7 April

After making sure I got a good night’s sleep I did, and woke ready to go at 6:45 with the alarm. After checking emails, etc., I prepared and was down for breakfast at 7:30 and again enjoyed a leisurely breakfast before finishing preparing and then contacting Pat and Terry and arranging to pop up with the washing.
I noted the travel time to Gatwick and then was at Redhill well before 10. The washing went on and we settled down to have a bit of a chat while Terry and Ken finished off the preparation for the new backyard accommodations and … the water went off. Water works in the High Street and off course no flow.
Waiting a while, we chatted and Pat gave me an atlas to look at – a fatal mistake for a map junkie like me. Then it was comparisons of distances, locations, timing of my trips across Australia, relative positions of England and Canada (England is level with the middle of Canada and reaches towards the highest parts of Canada, but is much warmer due to the Gulf Stream). It started to hail just after Terry and Ken came in, but soon cleared up.
We all had some lunch (I was only planning to stay a few minutes originally) and then Pat, then Ken, had to go out. I looked at some of the photos Terry has now archived on the computer and saw photos of my grandmother, aunts and uncles, and cousins at various ages. Great fun, but then I had to go, as Ken had intimated that HMV in Crawley may have a DVD (Drop the Dead Donkey Series 4-6) which I was looking for.
It was a relatively (for England) quick trip to Crawley and a time to find HMV until I realised I was standing almost in front of the store. I then found out what the trouble was – it was to be issued in June this year, which is why the other dealer couldn’t get it in January.
After that it was back to Worthing and unpack, then a little walk to work off what I had eaten (except I then got some tea while out walking), a look along the waterfront (memo: do not take children to the beach, get them to walk along the tideline and then tell them not to get wet – it doesn’t work!) and then back in.
I had forgotten that in England, because of the high latitudes, there is a long twilight and so it takes a long time to get dark. So as the night wears on, it darkens at a far slower rate than I expect. I have to close the blinds to make sure I think it is later.
Tomorrow I have to arrange to see Peggy and Alan and Cathie, and also to pick up the washing from Pat and Terry.