We are having some good fun at the newlyweds but already it’s backfired on me! I thought I was being so helpful when…..
This is the first time we have been to stay with Becky and her hubby, David, since their big day last August. They’re lucky enough to have bought their own house in Exeter and it still shows signs of settling in. Seeing them in these early days reminds me so much of when Rachel and I started married life. The main difference is the word DIPPY hadn’t been invented back then.
Our visit overlapped a little with David’s family, they were just leaving as we arrived; always lovely to see them. Becky wasted no time in throwing their sheets and bed linen into the washing machine and during the evening I asked whether there were any clean sheets for us.
”Oh yes, they’re just finishing in the tumble dryer”. I admit to feeling pretty impressed. Becky asked me to help take them out and make the bed up – a pleasure to do this but they were still damp. The pillow cases were compressed hot soggy clumps of cotton inside the duvet cover.
“Oh never mind, let’s just wave them around, they’ll be dry in no time” said Becky, somewhat optimistically. We waved them around and ended up draping them over radiators and eventually we made up the bed for Rachel and myself.
”Why is my side of the bed so wet?” enquired Rachel as tactfully as she could and braced herself for sleeping on top of the bed wearing goodness knows how many layers.
Turns out the washing machine-cum-tumble dryer came with the house. All good, you might think, except for the markings having worn off from the washing machine and they don’t know what settings they are using. Rachel, ever the librarian, simply Googles it and emails the link to the online instructions for their machine. We imagine lots of sticky labels appearing in due course.
At least we won’t have that drama tonight. We have even been to the shops and bought some pillows. I know when Rachel needs a good night’s sleep, she doesn’t need to tell me, nor do we need to negotiate whether to buy pillows. In an unspoken way, we simply know and we do it.
And then there’s the towel rail in the bathroom. I’m not too sure what happened to make it fall off but at least it was an opportunity to buy some new rawl plugs with the correct screws and fix it. I did and it was quite satisfying.
We come to the embarrassing point, not sure I’m gonna live this one down. By mid-afternoon the veggies in the slow cooker were still hard. I suggested we put the dish in the oven to speed things up and that was thought to be a good idea.
So I asked Becky if the oven was gas or electric. She paused and I could tell she was trying to find a way of say “I don’t know” without actually admitting being too DIPPY. Turns out it is electrical, all good. Once at 200c I bunged in the casserole dish, unbeknown to me the handle on the lid was plastic and it melted into a black goo. So I think that’s something for me to repair next time…..
The meal – and our time together – was very precious. I’m well blessed.