29th May 2011

It’s been a blustery week, with the sort of wind that makes you feel like you’ve walked into a giant hairdryer. Only one day of rain tried (and failed) to rescue the parched, brown lawns.

Monday’s drama came courtesy of Jamie’s fire alarm, again. At 7 pm, the phone rang in full panic mode. I dashed off, determined to beat the fire engines this time… and failed, again. They’d already arrived and were calmly winding up their hoses, the picture of post-blaze efficiency. En route, Jamie rang in alarmed tones: “They’re coming, what do I do?”

The culprit turned out to be a hot shower and an overly sensitive alarm system. The firemen, clearly veterans of domestic disasters, were sympathetic and reassured him, but firmly suggested a replacement “a.s.a.p.” I dutifully rang the Housing Association the next day to get it sorted.

Meanwhile, Sarah spent Monday night being violently unwell, yet insisted on going to school for her final ever Geography lesson. Noble, yes, but she lasted exactly an hour before I collected her from the gates, and she retreated to bed for the rest of the day. Miraculously, she made a full recovery in time for Tuesday line dancing with Charlotte, funny, that.

By midweek, Sue and I had caught the same bug. It was a 24-hour misery, more naps than a lazy cat, and more fluids than a camel before a desert trek. The following days saw Suraj, Jamie, and Harley all go down with it too, and we strongly suspected Ellis as the original germ-spreader-in-chief. Then I read in the paper about cucumbers teeming with E. coli, and began to wonder if our salads were out to get us. Not to be left out, Nan joined the sick list later in the week, solidarity, Palmer style.

Wednesday evening brought a change of pace: Nan, Sue, and I went to a Harborough Cine Club archive showing, with films spanning from 1960 to the present. It was fascinating, if a tad long. Sue and I remembered several events, but a film about the Tungstone factory fire drew a complete blank for me, despite Sue’s insistence that we once stood watching it with Jethro the dog, leaving only when he got too frightened. Apparently, my memory had the night off.

With the weather turning chilly, Nan settled into the sun lounge to reread Charlotte’s printed copies of our 2007–2008 Palmer Family Blog. This prompted me to print 2009–2010… and immediately regret it, as the grammatical errors leapt off the page in shameful chorus. The original plan had been to jot down notes for later improvement. Naturally, “later” never came.

Friday began with a lunch in Harrington with Nan, Charlotte, and Ellis, followed by our ‘Family Curry Night’. Sue, worn out from her week, opted for an early nap before our evening out, and Suraj stayed away thanks to ‘the bug’. Sarah, meanwhile, hopped on a train to Nottingham to meet Lee, who whisked her off to a paranormal night at Alton Towers, presumably to replace geography with ghost-ography. That left just Nan, Charlotte, and me for dinner, so I made a Thai Red Curry and saved the Rogan Josh for another day. Later, Sue and I went to see The Way Back at the cinema, long but excellent.

Saturday was a rugby pilgrimage to Twickenham for the Aviva Premiership Final. The supporters’ bus left Harborough at 9.30 am, and by midday we were in Twickenham village, enjoying steak and ale pie at the Prince Blucher. The match, alas, ended in a deserved 22–18 defeat to Saracens. Back in Harborough, I watched Manchester United lose to Barcelona. Not the best day for my sporting loyalties, but at least the pie was good.