Not a comfortable week for Dot: she had the first stage of her tooth implant done on Monday, which wasn’t painful in itself, but it knocked her out for a couple of days, her mouth is still swollen and she has more or less dragged herself to a DSSO meeting at Easton this morning because it is Andy Mash’s farewell event.
She thinks very highly of Andy (as do I), and she was determined to wish him well. She also gave Paul a lift and took the new car to do so.
Yesterday she languished at home while I went to the Archant coffee morning. Maryta came to that but spoke so softly that I could barely hear her. Paul explained that this was because she was wearing ear plugs which bizarrely augmented her own voice to her. Stranger things… which coincidentally is the title of a Netflix series we saw in its entirety last week.
The big day of the week (pace tooth implants) was Sunday, when we took the Mazda on its first long run – to Ashtead in Surrey, where an Otterspool reunion was taking place at Susan and Bob Bushell’s rather nice bungalow . Very pleasant setting, but getting to it was typical outer London clutter. The drive down went well – we shared the driving – and the event itself was excellent.
Dot took a couple of salads, and the others took a rich assortment of other food. I could probably have eaten more, but Bob is very efficient at clearing away. I played a brief gamelet of croquet with Ruthie (or Anne, as some know her), and several of us went for a short walk on the common, which is reached by crossing the road. Very good to meet so many of the Otterspudlians again. They are a really nice bunch people.
Afterwards we followed our satnav, which kept us off the M25 for most of the way and took us more or less due north, taking in such places as Esher, Hampton Court and Feltham. We were calling in on David on the way back, and I guess the western section of the M25 must have been gridlocked. It was OK when we eventually joined it near Rickmansworth.
David showed us his new hybrid car, which is certainly impressive in both appearance and features. It was too late to go for a drive, and he was probably too busy anyway, but we had a quick cup of tea and Facetime with Chrissy. We then took to the road again. I had to drive all the way back because Dot had partaken of wine, but it was a very easy drive after leaving David’s.