Well it’s a funny old life. We have taken in two refugees from the recent floods in Hull while their house is restored to its former glory. Actually it’s my sister Margaret and her husband Howie, so they will be in charge of maintaining the cottage gardens while we are away in Barcelona. They have no house at the moment and as we are leaving ours for a few weeks this is a solution that suits everyone.


But as usual there is always a down side. Christine, Margaret and myself go off to Beverley to do the vegetable shopping on the market. Howie gets to stay at home watching ‘Soccer AM’ but because there is now four of us living in the cottage I am required to carry the additional shopping back to the car. We could of course buy all our shopping including the vegetables from Tesco’s and I wouldn’t be needed for carrying purposes but that would go against our principle of buying local produce in an attempt to reduce Tesco’s annual profits. If you think our vegetables can’t make a difference you haven’t been keeping up and are not aware of the quantity of vegetables bought by Christine each week. I am sure Margaret and Howie will be glad when we have gone so that they can stop eating the wallpaper paste and assorted vegetables and get back to normal meals.


But that’s not the down side. Before shopping starts we have a coffee in Nero’s Coffee House in Saturday Market. Now that’s normally an Americano with an apricot croissant which I accept I have to share with Christine, but what happens today is that it’s still Americano coffee but now Christine is insisting that Margaret tries the apricot croissant as well. Now I am sharing the croissant three ways! So now I’ve missed ‘Soccer AM’ and shared my croissant three ways, can things get any worse.


Well it certainly wasn’t improved by our trip to the library. Our normal procedure is to get a lot of books out just before we go away and get the library to extend the return date for the four weeks we will be away. For some reason they can’t extend the date to cover the whole period we are away but it appears that it doesn’t matter as we will not be charged for returning them late. I question why there will be no charge for late return and am told that our category doesn’t get charged. Our Category! What is our Category?


I am just trying to find out from the young girl behind the counter how I have been categorised and what category I have been placed in when Margaret says quite loudly “it’s an age thing”. The girl just smiles and nods. I’m categorised as old.


I make the point that I can still afford to pay for late returns on the books when the girl explains it’s nothing to do with money it’s just that it is assumed that people of my age take longer to read the books and forget to return them. I instantly decide to put the books back on the shelves and cancel my library ticket until I realise that twelve books, even at charity shop prices is at least £15 so I take the books back to the young girl and get checked out. I am sure I can hear her say “Bless” as I walk away.


So I have missed ‘Soccer AM’, shared and apricot croissant three ways and been categorised as old at the library but not to mind tomorrow we will be in Barcelona. Out of the airport about 5.30pm arrive at Alex’s about 6.00pm and be in the Bodega with Dave by 6.30pm. Sounds OK to me.