I shuffled into work half asleep this morning. An air of quietness permeated the building, the kids are all back in school! Add to this the girls were out 'ten-pin-bowling' last night there were a few hangovers draped over desks this morning. I assisted by adding my cheery personality and was immediately shown the door and the way to Tesco for milk, an operation even I could manage.
Wrong!
I found the milk, checking for the furthest off date, and headed for the self service checkout. I put the item through and it all stopped. I stopped, the machine stopped, I did it again and stopped with the machine not even bothering to start. Then as I realised the price was showing I placed the bottle to my right as you do. It was at this point the young lass came to my aid, indicating the bottle ought to have gone to my left, not the right where an old basket was left and "You can't get the staff" was muttered under her breath. I paid my money, eventually as the brute asked several questions about bags and cards first before my change arrived and I headed for the door, the lass pointing me in the right direction in the fashion women have when dealing with men.
Naturally with the kids being away I expected a quiet day of gossip with Peggy, however she was unavailable today and instead of sitting sipping tea and meeting a few visitors I was kicked out once again! Laura sent me out to take photos for a project she is working on. Naturally I could not refuse her, she would break both my legs if I did, so off I jolly well went, uncomplaining, unfed, and without any tea.
A trail around town for kids has been prepared to reveal to them the things they see everyday as they pass by. Or something like this. Pictures, descriptions, all written in language kids understand will enable them to know their history better, or at least this is the intention. So I had to take appropriate pics here and there.
How come when wandering through the town daily I never meet anyone? Today while on a project I met several off the better classes! This thankfully hindered my work and allowed me to rest for no good reason. This Lane was once a road which has lain here for many, many years I sometimes wonder how many and was home to many works of various kinds. Now it houses a fancy shopping centre, that's progress.
The kids will know the church dates back at least 800 years, possibly much more and the fountain with the gay looking chap playing with fish was built to improve the area, the slums that once stood here being demolished in the 30's. You will notice there is no water in the fountain, too many have been putting washing up liquid in the water where the detergent has damaged the pipes. Now they complain it does not work but as soon as it does some berk will once again have it flowing with bubbles.
Something schools ought to consider is the 'Cage' or 'Lock up' once all villages in the area had one, many still stand happily, this was where folks, usually drunk, were locked up for the night in one of the two six foot cells therein. Once the police station was built they lost some of their usefulness. The much changed road on which this stands contained several public houses of dubious reputation, we know they were dubious as three had nicknames, 'Little Hell,' 'Big Hell,' and 'Perdition!'
It was better in the old days...
If they make it this far the kids will find on one side of the street 'Courtaulds' final mill. The firm had been in the town and in many towns round about for over two hundred years. Factories abounded and offices were found all over the world. Sadly during the period after the war all this died away and the company was sold and resold to various businesses and this mill closed in the early 90's.
What cannot be seen now is the number of houses that once stood in front of the Mill along the wall on the left. There were several there until improvements were made for the motor car. It is almost difficult to believe that houses would be there but pictures exist and somewhat downtrodden they looked.
Right opposite the very busy road lies the Silk Weaving Mill, two large white wooden buildings with sheets of window all the way along. Once 'Warners Mill' was engaged on making robes and decorations for royal coronations and now it has also died away, foreign competition, from whom we stole the silk worms in the past many years ago, claimed back their dominance of the industry. This building houses both offices and flats, the other offices and the 'Warner Textile Archive,' part of the museum and useful for women interested in courses on all sort of wool, silk, thread and such like hobbies. Many courses take part here through out the year.
Then it was off home to fiddle with the pictures and by the grace of God I worked out how to do this properly for once. Then I sent the boss the pics by email and limped back to work. Here I found myself totally out of routine as I had been out an hour and a half and (still without tea) returned to the usual confusion.
However an attractive young lady came in and immediately caught my attention, my tea was forgotten especially as she came in to check on one or two of the Christmas items (that's Christmas!) and by the time she had left she had parted with almost £42, I say almost as she got a penny change. Soon after she sent her friend in who also paid £20 for one of the events. I took more money in ten minutes than some days I take in a week!
The problem came when she asked if she could pin up a notice, we let folks do this, and I took this and looked for a space. The notice concerns a book reading group that meets in a pub once a month, hmmm... However I looked for 'Blu Tack' to attach the notice to the only space left on the wall and not one blob of the stuff either blu or White could be found in the drawer, and I raked the entire drawer. Mentioning this to the boss she looked in said drawer and produced the entire packet of 'Blu Tack' that sat their in front of me.
They sent me home after that...
