I’m still having work done on my house and had to go choose a work surface for the kitchen.
I figured if I do it 'right' now, I can avoid doing anymore work until the children leave home and we sell it.
Better we enjoy it while we’re here rather than fix it up at the end for someone else’s benefit.
Our builder drove us down to the granite ‘show-room’.
I was expecting a clean and nicely lit showroom. The reality was very different.
We were greeted at the security gate by two burley East Europeans who only spoke a few words of English. After a brief exchange, we were ‘escorted’ to the main building but were not permitted inside.
My wife was nervous and so was I.
It suddenly felt we’d entered a James Bond set.
A dour man eventually trudged out and pointed toward a lot out the back.
“This way. We go yes?”
After a five minute walk we came to what resembled a giant graveyard with impossibly huge blocks/sheets of granite and marble planted into the ground.
We quickly selected a few options and were escorted to the ‘Boss’.
“This is only available in 3/4 inch. This one is VERY expensive. This one good but not popular.”
After scratching down some numbers on a piece of scrap paper, we made a decision and left a sizable deposit.
A week later two more East Europeans delivered exactly what we were hoping for.
There was some slight damage to one ‘slab’ but fortunately they’d cut it too long and were able to easily slice it to the perfect length.
Now hopefully the oven will fit.

Took my car/bus to the automated carwash last weekend.
I’d never used one before and as the car looked more grime than metal, I thought I’d give it a go.
Quite scary but good fun.

On the way home from work I spotted an odd shape in the road.
It was late and dark, but it caught and held my attention. When the traffic had passed, I ran out to see if my suspicions were correct.
They were: little frog!
There’s a pond about half a mile further up and, for whatever reason, it seemed to be heading away from it.
I picked it up and took it home.
My wife smiled indulgently and my children all leapt around with glee.
It was too late to take it out to the river in the backfields so it spent the night in our bathtub. I gave it an old tin box, some face flannels to hide in and some cat food to eat.
It used to hideout but was disdainful of the tinned food.
The next morning I freed it while walking the dog. It took a moment then sprung into the flowing stream.

Last week I was walking with my dog in the fields behind my house.
I turned a corner and I saw something.
It initially looked like a spindly boar with a small head and long legs.
It took my a moment to realise that it was a Muntjac deer.
I'd been told they could be seen occasionally, but after a year of looking, I'd given up.
I grabbed the dog and edged forward...
Nothing. The deer had seen me as well and fled.
A couple of days later I went down to a place near Stroud in the Cotswolds.
While again walking the dog, my path was crossed by two much larger Fallow deer.
They ran past me and although I only saw them for scant seconds, they left me breathless.
Both moments will stay with me.
I wish I could witness more.