Author: peterb51

14th March 2026 

This was my last day of dog sitting, and once I got back to my cottage I realised how quiet things are without dogs about. They add ambience to a home even when they are sleeping. They are the unique symbol of unconditional love, you can tell them off but they always come back. I miss my girls back home, and from all the messages I receive Winnie is still being a shit sometimes.

I had a video call with Tim Wallace, I had tried to arrange a visit not knowing he had moved to Norfolk. 

Although close to seventy and still working, he looked good, a grey straggly beard is now a feature, made him look a bit like Catweasle the children’s tv series back in the late seventies.

He was outside, and showed me his house, to say Wow would be a understatement. The views from his picture windows are breathtaking, I can only imagine what it is like to be there.

We talked for over an hour and a half, that flashed by quickly, I think it must have been ten years at least since we had spoken, so there was a lot to talk about.

After that I drove down to Martock to visit Nicola and Colin. It was the first time that I had done a long trip in the MX5, and it was an interesting experience. It is small, and when driving at sixty you feel like it’s going eighty. The pedals are a bit cramped, ideal for maybe Italian or Japanese people with small feet, not an English person with size elevens.

This is a 1991 model, and it feels it, no air conditioning, basic instrumentation it reminded me of my Toyota MR2. The Jag, was on a different level, that accelerated from zero to “Good morning judge” in milliseconds.

However it  showed me how difficult it is driving at night, the LED lights on new cars are deadly, definitely a danger to old gits in old cars.

13th March 2026

Now I’m not superstitious, but I experienced a couple of events challenging that.

As I have mentioned I am looking after Ryan and Louise’s two dogs Bobby and Dexter.

I had a good sleep, what I had of it, I was awoken by Dexter wanting to go outside at 04.30am. I remember I got down the stairs, opened the back door, and then letting him back in and getting back to bed afterwards.

The first traumatic event happened when Bobby moved from the foot of the bed, where he normally sleeps, to laying on my chest in such a way that my arms we trapped. He then proceeded to lick my face from chin to forehead.

Now I don’t like my face being licked, not for any particular reason other than where he could have licked before, if you catch my drift?

That was the rude awakening I wasn’t expecting, but it motivated me to get up.

I wrestled with them to attach the harnesses, and made it through the door, ready for the early morning walk.

There had been heavy rain in the night, and the words that Louise spoke about it being muddy did ring my ears, but I obviously ignored that.

Reaching the entrance I could see what she meant. 

What happened next could be described as an Eddie the eagle Edwards moment.

The shoes I was wearing did not have much grip, correction, they had no grip. The dogs were pulling me, I then started to slide, the path was steep downhill, and I had no control.

I fought the forces that were trying to flip my legs up, and getting to the bottom was a miracle.

“Phew! That was close”

Then the path turned to the right, there was even more mud, that is where I lost it, my legs flipped sideways and I landed on my side, my feeble attempt to save myself from landing on my arse.

I managed to stand and survey the damage, there was mud all down my right side, if Kelli could see me now was my first thought.

I released the hounds, and off they went, I stood there for a minute making sure that nobody was around, and making up a plausible explanations for my fashion disaster.

We finished the walk, I hitched up the dogs, now they could pull me up the hill.

We got back and I gave them their breakfast, realising I didn’t have my glasses that were on my head before the accident. Panic stations, I ran back retracing my steps. Now I had to go back down the sloping path on my own, my shoes failing to grip, but somehow I made it without a repeat performance.

I reached the area where I could see my skid mark, there were my glasses sitting on the grass.

The relief was enormous.

I made sure the dog were settled before going back to the cottage, where I put my mud soiled clothes into the washing machine.

Next was lunch with my friend Rob in Bath at our favourite Indian Restaurant, and no, this time there was no Masala Dosa. Instead it was something different, don’t ask me what it was, I went along with Rob’s recommendation, and it was delicious.

At the start of my visit I heard that another of my old school friends was really ill , I found out that he was being treated in the RUH for sepsis.

Rob and myself had agreed to visit him at the Pulteney ward. We took him some grapes, we split them, I provided the grapes and Rob the stalks.

Rod parked a mile or so away from the hospital, to avoid the car park fees, which meant we had to walk.  Now I had decided to wear some boots that I had for a long time, this was a bad mistake.

I have been used to wearing wide shoes, so trying to squeeze my feet into more shaped footwear should have been avoided.

They were fine as long as I didn’t walk in them, but squeaky Rob forced me to do that.

Anyway, we found Pete our sick school friend, but he was being taken to have a CT scan, so we had to wait half an hour for him to be returned to his room.

We found a restaurant and made ourselves a cup of tea.

All this was eating into our two hour free parking time. By the time we actually got to spend time with Pete, we almost had to turn round and head back to the car, but not before he described what treatment he had underwent.

By the time he got to the three incisions he had on his tummy I thought I was going to faint.

He had all that, and could still smile about it.

By the time I got off the bus and walked back to the cottage, I was in agony, I was hobbling along. Both feet had different pain I could wait to take those bloody boots off, I could hear my toes celebrating.

12th March 2026

I had a few days of dog sitting ahead of me. 

Bobby and Dexter are complete opposites in size and stature, but they share a common ability to bark their bloody heads off, especially when they know it was walkie time.

I didn’t have the best night of sleep, but I was up at seven ready for a brisk walk around the neglected golf course.

Wrestling the dogs to put their harnesses on whilst they were barking in my ear was a challenge, although Bobby had been shaved to within an inch of his life, was the easiest of the two. With Dexter, I had to fight the mass of hair.

Once the had been achieved, we were off. For a small dog Bobby can certainly pull, which he did until I released him from his tether.

Then it was a pleasant walk in the crisp morning air. 

I take the longest route in a wide circle, I watched the early morning train rumbling along the other side of the river, my lungs filled with clean air, it felt good to be alive.

After the walk, there was less pulling, although I need help climbing the steep slope towards the gap in the fence. 

I gave the dogs their breakfast of chicken thighs, which they devoured in minutes, I got ready to leave, I had a lot on my list to do.

The garden at the cottage needed de-cluttering , last years growth had to be tamed, and the brambles from the next door had started to invade again.

I got the incinerator going, and as I cut away the dead stuff, burnt it. Not having a vehicle to take it to the tip, burning it was the only option.

I soon regretted it, smoke billowed everywhere, there was a strong wind that helped the drawing, but made it difficult to avoid getting engulfed.

However I made good progress, and a few more sessions should get it back in control.

I took a shower to get the smell of smoke washed away, and headed back to feed the boys, slightly exhausted from the days activity. This alway makes me question my ability to stay awake in the evening, I put it down to the English air, although most of it was filled with smoke, maybe it was the thick English smoke that did it.

11th March 2026

The day I had been dreading, fixing the dishwasher.

I was up at 7.30, had breakfast then started to prepare for the challenge.

My friend Dave was coming over to help, he called me to say that he had bought an earlier train and was on his way up the hill.

By then I had removed the front panel, removed the retaining screws, disconnected the electric and the water and waste pipes, and pulled the unit out into the kitchen.

I met Dave at the front door, he apologised in advance for not being very helpful. He said that he had been dreading this for days, so I spent time reassuring him that two brains are better than one, and we will have fun doing it.

Secretly I was scared, but I didn’t want to worry him more.

The first job was to remove the base panel, this exposed the innermost workings of the machine.

Disconnecting the electrical bits was easy, uncoupling the hose clamps was tricky, but we did it.

Next was trying to disconnect the heater from the motor. This was bloody difficult. 

The first deviation from the videos was the removal of the whole assembly of motor and heater. I don’t know how this could have been done in situ because there were non return plastic clips that had to be forced open to allow the heater unit to rotate anti clockwise.

With a bit of brute force,  a wooden block and hammer, the two pieces came apart.

This was the easy part.

The reassembly was painful, with many different attempts to fit the components. 

First fit the motor, that in itself was horrible, it had to locate in two rubber brackets. I forget how many time we got it together only for it to fall out.

We tried to fit the heater to the motor but it required a lot of force to compress the seal and locate the locking clips, so out it all came.

We then assembled the two parts together then tried to fit the motor part back into the rubber brackets.

By this time we had been working for three hours, it was mentally exhausting. Dave continued to apologise for not helping much. 

Then by the luck of the gods it was there, in the correct place ready for the hoses to be refitted.

There was a warmth of satisfaction running down my back, or was it just beads of sweat?, I didn’t care.

Once the electrical connections were reattached it was just the base panel to be refitted.

What bastard engineer designed this piece.

There were parts that had to be tucked under a metal flange, plastic fingers to align with slots it was effin’ difficult.

Finally I loosened a couple of screws that allowed a bit of flex, just enough to tuck under the back portion of the floor panel, the fingers then aligned themselves, and it was in.

Re connecting the hoses and electric and sliding it back into its home, and the job was done.

Then it was “Does it work” test.

Everything was ready, I selected a program and pressed the button.

The machine rumbled into life.

I checked for leaks, there were none so far.

While it was going through the cycle, we started on the next job, the tripping of the RCD for the shed. This was the mystery, everything was wired correctly, the underground cable was a proper armoured cable, and when we reset the trip, it stayed, head scratching time.

I went back to the kitchen to see how the test was going, as I opened the door the steam hit me. I punched the air in victory, two old duffers had done it, a fully working dishwasher.

So the day ended, it was now 3.30pm and both of us were drained. 

We walked into the town to try to get something to eat, by that time most places were closed, but we did find one open.

We stayed there talking until they asked us to leave because they were closing.

I walked Dave to the train station, it was one of those days when things had been achieved, and my sprit was on a high, and I hadn’t had a drink.

10th March 2026

Today my eldest son Damian was coming to visit, he was kindly leading me one of his cars so I can get about a bit without the hassle of renting a vehicle.

It was great to see him again, he has a busy life, and we don’t connect as often as I would like, and I’m not good with phone calls or video, which is really what we should do to communicate better.

So those few hours we spent were wonderful.

 The car he lent me was a first generation Mazda MX 5 in perfect condition. He had been looking for one for ages, and probably paid a lot for it, with only thirty-five thousand miles on the clock, it is a gem.

During the evening, I started to read up, and watch videos on how to replace the heating element on my dishwasher. This was going to be tomorrow’s main task. I searched through the literature trying to find any user information on the machine, the only thing I found was the template for attaching the front panel. At least it was something.

I had a message from Derek to say that he had cracked the code, and managed to retrieve the licenses, a victory, and great relief.

9th March 2026

I took my bravery pill and returned to Trowbridge, it was a grey day which matches the place perfectly.

The bus was on time, the driver was the same miserable git, maybe that was the job description, but he did have the opportunity to put his foot down passing stops with no one waiting.

I got to the coffee shop early, having forgotten what time we had to meet, fortunately Stephen Cooper was early, so it worked out well.

I was a little bit worried how our meeting would play out, I wouldn’t say we had a close working relationship, in fact we didn’t interact all that often, so in a sense it was my chance to find out who he was. I guess it was the same for him, maybe he was brave to agree for the meet, but any reservations disappeared, and we ended up having a great conversation. I left the coffee shop having got to know Stephen, we shared a lot of common philosophy, he was overshadowed by Steve Cox, but had proved himself, and if the Brazilian project had worked out he could have been a major player in International.

We agreed to meet next time I’m around, and I wished him good health, I then left the warmth of the shop and back to the land of the grey.

There seemed a long time for the next bus, so I started to walk back, there is nothing worse than waiting for twenty minutes in the cold and damp.

I was back in plenty of time to meet Derek, my ex-brother in law and electronics wizard who always helps me when I have a computer or hardware issue. The current problem was trying to move a software license from a website to a flash drive so that I could load it onto my system back in Holland.

If my Mac was new it would be simple for me to do, but web sites get upgraded and pretty soon they no longer load on the older machines.

However this task wasn’t as easy as it seems, the menus didn’t match the instructions I had been sent, and although we eventually found the licences they couldn’t be saved to the flashdrive. That was frustrating, and eventually we had to admit defeat, but Derek would not take defeat very easily, and would continue to work through the problem in his own time.

This technology annoys me, I have to buy the software, but unlike “the old days” when there  was a DVD, I would load it, and there it was ready to use. Nowadays it’s store on my account somewhere that I can’t physically touch, and, like today there is a uncrossable chasm trying to retrieve it.

8th March 2026

I was due to meet up with my friend Rob in Bath for lunch. The Temptation Indian Restaurant has the most amazing Masala Dosa, it’s what we have every time.

I got into Bath a little early, I took the opportunity to go into the BT shop, I had a question about what I pay for the broadband in the cottage. 

I explained to the lad my issue, and we sat in the corner as he tapped on his tablet. He agreed that it was on the high side. My gripe was that a new  subscriber would only pay a third of what my bill is, so where is customer loyalty?

There wasn’t a lot he could say. He did offer to reduce it by a third, the maximum he could do in store, that still seemed a bit high.

He then suggested that I have a business account as the cottage could be classed as a business,  now we were talking. This would drop my bill to about a third of my current bill. He said he could not authorise it in store, but went to call someone in a higher position. Unfortunately that person was not there so he booked a call to ring me on an agreed day to discuss and hopefully sort everything out. Let’s hope that works.

Meeting Rob outside the restaurant, was amusing, I could see him walking towards me, his white beard is a distinctive feature that stands out in a crowd.

As first he didn’t recognise me, my hair is a bit longer, which may have fooled him, but a second glance, and that was that.

We had our glorious lunch, catching up on all the latest news.

He dropped me back to the cottage, then drove off to resume his house sitting job in Wilton. We will repeat it all again next Friday.

The evening ended with a glorious roast dinner down at Ryan and Louise’s, she does the finest red cabbage, part of a handed down recipe, yum, yum.

7th March 2026 

There was a mist in the valley, drizzle was forecast and I was planning to complete the shed.

Ryan took me to Wickes so that I could get the feather board I needed for the job.

I have always considered myself as a problem solver, and what I was faced with was a difficult area of the shed to reach. I didn’t have a proper ladder that would have made the job so easy, I only had a step ladder. 

Most of the pieces of feather board I could reach , but as I got closer to the top it became impossible. I was unable to use the step ladder at all in the conventional way.

All I can say, and it would make a health and safety person faint, I laid the step ladder between two walls, albeit at an angle because the walls were at different heights.

That was a bit dodgy, even for me, because I only had the rungs to stand on.

Then my brilliance came into its own, I laid an old worktop on to the angled stepladder beam. This solved the problem of falling through the rungs, but not the angle. I then collected most of the offcuts and stacked them on the lowest end to raise the worktop to a much lesser angle. 

Now I had a platform to reach the higher places.

As I was fixing the last of the feather boards, Mike walked up the path pushing his bike, he looked across at my “platform” tutting as he passed. I shouted to him to not report me to the health and safety police. I had no fear, Mike wouldn’t report anyone to any police.

I managed to finish the work without injury, all that is left is the door, it’s a bit ragged, and that’s my final issue. I will give that some thought, I have plenty of off cuts, I might try something creative.

6th March 2026

I had arranged to meet Stephen Cooper at a coffee shop in Trowbridge. We reconnected recently on LinkedIn, as I was in the area I thought it would be good to meet up.

He was the Director of Manufacturing at Herman Miller but left in 2007.

This meant I had to travel to Trowbridge, a place with a dodgy reputation. It’s the kind of apocalyptic town where even Mad Max would say, “ What a shit hole”

I got to the bus stop in plenty of time, the driver wasn’t a happy soul, there was a grunt of recognition, but that was about as much interaction I got.

The bus started on its journey, no sooner as it got up to speed it had to stop at the next stop.

In fact the stops were so close together you could see them. Why there were so many? Maybe the council awarded regular passengers their own stop outside their homes, it was a bit ridiculous, but it just added to the excitement of getting to Trowbridge.

I was early, so I walked around the town looking at what was left, so many empty shops and ones selling cheap junk. The place felt depressing, which was a shame, I remembered when it was quite a bustling town, it had a brewery, a sausage factory and well established department stores, but that’s all gone.

By now I was dying to use the toilet, I knew there was one at the shopping centre. Another victim of redundancy, all the good shops had moved out leaving places where people can trade things for cash.

I followed the signs for the toilets, there was a notice on the door”Closed due to vandalism” 

How bad can things get when someone vandalises a toilet.

By now the time of the meet was drawing close, I made my way to the coffee shop called Leykers. It used to be a computer shop that I had used an a few occasions. The place looked pleasant, and they had a toilet, in I went, ordered a drink and a toasted tea cake, I was letting the boat out.

I found a comfy seat, the most comfortable furniture piece in the whole place, although once I sat in it I sank below the level of the table. It must have been amazing for others to see just my hands on the table.

It was now past the meeting time, I checked everyone entering, most were old ladies, the whole of the downstairs was occupied by them, I was the only guy. I protected the spare chair in the hope that Stephen would arrive soon.

Well I waited over half an hour, and there was no sign, not even a message, so I finished the dregs of my coffee, got up and left, disappointed that I had wasted my time.

I walked to the bus stop, it arrived, I sat upstairs, then a message appeared on my phone apologising that he had marked it down for Friday of the next week. We rescheduled for another day, hopefully that will go better, but I will have to suffer Trowbridge again.

4th March 2026

This was a work on the shed day. It was a glorious day, I changed into my grot work clothes and spent fifteen minutes putting on my work boots.

The area of the shed I was tackling, was the side with the door. That had to be removed first, I also had to remove the cladding that I had already fitted on a previous trip, but I had a different idea for that.

In the distance I could hear the buzzing of the chainsaws, in fact I hear that every time I am here, maybe they do it to annoy me.

As I was busy reframing the new door frame Mike, the guy that lives behind me, and re-roofed my cottage, wheeled his bicycle down the path. He had a tree sticking out of his saddle bag. “Is that some kind of antenna?” I quipped.

He smiled, and told me it was an ash sapling that he had extracted from a wall, and was taking it to replant it. He explained about a disease that is effecting ash trees in the country, he was doing his bit to try preserve them, one tree at a time.

I carried on with my task, I used up what material I had, and as the sun went away, and the evening drew on, I finished for the day.

Satisfied with my effort, I celebrated with a bottle of Old Speckled Hen, thoughtfully supplied by Nicola, cheers sis.