I am afraid that living in meltdown has now become a little too confusing for us, to be honest, we are not even sure we are even “living it” any more ………
…… so, for that reason, today, we are officially declaring, on what would is our 100th day of “Living La Vida Lockdown”, that after some debate, (none heated), we’ve decided to move on to Living La Vida’lerta
We are all taking tentative steps to integrate into the new Evesham normal as lockdown measures are being gradually lifted, while still rigidly observing all rules of a hand washing, sanitizing and social distance type nature ……….
Nigel, needless to say is leading the way, but there again he is a monkey on a mission, he is desperate to find some Lynx Africa and Marmite special edition body spray and/or shower gel, like what we have seen on the Marmite Lovers Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/ProperMCR/photos/a.941620942614659/3080473478729384/?type=3&theater&ifg=1
I am pretty much convinced this is a (cruel) hoax, to make up for the April Fools Day we didn’t have this year due to meltdown ……..
…….. however, young Nigel is ever hopeful. He has set his heart on being the one who returns home to a heroes welcome, triumphantly holding either or both said products aloft.
Rumour has it that both are now available in Sainsburys …….. our showering experience may never be the same! Let’s just say Nigel intends to leave no stone unturned!
Iris and Bertie might be much beloved, but introducing Nigel to Pokémon Go was perhaps not one of their best ideas ……….
…… as he is now totally obsessed with finding and the catching creatures, hatching their eggs and then evolving them?????? Aghhhh
To be honest it’s all beyond me, however, I suppose if it keeps the little fella fit, healthy and occupied, as he’s hardly ever in these days, hunting down the flipping things, I shouldn’t really grumble ……..
…….. but when you then find that they have somehow managed to infiltrate The Towers …….. it seems we have a Sudowoodo in the hall …….
……. and a Marill running amok in our kitchen, it’s all a little disconcerting …….
…….. especially when you can’t actually see anything unless Nigel shows you his screen.
Sharing a shower with a Charmander has never really been on my top ten list of must do’s, but according to Nigel it’s something I do quite frequently now! Thank goodness we use shower gel and not soap, goodness only knows what mayhem could ensue if ever it slipped from of my hands and I had to retrieve it!
I guess, like everything else, I will get used to it. I am just worried I might inadvertently tread on one or something equally awful. How do you wipe up an invisible mess? They might be incredibly cute, Iris and Bertie, not our resident Pokémon, but on this occasion I believe they have an awful lot to answer for as far as encouraging Nigel is concerned.
It has to be said that by the middle of January we were enormously proud that, thanks to Darrell, we’d got a whole plethora of holidays and adventures booked, all we had to do was wait for the days good times to roll ….. or so we thought, until events, totally out of our control sadly started to catch up on us. Nigel was the first to feel it when his trip to Italy at Easter with the PE and Finance ladies was cancelled when Fly Be went bust……
……… and since then, along with millions and millions of others, it’s been a bit of a waiting game for e-mails to arrive to tell us that the promise of weekends to the likes of Harrogate and theatre trips to see Ross Noble have also gone by the wayside.
We are currently awaiting of news of Euro Disney, a holiday of a lifetime, planned for almost two years with our beloved Iris and Bertie. As we’ve already received a refund for the extra three days we’d booked on the outskirts of Paris for our own adventures either side of said trip, we are pretty much resigned to the fact that the Disney leg of the break will be cancelled too ……. so, no breakfast with the Princesses or encounters with Darth Vader …….
I don’t think I have never seen Nigel’s upper lip sooooooo resolutely stiff than at present ……
And our annual Greek Odyssey? This year we were off to explore the pleasures of Parga in September, it’s not been cancelled yet and Tui are doing their best to keep us up to date ……..
………. but after some debate, none, I hasten to had, in any way heated, with heavy hearts, we’ve decided it might be best to re-book for next year, as there are still so many elements of an unknown type nature at the moment to feel completely safe.
However ….. we’ve still kept the week free just in case the Covid and quarantine situation should change for the better by the end of August, then, if, it does, we are determined not to be found wanting, we will throw caution to the wind and book something blind at the very last minute …….
…….. we just need to see the sea and feel sand between our toes ……. even if it is at Frinton On Sea.
When Nigel nipped up to Home Bargains to get some vitally essential Zoflora Linen Fresh and Brillo Pads for Darrell, he thought he might as well check just in case they also had any Lynx Africa and Marmite body spray or body gel, sadly, they did not…….. but our search goes on …….
However, he was quite taken aback when he did find that they had shelves packed full of Easter stuff. He said he did several double takes and pinched himself a couple of times, worried that he may have found himself in a bizarre time warp of a seasonal type nature.
Everyone complains when Cadbury Creme Eggs hit the shops on 1st January and we sort of lost Easter in meltdown, but being able to get your Easter crafting done, a year ahead and six months before Christmas really made his head hurt, in fact it befuddled him so much that the poor little fella had to go for a lie down with a cold flannel on it when he got home, what is he like?
I really know how much Darrell used to look forward his Country Living magazine arriving every month and then spending hours cutting them up to create design mood boards with them, something Hugh his best friend and mentor of all things de rigueur and a la mode showed him to do when we were doing up The Towers …….
…… but, with said Towers more or less straight and his Lloyds Bank Lifestyle Benefits up for renewal, Darrell decided to trade his beloved magazine in for something new, that we could all share, what is he like?
So, he’s plumped for a monthly Rakuten film rental instead, twelve Saturday night films throughout the year that we could all enjoy together, on the sofa, with the obligatory nibbles and a cheeky Cherry B on the Rocks, he said, it was a no brainer!
Now, all we need to do now is agree on that one film ……….
Let’s just say that one, verging on a heated debate, when our voucher arrives is more than enough family contention for one month for me, so my intention is to simply bow to whatever Darrell and Nigel decide and go with the flow ……. unless it’s Trolls ……. and then you’ll see me put up a fight!!
Nigel has noted that the blossom on the blackberry bushes along the river is boding well for a bumper crop ……..
…… leading to wonderful, carefree, summer days picking with Iris and Bertie, where purple fingers and mouth are de rigueur ………..
…… and a freezer full of Darrell’s most excellent apple and blackberry crumble ……. for comforting, autumnal puddings after Sunday lunch, served with great dollops of his favourite thick custard. What is he like …… but I have to admit, it don’t get much better than that!!
Poor Nigel, there doesn’t seem to have been any swan babies born this year along our part of the river.
By the weir, which is in a terrible mess, filled with logs and branches that have been brought down by the river, plus a flipping fence panel, there is just a single solitary swan, known, Chez Towers, as Nigel’s Lonely Swan.
Nigel isn’t that sure whether, like salmon, swans return to the place of their birth to find their life long partner and spawn, but Lonely still appears to have a few brown/grey feathers, which leads Nigel to think that he may be one of the surviving swanlings from last year.
He just conjures up such a sad sight, which has rubbed off a little on the usually effervescent and buoyant Nigel …….
However, he has been trying to “encourage” Lonely, that he should perhaps think about moving up the river, past the bridge and nearer the rowing club, where there are always hundreds of swans, some female, who would be proud to be seen with him ……. but it might be best not to bring her back to the weir in it’s current state as it might not create the best impression as place to bring up a young family! What is he like?
We’ve got to say ……….
…….. that living within the bosom of a socially unhinged undistanced bubble …..
……. is absolutely brilliant. There’s an awful lot of tight squeezing and hugging to start with ………..
……. when you feel as if your eyes might just pop out of your head …….
……. but then it settles down ……..
……. so that you can get on with the very serious business of building Lego …….
……. while allowing yourself the occasional adoring gaze when you think no one looking ……..
…….. before finally agreeing, with not a little hesitation, to hand over your phone so that the beloved niece and nephew you have missed so much over the past three months can go over and then purloin any of the Pokemon that you so proudly caught during meltdown for themselves …… and we wouldn’t have it any other way!
With more and more shops opening again we can’t help but be a little confused as to whether we are still in or out of meltdown, but that’s by the way …….
To be honest, as far as we are concerned, you can forget queuing outside the likes of Primark, Sports Direct and Ikea ……..
…… but Nigel finding that our confectionary emporium of choice Gummy Gumdrops was back in business is a totally different matter and there was much celebration chez Les Tower …….
……. and after all these weeks, all the old familiar jars were still there and well, it would have looked just plain rude not make one or two or three considered purchases!
It took quite a while for the little fella to make up his mind, but as we’d all been missing our Walkers toffee, he plumped for 200g each of their finest banana split and mint eclairs plus 100g of treacle toffees for good measure. The boy “dun gud”, very “gud”.
He also noted that the Slush Machines were on full pelt, although sadly not for self service, with memories of Iris and Bertie making their own rainbow striped slushes last summer, but still without question either the first or last port of call when going to or from the park on Iris and Bertie Bubble Days, with perhaps a few chocolate nibs and/or spotty buttons to eat when they get home. It just doesn’t get much better than that! Happy Days.
It’s been a strange, strange old week, made even stranger by news of yet another shortage, this time one that almost, but not quite snook past us ………
…….. as we have to admit to enjoying the pleasures of the Malteser Mint Button of late, after our recent review, thus putting our consumption of “normal” Maltesers temporarily off kilter …….. until, that is, we needed to get some in to fill our special Malteser dispenser for Iris and Bertie’s now permitted support bubble visits ……. only to find ourselves scuppered, not a single bag or box was to be found anywhere in Evesham, at the retail park up the road or even online! This is serious!
According to various newsfeeds, there has been some sort of mechanical malfunction at the Malteser factory in Slough. To be honest, questions need to be asked in Parliament or failing that Question Time, as to how, particularly in these already testing times, machines vital to the countries well being have been found wanting ……..
…….. individually wrapped Flake 99’s just don’t hack it ……. especially when thinking of the mess that generally ensues after giving one to a small child …….. aghhhhh!
It goes without saying that Marmite is our savoury spread of choice and this week has certainly been quite eventful of a Marmite type nature, what with new M & S delicacies to try, swiftly followed by the shock announcement that there was currently a Marmite a shortage due to a lack of brewers droop yeast ……
……… but then …….. Darrell saw this …….
Lynx Africa and Marmite body spray and shower gel?
Well, it goes without saying that we immediately checked our calendar to double check that we hadn’t been transported by a weird meltdown time warp back to April 1st, but no it’s ?? June ??
It all looks legit, especially as there are quite a few people on Twitter and Facebook claiming that they’ve managed to get theirs …… but there again, it all could be an elaborate advertising ploy to distract us from said shortage of our beloved comestible spread.
Needless to say, we are now monkeys on a mission to find our own ……
……… the chances of us finding it in Evesham, in meltdown, despite the non essential shops now being open are slim and so far our online searching has drawn a blank ……..
…….. so, if you happen to see any on your travels etc. could you please let us know (who could resist those pleading eyes above) as I don’t think we will be able to rest until we actually have some in our hands ……… or are told (in the kindest way possible), that we’ve been cruelly and sadly hoodwinked.
