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Breaking the Law!


Uh Oh, this weekend I have mostly been breaking the law... unintentionally of course! Given the new 'Rule of Six' announced by the government I have been realising first hand that it's actually quite difficult to adhere to, even if you are trying to be good. I went to a friend's house yesterday and when I arrived there were 6 of us in the house. Then her husband came home with a friend and suddenly we were 8 and it was illegal. Then her mum turned up and we were 9 - even worse! I have also acknowledged that if I was in anyway infectious, I will have done a good job this weekend of being a super spreader given the number of people I've seen. The irony of that of course, is that seeing lots of people is completely legal, seeing relatively few people together is not.

Today was a chance to catch up with Amanda, Alex and the boys for a few hours of walk & talk in the autumnal (chilly) sunshine. The plan was to meet at Lacock Abbey but Amanda decided at the last moment (no surprises here!) that she could cram in a visit to a bathroom shop on the way if we changed the venue, so we ended up meeting in Shaftsbury. This has the advantage of being an exactly equal distance between us, if you overlook the 'never easy on a Sunday afternoon' A303 of course. Regardless of all this we managed to get there within a few minutes of each other and had a quick bite to eat (separate tables for us and the kids) before splitting up to disguise the fact that we were in fact a group of 7. The theory was that the kids would go off and hang out somewhere, thereby removing the expectation of them to walk up and down the hills of Shaftsbury, and that Alex, Amanda and I would have a nice walk without having to listen to complaints. What happened in reality is that Alex hesitated to take a photo, we continued on and within 5 mins had lost him as well so it was just the two of us - a perfect outcome one might say!

We all met at the top of the hill and persuaded (bribed) the kids to come into the Abbey ruins for a quick look around. Unfortunately due to Covid (ugh) there are no audio guides at present and so we pretty much had to ad-lib our way around the various grave sites and piles of stones - I think we generally got the gist of it with help from a guide and the fact that I'd been there before - enough to satisfy our need for something educational and the kids low boredom threshold! Regardless of where or when we meet though, it still makes me happy that they love being together so much - they always have done. 

We headed home after a quick cake stop (luckily I had already decided I'd eaten enough when Izzy accidentally knocked my cake out of my hands onto the pavement), obviously to sit in a queue near Stonehenge arguing about why I hadn't made the 'obvious' decision to drive home via Angie's instead of the A303 - obvious only in hindsight I might say. We made a quick detour to the Andover Pets At Home to get Betty a few more toys (adding to her already extensive collection), as well as a dinky little collar. Much debate as to whether it is too big or too small - who knows, its difficult to tell from the many photos we receive each week - what is not in dispute is how cute she and her siblings are - even Glenn is a little bit smitten. He spends a lot of time at the moment telling Bertie how little time they both have before their peaceful life is shattered... I think Bertie is secretly looking forward to her arrival and just doesn't want to be seen to not be supportive to Glenn! I'm sure as soon as she arrives they'll be as excitd as the rest of us are!



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