On Sunday 3rd August Adam, Sarah, Islay, Keir, Sorely and Finn all arrived They had said they would turn up at 3 or 4 pm but in the morning Ada called to say he would arrive at 1. I suggested that they should either bring some lunch or have something to eat before getting here. Maggi disagreed and as a result she prepared lunch and dinner for the crew.
While they are all in the house the boys are either watching some rubbish on the television or playing on their tablets or phones. When they get fed up with either of these two activities they then start to squabble. The principal result of this ends up with Sorely and Finn taunting Keir in various ways and Keir responding. Keir then gets told off by Sarah or Adam while the younger ones invariably get off scot free.
Maggi also made lunch and dinner for the team on Monday while Adam worked in our small bedroom. I am writing this on Friday so I forget the exact evening that Sarah made the dinner I forget. Adam’s crew departed in the evening to watch the show Stranger Things and came back just after 11.
Wednesday
A visit to the Emirates to watch Arsenal play Villa Real as part of the Gunners pre-season warm up became the highlight of the week. Adam had meetings in town from early morning and I took the boys to the stadium by tube. They all looked forward to the event and behaved very well throughout the journey. We stopped at Cafe Euro for our evening tea after we arrived at McDonalds and found it absolutely packed.
Adam turned up and we all entered the Emirates via the Club Entrance South. I had bought fairly expensive seats, not nearly as much as a regular match, and we had row 2 on the mid level directly behind the goal the the gunners attacked in the first half. From the moment we arrived 30 minutes before kick-off the boys became firmly attached to their seats not wanting to move and wander around the stadium.
Villa Real won the match 3-2 in full time scoring tree break away goals while Arsenal scored through a corner and penalty. At the end of the match they announced that there would be a penalty shoot out. I didn’t want to stay for that, but the boys did. Arsenal lost the shoot out as well.
After we left the area the next thing the boys wanted to do was visit the shop. They needed to queue up to enter the shop while I waited outside. Adam commented afterwards that the queue to buy anything was even longer than to enter the shop.
Thursday
More of the same, my only respite comes when I leave for a 90 minute walk. My walking slowly improves. I still walk slowly but the discomfort has reduced to a more manageable level. Maggi made lunch and dinner again. Sarah took Islay, Sorely and Finn out for most of the morning and left Keir behind. Leaving Keir behind has become too frequent as far as I’m concerned. He complains that the young boys annoy him. Today I told him that he should ignore their torments, but I know how difficult that will be.
In the evening Maggi left with Adam and all the family to watch a musical play at the Lyric Hammersmith called Sing Street. In the meantime I trooped up to Sobell Bridge Club to play with Pat. We came last of all the North South’s with only 42%. Pathetic.
Friday
Terry the plumber arrived at 9 am to refit the shower on the top floor. The part holding the spray part of the shower had fallen off the wall because the screws had rusted away.
I then left for a walk to Ruislip to buy some grouting becase the same shower needs some touching up. My poor DIY skills will probably not be tolerated by Maggi as she will almost certainly takeover the job of re-grouting. The walk allowed me to escape from the bedlam for awhile. When I returned everyone was out, except Adam, in his office. They all came back and eat their way through everything that Maggi had bought and then left. All left except of course Keir, who spent the afternoon in the front room mostly asleep.
The evening spent packing for our trip tomorrow to Cornwall.