little G to pre-school, but nothing dramatic, and it still seemed like it was going to be a pretty good day, just with some added irritation.

Then I got home and discovered I couldn't open the door. For some reason Mr G had left his keys inside the lock when he went to work in the morning. For some reason I hadn't spotted this. For some reason I had uncharacteristically ensured the connecting door between garage and house was locked before we went out. So, for the first time in my adult life, I was locked out, and feeling pretty cross/stupid/helpless.

But at least I had the car keys, so I got the car to its MOT on time. Littler G and I had a pleasant mooch around Ampthill while we waited - and spotted this rather pleasing pump. (I say "spotted" - it's right in the middle, right next to the main road, I'm sure I must have seen it before!) It seemed to be crying out to be blipped though - erected by the Earl of Upper Ossory, apparently - whoever he might be - it shows the distances to Dunstable, Woburn, Bedford and London. Handy.

Anyway, long story short time:
On the plus side: the car passed its MOT; I got back in time to pick Little G up from pre-school.
On the not-so-plus side: I had to pay a locksmith to break into my house for me.
On the weird side: despite none of the fuse switches having been tripped, the simple act of turning them off and on again restarted the electricity (and left me cursing that I hadn't done that sooner - I'd tried the obvious ones, but not the whole caboodle.)

A funny old day all round, really.