As you will be aware Alex and grand kids are over with us for a few weeks enjoying the delights of a UK summer as opposed to summer in Barcelona! Her husband Dave couldn’t quite understand why anyone would want to swap the sunshine of Spain and come here for a few weeks so he elected to stay behind.


Not that he is gloating but we do get a message from him every day giving us an update on the weather in Barcelona. Christine just ignores them and comments that she wouldn’t want to sit in the sun anyway.


This surprises me a little as the armoire in her bathroom has many assorted bottles and jars of sun products all from the likes of Clinic and Estee Lauder and I am sure all costing more than the odd few pounds. So what these are for is beyond me if you don’t go out in the sun. But it gets me to thinking.....!


Seeing as I know from experience that she also doesn’t go out in the rain I decide to see what coats are in her wardrobes. The first problem is of course finding the right wardrobe, three down one to go when I come across them. Rain coats in various colours, some very posh and some for every day use all with designer labels and all looking very unused. When I raise the question with Christine she simply replies “I don’t do rain”. So why have the coats?


There are various anoraks and cagoules with hoods ideal for keeping wind off the face all looking like they have never been out of the wardrobe. “I don’t do wind either” says Christine. Same with the winter coats, different styles and colours all looking new and all designed to keep her warm. “Not as warm as the central heating” says Christine “I don’t like the cold”. So why have we bought them all?


Here we have an Armoire full of sun potions that never see the sun as well as a wardrobe full of raincoats that never get wet and winter coats that never see the winter but I seem to be the only one who thinks this is unusual as Alex and her mum can’t understand what I am on about and simply plan their next shopping trip. They seem to do quite a bit of that....


Take Saturday, they decide to do the food shopping, that’s at 9.00 o-clock in the morning, they arrive back at twelve thirty having had morning coffee and elevens in Cafe Nero in Beverley but also carrying bags with logos like M&S, Jaeger and Phase Eight. “Had to keep out of the rain” says Christine “didn’t have a rain coat with me”. Unfortunately most of the bags belong to Christine which will only give Dave something else to gloat about. But the main point is while they are out shopping to keep dry I am still trying to clean up the garden following the floods.


Where are they on Tuesday lunch? Down in Beverley again having lunch with Vivien, Christine’s friend who has known Alex all her life and what are they doing shopping for something for Vivien’s up coming cruise so why they both came back with bags of their own is beyond me. But what am I doing? Cleaning up the garden following another flood. The share out of the work load seems a little unfair to me, I think I need to make some entries in the pink Black Book.


Wednesday night sees them going out for dinner with some girls, well girls may be stretching your imagination a little but they are not all pensioners yet, who Christine used to work with quite a few years ago. As for me I am having dinner at home with the kids sausages, roast potatoes, thick gravy with mushy peas so all is not too bad. At least I have finished with the sewage in the garden.


So it’s now Thursday and I am sitting writing this in a place called ‘Big Fun’ in Hull which is a kids entertainment centre with dozens of kids charging all over place, loud music blaring out of lots of speakers and a strong smell of burger and chips. And would you believe it Christine and Alex have gone into Hull to the shopping centres. There can’t be anything they haven’t already got but I am sure when they return they will have more bags.


They have been gone three hours now and I have a headache from screaming kids and bad coffee. I don’t think the bacon sandwich helped either. I mention to my grandson Joe that grandma and his mum seem to spend a lot of time out shopping. “It’s only like you and dad when you come to Barcelona” says Joe “your always down the bodega” and off he goes to continue having Big Fun. 'Out of the mouths of babes........' and all that. I can’t win, still only two hours to the school bus.........!