Friday 25th January 2008
Tim went to collect Mum from the airport after her jungle adventure. Because I had the school run to do, he had to take the increasingly decrepit Landrover mentioned here. Not a stylish way to collect his mother-in-law! But better than nothing.
As he pulled into the driveway of our house, we heard – from inside the house – an ear-splitting screech followed by a massive clunk. At first, I thought he'd hit the other car, but no – a piston had sheared off completely and shattered a path right down through the engine (or something like that - I can't be bothered to check now). The Landrover was no more. It had ceased to be, expired, was bereft of life and a now very ex-Landrover. Oh dear. But what incredibly lucky timing! If that had happened at any other time today, goodness knows what would have happened – I may have had to drive on a motorway! The horror!!
Mum asked Tim to put her suitcase into the kitchen. What an odd request, I thought. Then I remembered where she'd been – and having lived in the jungle myself, know how migrants can sneak into bags and cases. When I returned from my South American travels, I was so shocked by something gruesome I found in my camera case I lobbed it right out of the third floor window and collected it several days later when thankfully the gigantic grub had disappeared.
Sure enough, "things" escaped from the case – we sprayed them all with insect killer and hoped for the best. Then shook the empty case outside and left it there for a few hours to de-louse itself.
Mum had had a fabulous time and stated that this was one of her best ever trips. Which, considering all the places and things she's seen and done, was high praise indeed. She regaled us with hilarious stories of her travel companions, food and discoveries. She had found a potentially unknown-to-science orchid. Which meant the very eminent botanist hosting the exploration didn't know it, so she painted it – she's a botanical artist – and sent the details away to Kew for identification in due course. It turned out to be known-to-science, but incredibly rare. Shame, we'd been working out Latin names for it.
She stayed with us until 31st January and we fitted short shopping trips in between the school run. We spent a lot of time laughing at the little dogs here, in their pushchairs and outfits. Hardly any dog is seen outside without clothes on and it's rare to see anything larger than a poodle. She was in fits of laughter after seeing a group of four dachshunds, fully clothed and wearing sunglasses. yes, you read that correctly - there are cool shades for dogs! Leads that flash in the dark. And one event she still talks about today is seeing a group of primped fluffballs wearing frilly dresses prancing along the street; a dachsund - unfettered by clothing for once - passed them by, turned and barked at them as if to say "honestly, have you seen that state of yourselves? Have you no doggy pride?!"
Then, one day while we were walking and talking about these creatures she said "now, that's what I call a real dog". I turned to see what she meant and was absolutely smitten by a beautiful medium-sized red foxy-looking dog with a curly tail. It was gorgeous, and yes, it looked like a REAL dog. I had to find out what breed it was but my Japanese isn't up to asking that sort of question... I will have to search through Google. And so an obsession began...
Anyway, Mum's getting to grips with Tokyo now, so is able to get around on her own, leaving me to work and deal with Rhiannon.
However, she did give me a bit of a scare one evening when she didn't return home when expected. I had no idea where to go to look for her, she had no mobile phone (and wouldn't use it even if she had one) and I wasn't entirely sure how she would get back if she really was lost. It was dark and well past dinner time when she sauntered in.
I was able to say "Do you know what time it is???!!! Where on earth have you been? I was worried sick!" Oh, how the tables have turned!
She'd returned up a different road and found herself an artist's department store. About six floors of pure heaven to her and therefore had lost track of time.
Too many "what if" scenarios this week!
On the morning she returned to the UK, I went for a relaxing facial – I think I definitely deserved it this month!
