24 June 2017
Doesn’t look much does it, but this place does the best roll and sausage I have had in years.
I have never actually seen the face of the diminutive lady who runs the place. If you stand at the window like the woman in the picture all you can see is a small grey bun of well secured hair moving backwards and forwards at speed. The words “That’ll be £1.80 please” signify the arrival of your 500 calorie treat and a hand will appear to take your money, but everything else is a mystery.
If you ever find yourself in Perth I strongly recommend a visit. You can take your breakfast into the park and eat it on a bench while watching the drones deliver phones and drugs over the massive wall of Perth prison.
This week started with three days in Aberdeen where I was training with a chap I will call Neo. I have not mentioned Neo before but I have delivered almost every course with his assistance over recent weeks. He is a technical chap and so named because when he first joined the firm – which was before my time – he modelled his look on Keanu Reeves’s genius programmer from that film.
Unlike Neo though he is forced to spend much of time dealing with trivialities such as sorting out people that can’t login to SKYPE. Despite this I am confident should the machines ever rise, hell bent on world domination he will be front and centre. Telling the the defence corps the best thing to do is to switch stuff off then back on again.
While we are almost complete opposites we work extremely well together. For no reason I can fathom. As these guys used to. I like to think of myself as Paul Michael to his David.
Thursday was a trip to Perth and Friday was spent in Forfar, a place that everyone knows only because of the football results. “Forfar four”. Very funny. Or it would be it if had ever been said. I suspect “Forfar Nil” is fairly frequently heard.
Earlier today we picked up our caravan from storage and took it to my parents. There is much to be done before we depart for the mountains on Saturday.
Ours looks like this only dirtier. Isn’t she a beaut?
Over lunch my Father described how he had been having trouble with his eyesight and so earlier in the week had gone to the optician.
It has been a case of
“Read the letters on the board please Mr Murray”
“What board?”
This lead to a diagnosis of suspected cataracts. It came to light that he had been having trouble with his sight for some time but had decided not mentioned it.
If it is cataracts they are serious of course, but as he already has kidney failure, a deep vein thrombosis, a dodgy prostate and cancer of the blood they just sounded like another thing to be added to the list.
After his announcement a sudden tension descended on the dining table that took the shine off my home-made macaroni cheese and caramelised onion sausages.
“What did he say about driving?” asked the Domestic Manager.
“Well, he said I shouldn’t, but I’ll be fine” replied my father.
“What!” exclaimed the DM in full authoritarian mode.
This was not the right thing to say to someone who works in the care sector. “No driving means NO DRIVING!” she said.
“Nah” replied my father. “Doesn’t work like that. Depends who it is. I’m a better driver than most other people. He didn’t mean it for me.”
And so followed an exchange-cum-lecture from the DM along the lines of “No means No” which my father countered with “That only applies to other people – I’m special”. An attitude common amongst many old people I believe.
Not sure how it ended as I took refuge in the living room where my mother was already hiding and drinking heavily.
I should point out that alongside the rebuke from the DM came the offer from ourselves to drive them anywhere at any time. We’ll wait and see how that one pans out.
To finish this week I am going to mention Glastonbury. Why anyone would spend hundreds of pounds to sit in a field cheek-by-jowl with a thousand other scruffy, smelly, thieving cretins who all share the same belief that they are better than everyone else despite the fact they can’t tie their own shoelaces and are being forced to crap in a bucket for several days beats me.
Good luck to them. Let’s hope it doesn’t rain.
Murrays Musings 