Easy As Going Shopping.
by Angharad (shopaholic)
part: 394

Bike 394.

I often find that after a stimulating evening, I am too wound up to sleep. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case and despite the storm that raged half the night, I slept like the proverbial log.

In actual fact, Stella brought me a cup of tea the next morning. “I have some bad news, sleepy head. There was a storm last night.”

“What storm?”

“Didn’t you hear it?”

“No, obviously I didn’t.”

“Okay, keep your hair on. The wind blew down some of your shrubs.”

“Oh well, I’ll have to do some tidying up, won’t I?”

“More than that I’m afraid, it also brought down part of the garden wall.”

“Oh, which one?”

“The high one at the bottom.”

“I had a horrible feeling you were going to say that. I wonder if the builders are still down the road?”

“They won’t stop everything and come and do it will they?”

“I doubt it, but they might when they finish Margaret and Gregg’s house. If not, I’ll get someone else. It’s hardly urgent, I’ll clear up what I can, but I’m not going to kill myself.”

“I’ll give you a hand, but like you said, not to the point of stupidity.”

After breakfast I went and spoke to the builders, one of whom gave me a rough quote. He would do it over the weekend and would need some more bricks and obviously cement and sand. His quote seemed reasonable, especially when he knew it wasn’t an insurance job.

“You’re not claiming on your insurance?” Stella seemed astonished.

“He quoted me two fifty, my excess is over a hundred, so by the time I’ve finished and higher premiums next time around, the difference won’t be that bad, perhaps fifty quid. Not worth the hassle for that.”

“Catherine Watts, it’s a good job Simon isn’t here, he’d be livid. What’s the point of insurance, if you don’t claim on it?”

“If the roof had blown off, I probably would be claiming, but this, I shall bear myself.”

“Oh well, it’s your money.”

“Yes, right, that’s the dishes done, let’s see about the garden.” We laboured all the morning and by lunch time I was glad for a sit down. Stella seemed to feel the same. “How about a quick lunch and wash and we go out on the bikes for an hour?”

“I hope you are joking, Cathy Watts, because I am knackered, with a capital na.”

“I was actually, but if you had wanted to go, I’d have struggled to accompany you.”

“In case I get lost?”

“Yeah.”

“I have my Garmin.”

“What a GPS?”

“The same, fits on the bike, tells me how far I’ve gone, where I want to go and how many calories, heart rate and what I had for dinner last Wednesday.”

“Ha ha, but it’s good is it?”

“It’s okay, can do computer printouts and so on. You know, you plug it into a computer.”

“Excellent. Well round here I doubt I’d use it much. Away it would be more useful, especially if doing off roading.”

“You left your mountain bike at Tom’s.”

“Yes I know, I could only carry so much.”

“Why did you run off like that?”

“I thought everyone knew that.”

“But surely, you could have talked it through with him? He misses you dreadfully and so do I.”

“Yeah, I miss you two as well. Enough of the mawkishness, what about lunch, what do you fancy?”

“What or who?”

“Either, but tell me the food bit first, then you can talk with me while I’m getting it.”

“What do we have?”

“Sarnie or something on toast?”

“Either of those is fine.”

“What happened to the dormouse? Doesn’t she run about like a hamster?”

“I hope nothing has happened to her.” With quickening pulse, I rushed over to the cage, she wasn’t inside her loaf. My heart nearly stopped, however, a few more moment’s search found her in her nest box. She accepted some of the nuts Stella had brought for her, and Stella fed her while I made our sandwiches.

“You got quite worried then didn’t you?”

“Yes, she is rather special to me.”

“She will die one of these days, how long do they live?”

“I don’t know, probably only a year or two in the wild. In captivity probably four or five years maybe longer.”

“What eats them?”

“Any predator clever enough to catch them, especially when they are hibernating. Otherwise it’s probably destruction of habitat, loss of good thick hedgerows and occasional hazel coppice. All the farmers these days, flail cut with those damn machines, very few lay hedges like their forebears did.”

“Oh, I just love to see a nicely laid hedge,” Stella gushed, “it’s so clever.”

“It is skilful stuff, like my sandwiches.”

“Gee whiz, Cathy, I can’t eat all of those.”

“I’m glad to hear it, half of them are mine, you greedy piglet.”

“Oh, thank goodness for that.”

After lunch, whilst I checked my emails, Stella fell asleep reading the paper. “Hooray,” I said loudly.

“Erm, who?” said Stella sleepily.

“I’ve heard from Bristol uni, they want me to go and talk with them about the dormouse site.”

“So when are you going?”

“Erm–it’ll have to wait. I’m busy next week with the summer school, and I have work to do over the weekend. The week after next is the earliest I can go.”

“Why not tomorrow, if they have some free time?”

“Because I have a guest.”

“Who’s that then?”

“Spike, why?”

“I don’t mind, I can amuse myself for an hour or two. Where is it?”

“Top end of Park Street.”

“Where is that?”

“Up past the shops.”

“Shops, the magic word, yes ring them, tomorrow will do fine.”

“You are so predictable,” I said almost dismissively. It wasn’t at true, but I felt she needed some chastisement for wanting to go shopping, it was just too girly.

“So? You can talk. You seem to like shopping, too.”

“Yeah, but not like you.”

“So what would you have me do, wait for you to finish and then we can both go shopping, or what?”

“Yeah, that sounds a great idea. Why not come with me and have a look at the museum?”

“Yeah, how exciting, not.”

“Okay, I’ll call them, see what I can do.” I did, speaking to the biology department administrator, who had in fact emailed me. I set up an appointment with her for first thing the next day, which meant Stella would get maximum shopping time, with or without me.

When I informed her, she said, “I love it when a plan comes together.”

“Stella, I think that’s been done?”

“Oh yeah, by whom?”

“Would you believe the A-team?”

“The what?”

“Never mind.” At this she returned to her newspaper.