Day 719 Dead centre

28th July 2019

I drove down to Barrington to visit my sister and Colin. I wanted to thank them for all the care they have given to the garden, so I took them out for a Sunday lunch.

We were going to go in the back entrance of the restaurant, but noticed an old man shuffling in that direction. We looked at each other, and decided that we wanted to eat today, so made our way to the front door.

We found our table, and as Nicola and Colin made their way to the buffet the old guy beat them to it. Ten minutes later they returned.

However that wasn’t the end to it. As we were leaving, the old guy’s equally old wife accosted Colin asking him if he had a car.

“Yes I do” he replied innocently.

“ Oh good” she said “ Could you give my husband a lift please, he’s ninety three, and a little tired”

Poor Colin, he couldn’t get out of that, she had him in a headlock.

Fortunately they lived quite close, but it was the fear that he could peg out on the journey that really concerned us.

So the car was brought round to the front, and the next twenty minutes was spent watching him totter towards the car. It was long enough for Colin’s appetite to return.

We shoe-horned him into the passenger seat and waited for Nicola to return. She had got involved with the wife and a battery powered buggy.

We set off with Colin trying to extract the directions from the old guy. By the time he uttered which turning we should take, we had shot passed it.

Turning round, and making the correct turn we were then stuck behind his wife in her buggy.

She was oblivious to us following, and with the grand speed of one mile an hour, she dominated the width of the road. Colin’s car was almost stalling, as he checked to see if the old guy was still alive.

Finally we reached their house, and helped him out.

Colin couldn’t get away fast enough, he was annoyed that he had been caught out, but it did give a laugh on the way back.

I think she asked everyone in the restaurant, but they were a bit more savvy, or pretended to visit the toilet, and sneaked out.

I think Nicola crossed that place off the list.

The evening ended badly in the worse possible way. I received an email from the Department of Homeland Security informing me that my ESTA status had changed.

I immediately went on the site, entering my identification number. Sure enough my status had changed to ” Not permitted to travel”

It was a good job I hadn’t booked my ticket, but I needed to sort something out quick.