So here I am sitting here again in the Garden Room on this grey, wet, Wednesday morning watching the queue of cars leaving the village for work. My head’s a little fuzzy after the odd pint or two of Carlsberg with Kev and the Tuesday night crew. This week along with the guitars and percussions we are in my local village pub in Tickton instead of the Cornerhouse in Beverley. I think this classes as part of the European Tour.


So I’m sitting here, just having my second cup of coffee, eating my hot toast with the butter dripping off and wondering should there be more, should I be in that queue, should I have been up at 5.00am like Kev to open his sandwich shop in Hessle Square..... And then I come to my senses and start planning for next week.


What’s happening next week? We are off to Barcelona again to see Alex, Dave and the grandkids that’s what. It’s six weeks since our last visit and since we came back we have been very busy with jobs around the house and getting the garden ready to be re-designed. We need a rest, as well as the odd sherbet down the bordega. But there is always a drawback!




The last few days before we travel are always very stressful, although after forty odd years of living with Christine I don’t really know why I let it stress me but I do. She has never been any different so you would think I would be used to her by now but I’m not. The stress breaks down into two areas, shopping and packing.


Now shopping is hobby for Christine, it’s really more than that it’s a way of life, show her John Lewis’ and she’s gone for hours but what I don’t understand is what does she do with the things she buys. Three separate trips to the Bahamas last year, nearly five months in total and for each trip she ‘has nothing to wear’ although we went shopping before each trip. Before each of our last two trips to Barcelona we have been shopping because she ‘has nothing to wear’ and here we are again going to Barcelona next week and where do you think we are going on Thursday? Shopping, correct, because she ‘has nothing to wear’.


But she has always been the same, shopping is a passion and if it’s a bargain even better. We like bargains now we are pensioners. So when the offer of a free coffee and a free plant comes through the door from the local garden centre it seems to good to be true, no need to buy anything it says so off Christine goes gets her free coffee, gets her free plant ..........and then buys a large planter full of various plants to sit alongside the arbour. “Couldn’t not buy something” she says “they had just given me a free coffee and plant”. She is every shop owners ideal customer.


So it’s Thursday in York shopping which then creates another issue, more clothes to pack. Christine, who is reading this over my shoulder, wants me to mention at this point that I also do some shopping and it isn’t only her but I really don’t think that three T-shirts from George at Asda counts as shopping, not by her standards anyway, so back to packing.


Christine knows the weight limit, but I just know that come Sunday night her case will be overweight and there will be an overflow of items laid out on the bed which haven’t yet made the case. This is when she will be looking at my four T-shirts and two pair of shorts to see if I can leave anything at home. It happens on every trip, we get her case down to weight, some of things are in my case, some more are in the hand luggage which is now almost at it’s limit and some things have to left behind.


I also know that the things left behind will be the ones she wants and it will be my fault they have had to be left. It’s always the same.


That only leaves one further problem, the Insurance Company. Should I ring them and get a claim form before we go or simply give them warning that a claim form will be required when we get back. Two trips so far to Barcelona and two claims, Christine in casualty after a fall down stairs and Christine having her handbag stolen. But just maybe the answer is to go by myself...... no shopping, no packing, no insurance ..... Life can’t be that simple, can it? Not really, but anyway the stress only lasts till we get there, and then it’s down the bordega and the worlds OK again.