BRIZZLE BLIPMEET

Today was the day that I was due to have a Blipmeet near Bristol with Amanda and her lovely husband, Mr T.  On his way to cricket, the last 4 day game before the end of the season, Mr. HCB dropped me off at the station, and as the Swansea train was delayed, I was able to get that one and got to Bristol Parkway earlier than planned.  However, I had just missed a bus and as they are only one an hour, I called Amanda, and then jumped into a taxi, so that we would have longer together to chat - well no point in having a Blipmeet if you can’t chat, is there?

Mr. T calls me the "Chocolate Lady", which may be because the last time we met, I may have “accidentally” pinched some of his Lindt chocolates - well to be honest, it wasn’t an accident, because as many of you know, I am a chocoholic and he told me to have a chocolate, so I did!!  Mind you, I did take him some chocolate today, so didn’t feel quite so guilty eating his and there were still some of the lovely Lindt chocolates left - albeit at the bottom of the bowl, but I sussed them out!

Every Tuesday morning, Mr. T has a visit from a lovely man called “Dave the Book” who comes each week to read to him, so that means that Amanda is able go out for a walk, as otherwise she can’t go out because Mr. T can’t be left on his own.  Because she knew that Dave would be with Mr. T for about an hour, off we went to the Dragonfly pool nearby.  We didn’t take any photographs but we did sit on a seat in the sunshine and had a good old chinwag.  “Dave the Book” is such a lovely man and he and Mr. T hit it off a treat, but even though he was offered some chocolate - he refused - how could he?

We weren’t out for long so when we got back it seemed a good idea to take a photograph of all of us - so you can see Amanda, Mr. T. holding JH Ted,  “Dave the Book” holding Baby Jay, a new member of The Silly Saturday Gang (I will tell you more about him another day), and “yours truly”.   I wasn’t sure who to bring on the train but JH Ted said that as Baby Jay had only just arrived in this country from America, he was sure a ride on an English train would be good.  They didn’t take up too much room and had to share the bag with a marmalade sandwich that I had made for Amanda, as she told me after she saw my Blip about Paddington Bear that she had never had one!!

What a lovely day we had together - I sat with Amanda in her lovely summerhouse having a cup of coffee, after which we went for our walk - then back for a sandwich, before sorting some things out on the computer and just generally chatting and enjoying one another’s company, and of course, eating more of Mr. T’s chocolate.  I have to say he is very gracious and was happy for me to pig out eat some of his chocolate!

I also spent sometime chatting with Mr. T, whose memory is sometimes not as good as it could be, asking him questions about where he was born and what school he went to etc and was able to elicit quite a lot of information from him, following which I said it would be a good idea to make a family tree, so Amanda, Mr. T. and I will be doing that over the next few months.  It is amazing how much many of us can remember about our early life,  so it was good to find out that Mr. T. was happy to talk about his family.

Many of you may know that Amanda is Deanna_Pearce’s daughter, and you may also remember that sadly Deanna died after a short illness in May of this year, so it is good that we can talk about her and Blipping and I hope it brings some comfort to Amanda.

The only “fly-in-the-ointment” was when I went round to catch the 4.30 bus back to Bristol Parkway station - sadly it never came - so at 5.40 I had to hurriedly ring Mr. HCB to say I might want him to make a detour to come and collect me.  I then rang Amanda, so she very kindly “tracked” the bus and told me when it was due to be at the bus stop and fortunately, it came about 5 minutes later.  Sadly the bus driver was quite miserable but I wasn’t about to let him spoil a lovely day - I will just ring Stagecoach tomorrow and make a complaint.  Amanda thinks that because the road it comes along is a crescent, sometimes the bus just goes straight along the main road - I will find out tomorrow!  

I did manage to get on the train just before 7 o’clock and caught Mr. HCB before he left his cricket buddy’s house, so he came straight to the station to collect me - what a treasure!  Now I need to return the favour and make his sandwiches for tomorrow after I finish my Blip.

“There is nothing better than a friend,
     unless it is a friend with chocolate!”
Linda Grayson

P.S.  After such a stressful end to my day and when I got to Bristol Parkway station, two bars of chocolate jumped into my hand - well the two things that solve most problems are chocolate and wine, and as I didn’t have access to wine, it had to be the chocolate, which went down a treat!