I'm getting a bit fed up with the cold weather now! No sooner does the snow melt, another lot lands and it's back to square one. Earlier this week I got stuck driving up a hill and had to coast/slide back down to the bottom and have a second run at it. The country lanes around here are dodgy at the best of times, but are particularly dangerous when the temperature drops.
Oh, and the grit/salt wars has started! We have a couple of salt/grit bins in the village, which are there for all to use, as and when. Well, an elderly gentleman in the village went to help himself to some salt for his driveway and one of the 'newcomers' to the village said that he had no right to help himself to 'their' salt as it was solely for 'their' use ('their' being the residents of a new cul-de-sac of 5 'executive' homes). Kindly old gentleman said "I've lived in this village over 50 years, you've been here 2, f*ck off". And there was me thinking that butter wouldn't melt in his elderly mouth. It is interesting to see how relationships develop or deteriorate in small villages and how the most petty matters can result in all out war.
My village always has been snobby, but in recent years the snobbery has gotten much worse, mostly due to the fact that house prices have shot up and all the new houses in the village are large and expensive. At a local wedding, a villager who normally ignores me, was at pains to talk to me all evening when someone let slip that I was an aspirant of the Bar. The thing is, these snobby types are always really boring. On Christmas Day morning, I was leading Bar-Os through the village, concentrating on keeping myself and said Os upright, when same lady pulled alongside me in her Audi and proceeded to crawl along beside me (oblivious to the fact that Bar-Os was getting miffed), whilst telling me all about the text she had received from her son, who's doing really well in the RAF and is on holiday in Singapore and they were going to a very tasteful something or another and on and on.... Bloggers, I prefered it when she ignored me:-)
The MCT revision is going ok I suppose, but there are still some areas that I'm unhappy with, not least character evidence, which is a bugger to remember. Costs and Part 36 are still a complete mystery in need of further attention, as is 'things' to do with previous consistent/inconsistent statements. Wonder of wonders, hearsay has sunk in a bit!
The other homework has been completed, so I now have just the MCT revision to keep me entertained until next Saturday. Hopefully the weather will have improved, or I'm going to struggle to get to London on Saturday morning.
Bar-Os, who's diet usually consists of a generous portion of 'rocket fuel' twice daily, has been put on Lay-Off cubes, which as the name suggests, are a low energy, fibre based feed. He's not a happy bunny and flattens his ears back whenever I approach - the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, it would seem. The icy roads are too dangerous to ride on and he was becoming a bit of a handful to lead on the road to the paddock, so a lower energy diet was recommended. Last night the ice has compacted in his feet and I had to wait an hour before picking his feet out (a daily routine to ensure no mud and stones has got wedged in his soles).
Oh, I hope the weather improves a bit next week, I'm just not a Winter person.
5 comments:
Can definitely relate to village life - I grew up in the depths of Cornwall where the traits of extreme nosiness, small-mindedness, snobbery, hypocrisy seem to come as standard.
And re. the trouble getting your car into the driveway - I can absolutely sympathise!!! Last night we got stuck again and had to enlist the help of our neighbours to get the thing out of the road.
My evil/playful streak came out I'm afraid and had the handbrake on at first whilst spinning the front wheels, calling out of the window for them to 'put their backs into it'. Cracking! :D
Luckily, my road is well-gritted, and as of yet, I haven't had any problems getting into work, or anywhere. However... The pavement outside my front door is terribly icy (I even fell on it once, when walking to my car, which is, like, 2 steps away from the door!).
Michael - ah, so you're a yokel too:-)
Andro - know what you mean about the ice, I slipped countless times last night - only a matter of time before I hit the deck.
A wonderful rendition of life in a small village in 2010. My wife, also a barrister, prefers to tell the locals that she works as a bakers assistant to escape being bored by the snobbies.
We didn't curry much favour, me being the only atheist in the village to live in a Chapel conversion.
Hi Jimmy B - village life! Mine's a quaker village, but I've never quite been able to work out what that means, don't see much quakering going on?
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