[FLYING BANANA]

………………………….. yes, even at my age. My lovely niece, Laura, is coming to stay with me for up to 10 days. She is somewhat burnt out after a very eventful two years. What with the Covid, then she lost two jobs again due to the epidemic, broke up with her boyfriend of 13 years. Then they made up, but now they are living apart again. She is making a go at her own business, she designs and makes gold and silver jewellery. She works with 4 others from a unit in Camden, London.

Travelling down by train, there is only 3 trains a day that stop at Saltash from London. So I’ll meet her at Plymouth in my new car. You might have read my other post about “Strawberry”. A 2009 SMART car in a tasty shade of Pink. Bought it from Matt Darke’s wife Shirley. She has upgraded to a soft top Beemer.
Laura has a licence to drive, so I might let her borrow “Strawberry” should she want to go out on her own.

And last week I met up with some friends who used to own a MG TF and used to attend the Halfway House meets in Brentwood Essex. They were staying at a the Weary Friar pub in Pillaton Cornwall in a rented cottage. Unfortunately they were not on a happy holiday but had come down for the funeral of there daughter-in-law who had collapsed and died at the age of 38. Leaving a husband and three children. The youngest being 5 years old.
Their son lives about 200 hundred yards from me.

About two years ago their son, Barry, happened to mention to his Mum and Dad about a Yellow MG ZT parked up the hill with a large stuffed Banana in the passenger seat. Plus there was also a Silver ZTT with a Teddy Bear in the passenger seat. It clicked with Mum and Dad who told their son who the cars belonged to. Barry was a bit surprised by the news.

We had a nice catch up chat. They will be returning from time to time to help with supporting their son along with his late wife’s parents. My friends live up in Ipswich but are thinking of moving closer to their son. Dad is a HGV driver and Mum works in the NHS.

In other news I had a lovely weekend away with the gang. We stayed in the Union Hotel in Penzance. All the cars were MG’s, 2 ZT’s & 2 ZTT’s. We had Allen, Val, John, Vera, Matt, Shirley, John, Nina and me. The hotel is a bit on the old side but we was only doing B&B. The breakfasts were good, the young waiter looked after us well. We did have one evening meal there, in fact we were the only residents to have a evening meal there.

We ate out at another pub further down the road, the Turks Head. Food was good. On the Sunday evening we ate in the local Wetherspoons. Cheap and cheerful, I had the curry and it was bloomin’ ‘andsum.
Saturday we left the cars at the hotel and had a walk around Penzance. We found the quirky cafe, Allen, Val and I had been here before. Well worth a visit to the gents loo.

Sunday and we went one better, again we left the cars behind and caught the bus to Marazion, which is opposite St.Michael’s Mount. We cancelled our trip to the Mount as their was far too many people making the trip. As the tide was in you had to get a boat across, and the queue was very long. So we had a wander around the town. Pint of Rattler in the pub. Then we caught the open topped bus back to Penzance. Then onto a smaller bus to continue our journey to Mousehole.

Again, Allen, Val and I had been here before about 2 years ago. We had a nice stroll around the village and harbour before returning to Jessie’s Dairy for a take away cream tea. We then sat on the harbour wall to put the jam on first then the cream on our scones, although I swapped my tub of cream for a jar of jam with Val. Then it was the bus back to Penzance, and the bus stopped a stone’s throw from our hotel.

I had taken Banana, but she did play up. Had to wiggle the fuel pump relay to get her to start. Both the trip down and the trip home Banana was the convoy leader. Not sure how I got elected for this. But we let them keep up with us.
Started using the super unleaded and she did seem to that bit better.
But another trip up to Matt’s is on the cards to change the fuse/relay board over for a new one.

Bear has been to Pro-Tint in Torquay to have her rear and side windows tinted.
And then a trip back to Matt’s to find out why the n/s/f headlight pod had filled up with water again. But that is now cured. Still got problems with the screen washers. The tank needs to come out so that Matt can strip the pump down and clean out all the gunk that has built up in there.

News from across the bridge isn’t very good. Elizabeth is back in hospital with breathing difficulties, been in hospital for the last 12 days. Tim’s parents are keeping me informed of her progress.
As for Roger and family, they are under house arrest whilst they fight the extradition back to Brazil. Neither of Tim’s parents are bothered about him and family. I got the feeling that they may have fell out over something. Not my job to pry.

At the end of the month my other friends, yes I have more than one, are coming down to stay with me for a week. John, Lisa and John Louis came to stay back in 2019. Then they also brought the dog, but sadly Sapphire has passed away. Going to be strange without her being here.
So I’m gearing up for a few liquid evenings. Got plenty of shop bought, and my homemade, gin in the cupboard. Also got a few bottles of single malt. Will be visiting the Rattler Farm to top up with some cider. I’ll take Laura there, and get her to have a few samples.

Got my Covid booster jab booked for next Wednesday and then the following Friday my NHS eye check up.

I cannot wait to retire to have rest.

Keep safe.

We will meet up at some point.