Family Holiday – Day 3

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Roger, Jane and Oliver arrived last night around 9pm. Like us, their vehicle was laden down with foodstuffs for the days ahead. Looking at it all together with our provisions in the utility room, I calculate that we can stand a siege for around 60 days!

A good night’s sleep. Oh, and what a surprise! It’s raining!!! A perfect excuse then to take the short drive to Derby for some indoor retail therapy. We looked around the massive M and S, popped into WH Smith’s and Staples and then headed back to the farm-house.

Meanwhile, Roger, Jane and Oliver had headed off to meet Ken and Celia to escort them safely to the Farmhouse. They returned around 1.30 – after some well-ordered preparation, we tucked into a feast of salad, cheese and cold meats for lunch.

After lunch, the weather cleared up, so I gave the new car the ‘once-over’. Then it rained again!!!!

The rest of the afternoon turned out to be quite varied:

• Light Sabre fight with Oliver 
• Peeling 20 tonne of potatoes and 15 tonne of carrots
• Giving the car the ‘once over’ (again)

…and now the sun IS shining!!

..and to finish the day, we played Monopoly. What an interesting game! First, none of us had played for years, so it made us all a bit rusty on the rules of the game. Second, it wasn’t the traditional board – instead, it was the National Trust version, so that slowed us down a bit as none of the places looked familiar! Last of all (but most most significantly!), given the age of many of the players, the normal speed of the game-play was reduced dramatically! This was mainly due the inability to read the Chance and  Community Chest cards without their glasses, and generally forgetting whose turn it was! But the funniest moment had to be when, after many rounds, it was now time for Ken to roll the dice again – instead of popping the dice in the egg cup as he’d done many times before this evening, he popped them into his cup of coffee!!! Cue, uncontrollable laughter all round!!!

Anyway, back to game. One-by-one we all dropped out leaving Roger and Jane to battle it out, whilst the rest of us looked on, watching Roger count and re-count his accumulating wealth. We don’t think it was ever in doubt who would win – Roger knows all the rents off by heart as well as most of the Chance and Community Chest cards!!! So, somewhat predictably, two and three-quarter hours later, the game was won. We filled the dishwasher and then all retired to the Lounge to catch a bit of TV.

A great day – nice to have most of the family together- and, to cap it all, it looks like we’ve got a sort of mobile signal (two bars GPRS).

Lazy day tomorrow!