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Friday 8 June 2012

Socialising - a snapshot



Firstly congratulations to our niece, Amelia Bevan, who cleaned up yesterday in the side saddle events.  Isn't she lovely?

Yesterday was the first day of the Suffolk Show, an annual pilgrimage.  HWISO left early with his brother and I followed on later, leading the convoy, with two teenagers and a great family friend, who shall henceforth be known as Mr Social.  The plan was to get Mr Social, who doesn't normally do this stuff without his fabulous beautiful, organised, lawyer wife into the Showground and into the CLA tent for a meeting at 11 am.  Timing was pretty critical.

Being the "hate to be late" person I am (I have never been able to watch Clockwise for longer than 10 minutes because of extreme anxiety attacks), we left in good time and arrived at the Showground with 40 minutes to spare.  And we needed that 40 minutes to do the brisk 5 minute walk from the gate to the CLA tent.  Mr Social knows so many people and, being the consumate politician he is, needs to talk to everybody.  Not just a hello but quite an in-depth conversation.  (Apologies to the Gadsby family - of course I know who you are and we have met on many occasions.  Mr Social's use of your slightly deranged cricket nick-name completely threw me!).  By the time I had got him to the CLA tent, I began to understand why his wife point-blank refused to come with him.....

I eventually found HWISO lurking in the Savills tent and discovered that he had been "socialising" quite hard so assumed the role of "Keeper of the Car Keys" (commonly known as Designated Driver).  There followed a Comedy of Errors which involved me taking teenagers home in the middle of lunch, as one came over that peculiar shade of whiteish green that heralded the onset of a particularly virulent D&V bug, returning to pick up the thoroughly socialised HWISO, who had mysteriously disappeared with Mr Social and had completely lost the ability to answer his phone.....

And then the heavens opened, making searching for the Social Ones impossible for one with a water allergy so I stayed put in the VP tent and waited with a nice cup of tea (£2.25!) and managed to gather all safely in and home some three hours later...

Today, it was MY turn to be "social" and I was really looking forward to it.  I had set the phone to "silent", packed up the wellies, wet weather gear, found myself a fetching hat and  practised the "selectively deaf" setting in my ears.  Sadly the news has just come through that the show has been cancelled because the high winds blew away all the marquees overnight.......

I only hope that the jackdaw that got stuck down the chimney and had to be released by using every power tool known to man and then chased round teenager's bedroom, captured in a shirt (Jackdaws are notoriously "pecky") and released out the window, doesn't decide to do the same again today.  I am mightily impressed that the thoroughly "socialised" HWISO managed this difficult and grubby exercise with such good humor and grace.  Perhaps I should get him "socialised" before attempting any DIY tasks in future.....

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