Quality time with Nana.
Kids played with their friends in the afternoon.
For dinner we all, yes, kids included went around to Mikes for dinner. He’s a brave guy. Had a lovely pot roast and the kids had their dinosaur chicken nuggets and of course ice cream. Kids were pretty well behaved.
They’re going home today. How will we cope. No noise. No screaming. Just penetrating silence. We will miss them and it’s been great having them.
Fiona goes for a last minute walk and then takes the kids to the park for an hour to burn off some energy.
Sadly the flights been delayed 2 hours but you still have to turn up on time. It finally sets off 3.5 hours late and they miss their connecting flight in Amsterdam. On top of which the entertainment systems not working. They finally get to Manchester 22 hours after leaving here. Whilst I know it must have been the journey from hell with 3 kids but looking on the bright side it was only 22 hours. It normally takes 24 hours to get here.
.
I drop the Hertz mobile off and pick up my Howard Accord from Turo. It’s a 2021 model in immaculate condition; pickup was easy although he was 15 minutes late; sadly no apple car play; only very basic; comfortable; easy to drive.
Back home to the deafening silence.
How lucky we are to be able to have our kids and grandkids out for 5 weeks to share our time in paradise. Expensive, but worth every penny. Also great to have a daughter in law who comes out on all the hikes, bike rides, pistol shooting, clay pigeon shooting and gets along so well.
Now we need to gird our loins ready for 17 days of Disney and Universal with the kids and grandkids.
The Best Buy experience:
We need a USA SIM for Wendy. I know let’s try Bestbuy they sell the Boost sim – 3 months 5GB and unlimited calls and text for $15.
As usual the staff are all stood around having a good old chin wag. Probably scoring last night sex.
Nobody attends to us so as two of them saunter past I ask can we have some service.
Me: “what’s you best SIM deal”.
Surly assistant: “Probably that Google one there”. $50 a month, you have to be a nickel short of a dollar.
Me: What about the Boost SIM”.
Surly assistant: “I don’t know owt about that.”.
Me: “Well is there anybody in the store who does?”.
Surly assistant: “No”.
Me: “Well you’re a waste of space.”. Exit stage left.
Now I’m sure all Bestbuy sales assistants must have studied at the Curry’s UK sales training school. These guys and galls spend more time just bored out of their skull. Does management ever think to insist that when it’s quiet they get off their butts and learn something useful about the products they sell.
First full day of the peace and quiet, the silence is deafening. Wot no daughter-in-law, wot no grandkids. I’m sure we’ll start to miss them.
Have a grand tidy up and then a much cheaper shopping trip to Smiths.
Wow it’s hot.
R&M pick us up to take us to the Egyptian Theatre to see the heavy rock band Ambrosia. First we go down to a reception for the Pharoe members. Free drinks always good news. Can you believe there’s even a tunnel under Main Street to the theatre. Great to see Sheree there it must be over 3 years since we saw her. Will always remember her kindness to us when I broke my femur she’d come round with dinners for us – only in America.
Then we’re off to the theatre. We’d never been to a heavy rock concert and it was a tad worrying when we sat down that Ruth handed out earplugs. Anyway we survived although my Apple watch did get distressed at the noise level – turned my hearing aids down. A great evening with awesome company, always a great time with R&M and a whole new experience.
A whole new experience. 72 years old and we’d never been to a heavy rock concert. It was certainly different and always good to try new experiences. After all said we probably ain’t got long left so need to pack them in.
Set off on an exploratory hike with Joe up to the two lakes above Jeremy Ranch – Flying Dog trail – having finally found the start point. Turns out to be 5.5 miles, all up and then all back down. Lovely hike, plenty of shade but too far for an Easy Hike on top of which the lakes are no more, more like two sad depleted ponds. Not even a duck would be seen dead in it. Not a patch on my memory of it nor my 2017 photo. No doubt it’ll be blamed on climate change. Joe survives and we finally get back to the car.
Lazy evening in watching Purple Heart. Quiet a good chick lit happy ending film, best of all is the music and the singing from Sofia Carson – really liked it so download all he albums. E
Start off leading an early morning Easy Hike around Masonic Hill by way of a change I go anti-clockwise.
Lazy afternoon and then Wendy and I drive Mike down to Salt lake to pick up his Corvette which has just had a nose job done on it.
Then we’re all off to Manila’s Greek Restaurant for dinner. Great food. An alcohol free evening.
Virgin have reached yet another new peak in laziness, stupidity And crap customer service. They’ve just sent yet another flight change emails but are too lazy to tell you what original times were and or difference. So the CUSTOMER has to go look it up to see if it is signicant. But this time they’ve really excelled themselves as my flight should be from Salt Lake to Atlanta but will now be from Salt Lake to London Heathrow and, including time zones, I now arrive about a hour before I set off. I had no idea they’d perfected time travel.
Who are these people who care so little about their CUSTOMERS, those that pay your wages. Go look at Delta and other airlines. It is not acceptable either to take 2 hours to answer the phones and hide behind the covid excuse. Having call centre staff work from home should be a blessing to economy and productivity.
I say again, sack the heads of customer services and IT and replace them with their superb cabin crew who understand the concept of CUSTOMER SERVICE. Anything to do with Virgin outside their planes is just a complete SNAFU.
Mike likes a bit of cake with his whipped cream.
Wednesday night we’ve been invited out to dinner at Betti’s with Mike, Joanne, Buzz, Tom and Karen. Great food, wine and company. Really enjoyed it.
It’s moving day as we leave 130 Yonex Court where we’ve been for 4 months and onto 167 Dunlop Court, back to our old resting place. We’re renting Tina and Neils – many fond memories of them – home via Tina’s son. Sadly Neils passed away so Tina rents the home out. We’re also staying there April, May, July, August and September next year. It’s a lovely comfortable home.
Mike comes over to give me a hand with the removal, so glad he did as lugging all our stuff in boxes was pretty exhausting and an extra pair of hands was a blessing.
We all had a Chubasco takeaway for tea. Then was a Paulaner and Carmenera evening in our new abode. Fortunately we’d got most things unpacked and organised. Just two suitcases left to unpack tomorrow.
The Constitution: Why A Republic?