7.34am. Just left the house for work. Alan is heading down south this morning for a long weekend in Portsmouth, to look at warships and to see a friend. I won't see him now until a week tonight. Something of a heavy heart leaving the house this morning, but I know it's all in a good cause.
I'm damn tired though; after the recent stresses of work, I am not sure a week 'off' in a lab working 9am-9pm is really such a good idea. Dreading the student accommodation. But I'm sure all will be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.
6.23pm. What a crazy day at work. I spent much of the day vainly attempting to clear as much up-and-coming work as possible, but kept being diverted, despite protestations, onto other things. The thing is, if other people cock up my work in my absence, the only person who will have to mop it up again, is me, thanks to the more complex nature of my work.
I got caught in a downpour of rain about 50 yards away from home, so I was glad to get inside.
Alan phoned, and we had a lovely long chat about his journey, my day, and our respective plans for the evening. It was lovely to hear his voice.
At about 6pm, Kirsten and I had a quick chat via Facebook:
7.51pm. Just got off the phone from Roy, they left a while ago, and they will be with me at about 9.30pm,perhaps 10pm. This is a lot later than I had hoped for, and I must admit my heart sank a bit, and with the knowledge that I haven't eaten since 12.15pm, I went to the cupboard and found a breakfast bar.
I mentioned that we don't really have anything in for breakfast, as neither of us are (at home) big breakfast eaters, and so asked them what they fancied. I had almost expected to get a "don't worry we'll grab something from a garage" etc type response, but Roy surprised me by giving me a shopping list.
With a promise of refunding me as soon as they arrive, he said that they'd like two pink grapefruit, some Oatsosimple (the stuff that goes in the microwave), and some full fat milk. For a meal tonight they would like a chicken biryani, a dry lamb tikka (no sauce), two peshwari naans (I'm sure Kirsten said yesterday that they don't eat bread!), some onion bhajis and some of that mint cucumber stuff. That's quite a list. Just as well I went to the cashpoint before I got home, I'm going to need it. Privately feeling a little miffed but that'll pass. No idea what I want, but if we're not going to be eating until around 10pm (and then up very early) then I'm not convinced I want anything to be honest.
They were roughly at junction 11 of the M25, which I guess puts them around Chertsey/Woking sort of area. They'll be getting off at junction 16, then straight up the M40.
I'll just get to the end of the episode of Star Trek: Voyager that I was watching, one I've never seen all the way through before, then head out to Asda, then head back for EastEnders. Alan will be long since out of the hotel and enjoying tapas with Judie by now I hope.
8.53pm. Just back from the supermarket, and as boiling hot as anything. It is so humid out there. As I left the house it was pouring with rain again, a vertical torrential downpour, so I took my large black brolly and headed for Asda.
I imagined that it would be quiet, at half eight on a Friday night, but it appeared that half of Birmingham had also thought this too, headed for the supermarket only to be confronted with a heaving mass of people.
I couldn't find pink grapefruit, so, ever the physicist, I bought a red grapefruit and a white grapefruit, figuring that if you mix red and white you get pink. As ordered. Felt jolly pleased with myself but it remains to be seen whether this meets with the seal of approval tomorrow morning.
There were a couple of actually very nice looking men in the supermarket, and I almost turned to Alan to point two of them out, but of course checked myself in time. I went up to the white wine section for a closer examination, but realised within about 20 yards that they absolutely stank of stale body odour. I know we all probably smell a little bit after a long hard day at work, but honest to God, this was not good!
Got the Oatsosimple sachets and the fresh milk, then headed for the checkout. No sign of Deb, our favourite checkout lady. As I stood in the queue I realised that the items Roy had asked for were actually very small indeed, a piddling request really, and I felt guilty for feeling miffed about it earlier, and resolved not to ask for the three or four pounds that it cost.
Got outside, and it was raining only very lightly. Decided momentarily that it wasn't raining hard enough to put up the brolly, then decided that I would look rather foolish walking along in even light rain carrying an umbrella that wasn't up. There are days that I wish I wasn't so English. I could give Stephen Fry a run for his money sometimes.
Time to head downstairs for EastEnders; I suspect by the time I've watched that, Roy and Kirstsen will be virtually on the doorstep. More later.
9.14pm. Half-way through EastEnders, Roy phoned, they have just hit the Solihull turn-off, so they are only about 20 minutes away. So much for watching the telly then having a wash before they arrive. Just ordered the food, which will arrive in about 45-50 minutes, I should have got Roy to phone earlier really. Never mind. It and they will be here soon.
11.40pm. They arrived at about half nine, and it was great to see them. Roy has lost quite a bit of weight, more than three stone apparently, and it suits him. Felt completely inferior at being proud of losing a couple of pounds on holiday in Tenerife, but never mind, baby steps.
Kirsten showed me her engagement ring which is subtle and pretty. They seem very happy and contented together. Apparently Roy's divorce is only a matter of a few months away, which is great news for them. It turns out that he'd spent 18 months trying to repair his marriage, but after he returned from Mallorca he took the plunge and moved out, but Roy and Kirsten were not an item before then.
They are going to invite Alan and I to the wedding, which is lovely to hear, I do like a good wedding. And we have a standing invitation to a star party sometime in the autumn. We ought to make the effort and go.
We ate a very hearty meal, and there seemed to be huge quantities of it. A tiny miscommunication from the balti house though; I asked for three onion bhajis, and I got three foil containers each with four onion bhajis inside. Never mind; most of it got eaten.
I've just packed the two of them off to bed, as we'll probably need to be starting to get up around 7am, if we want to be heading out of the door for 8.30am. Roy, being a builder, is accustomed to early starts, and is often up just after 5am. I hope he doesn't tomorrow.
The jammy sods apparently phoned up the OU and got themselves a twin room at Grey College. That saves an awful lot of in-and-out of each other's rooms.
Looks like Alan had a good night down in Portsmouth with Judie, which is great:
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