A week where Phil finds Love

There must be something weird or freakish about me and my face in particular because perfect strangers always stare. Honest to god, it's not just me being paranoid, ask Harriet. A couple of weeks ago, Harriet and me were walking through the Tesco car park in Kingston and even before we'd got to the main entrance, at least 3 lots of women had looked me up and down and given me the once over. It happened quite a few times when we were in the store, and was so obvious even Harriet noticed and passed comment. It's not just staring either, strangers in the street stop me and ask me for directions and this has happened twice since I’ve been hanging around in Abingdon. I find this quite funny because anyone that knows me well, will know that I have absolutely f@*k all sense of direction. I figure that I must have a face that offers help and empathy because people that I have never met will very often strike up a conversation. This is fine, I will talk to anybody and everybody regardless and Phil is the same as well. Harriet thinks that we attract and collect ‘randoms’ but we mean no harm. A couple of weeks ago I met my very first schizophrenic in the changing room at the White Horse Leisure Centre. I was getting dressed after my shower and just mind my own business when a lady came in and started a conversation about her doctor giving her the wrong prescription. Within 5 minutes Maria told me she was a borderline schizophrenia but assured me that she wasn’t dangerous because she’d taken her tablets that morning. She told me she fancied her best friend’s husband and that she had a birthday party and nobody turned up. I felt sorry for her. Apparently her GP had advised exercise as part of her treatment and so Maria had joined the club. I wasn’t aware that you could get gym membership on the NHS but I suppose if it helps heal then why not. Anyway I was sitting on the bench after my work out yesterday, munching on a banana, when Maria walked into the changing room. I don’t think she remembered me and it was weird, because we pretty much had the same conversation that we had a few weeks back. I walked out of the changing room with Maria and had to remind her to tie up her shoe laces before going on the treadmill. Bless her, she’s harmless enough or at least I think she is!



After my drama with the exploding egg, Wednesday turned out to be a good day. I had a good run at the gym after a late start and then went to meet up with Jan at the OU. It was a beautiful sunny day and we walked to the hub and sat outside on a bench for a much needed catch-up. There has been a bereavement in the Barker family and poor Jan has been looking after her mum-in-law whilst fire fighting with a heavy workload. In spite of all that, Jan had been giving some thought to my joblessness and suggested that I start up a cleaning company or advertising my services as a painter cum decoration for ladies. It’s certainly something to think about because both these things I am good at.

I very nearly ended up in trouble in the afternoon and narrowly avoided, what could have potentially been, a very smelly and highly embarrassing experience. I’ve been drinking a cup of special Cho Yung green tea each morning which is a very expensive diet loss tea that I think I’ve mentioned before. Well, on Wednesday morning I decided to have 4 cups of the tea, reusing the tea tag each time and just adding hot water. I’ve developed quite a likening to this tea and the fact that it promotes weight loss is of course a big bonus. Anyway to cut a long story short, I was in Aldi in the afternoon queuing up to pay for some of their £2.99 wine which is on offer at the moment, when I started getting funny pains in my stomach. I really needed the loo and I was willing my queue to hurry up because the need was becoming more desperate as each second passed. Eventually I got through, paid my money, threw my bottles in the boot and quickly got in the car. I hadn’t got far when I pulled over to take a call on my mobile; it was D&A to say that my glasses were ready for collection. As I was very close to the centre I deliberated for a second as to whether I could make it to the car park but my toilet need was very urgent so I sped home, clenching my cheeks. Thank god, I just about made it, but oh boy it was a close call. Cho Yung tea is good but my advice is DO NOT reuse teabags unless you are going to be at home for the day!


I briefly said hello to Phil when he got home then jumped in the car and went to see Vanessa. This was my first chance to catch up with her and hear all about her trek to Kilamanjaro. Of course I’d read her blog journal but to hear her describing her trip in person was just incredible. Vanessa had trained hard for Kilamanjaro and plans to carry on with her fitness training because next year she plans to do the Peru Trek. Go Girl!

Phil is in love, and nah, I don’t mean with yours truly. He’s in love with his new iphone model number 4 that came into his life on Tuesday evening. He is absolutely besotted with this black slim line machine and the black leather case that Jimmy gave him; I haven’t seen him so animated for a long, long time. He can barely contain his excitement and all he can talk about is his ‘apps’ which means very little to me. I am not jealous, anything that stops him being grumpy, is worth every single penny. Long may it continue is what I say!


I left early yesterday morning and came down to Abingdon with Phil. After the beautiful sunshine the day before it was depressing to wake up to grey darks skies and pouring rain. I knew the sunshine wouldn’t last. I dropped Phil off at work and then went about my usual Abingdon routine. I won’t you bore you with the details it was just more of the same old. Phil finished at quarter to two and we had lunch in a pub and then settled ourselves in our room at the Crown & Thistle. My nice friendly receptionist was on duty but unfortunately she couldn’t put us in room 5; instead we got room 16 which I much prefer to the 4 poster room. Unfortunately this was on the 3rd floor and we couldn’t pick up the hotel’s free Wi-Fi connection. I managed to get onto an unsecured network but Phil was really disappointed because he couldn’t get any connection whatsoever on his iphone. We’ve just worked out this morning, that this problem is something to do with T-Mobile and Tesco and swapping his SIM card over. I think I need to phone T-Mobile to see if I can sort out the problem because if it’s not fixed today Phil will moan all weekend.

I’m posting this from the hotel. I’m hanging out here for as long as possible because it’s raining again today. Phil is finishing at midday so I’ll pick him up from work and then we’ll head back to MK. No firm plans for the weekend at this moment in time. Phil wants to download some software that Tom had sent via Jim all the way from Kuala Lumpar. Tom was able to get Phil, SolidWorks 2010, AutoCad 2011,Audoesk Inventor, Pro Engineer and a couple of other programmes. These programmes would have cost thousands in the UK but I’m not sure how much Tom had to pay for them in Malaysia because Jim wouldn’t take any money from Phil. Phil is very grateful and will no doubt find some way of paying Tom back. Once Phil has downloaded the programmes, he can start to teach himself how to use them and once he has mastered them, he can add these new skills to his CV. And hopefully, this will help his chances in getting a job that is much closer to home. Phil said he had a good day yesterday at work but I’m not sure how much longer he can cope with the journey to Abingdon especially as the nights draw in.


So I can already see that Phil will be spending much of his weekend on his laptop in the conservatory. Not only will he be keen to explore his newly acquired software but I know he will want to download more ‘apps’ on to the new love in his life, his iphone4. I not sure what I shall do to occupy myself but I’m sure I will find something to do. If nothing else, I can always find some cleaning to do. Just typing that sentence and I sound like such a saddo. Oh Clairabella, it really is time that you got yourself a job girl ! And soon…………………..