13 March 2010 (Saturday) - Mothers Day (Early!)

The morning’s haul of emails brought something from one Shung Hin Hui, who clams to be a manager on investor relations in Standard Chartered Bank, Hong Kong. He says he has a business of $15.5 million for me, and says I should contact him for details. Now I’m going to turn down this once in a lifetime opportunity, but if any of my loyal readers would like those fifteen million dollars, feel free to contact Shung, and tell him I sent you.

I also had an email to tell me my most recent eBay purchase had been dispatched. I was opening the parcel as I read the email – that was efficient posting (!)

Meanwhile I see Ashford has been added to Google Street View. If you type my address into Google Maps you get a picture of my house. As it appeared over a year ago before I painted it. When it still had a fence. And with all the road works in place. The Batfarm is also there, as are the houses of several of my loyal readers. However those in the posher areas of town are not. Residences in Copperwood are hidden behind a tree, and certain addresses in Aylesbury Road simply aren’t on there. One wonders why….

And then off to see mummy. It’s mother’s day tomorrow, but we thought we’d “do it” today instead. On the way down to Hastings I went into Tesco to get the flowers. I’d never seen so many bunches of flowers in my life, and as fast as the staff were putting up the display, so the normal people were snapping the flowers up. And the prices were so variable. I just grabbed the first bunches that came to hand. One had a label on it saying the price was fifteen quid. I put them back and swapped them for ones which in all honesty looked identical to me, but were a fraction of the price.

We took Mum out for lunch at the Queens’ Head in Icklesham. Mum seemed to enjoy herself: I certainly did. A really good curry, followed by Xmas pudding. And washing it down with pints of “Pearl of Kent”, “Ransmore”, “Harvey’s Old”, and “East India Pale Ale” just made for heaven on Earth.

With nine (I counted them) different ales on the hand pump (they had Abbott, not photographed), friendly service and really good food, it’s somewhere I can heartily recommend. The last time I visited this place was in June 2001 whilst on a walk. However, back in 2001 there was a train service to within (sensible) walking distance of the place. Now the closest railway station is some seven miles away, and unless we have someone who’s happy to drive, this place is a tad tricky to get to.

I understand there’s an hourly bus service. That might be worth investigating.

We then ran Mum hone, and visited Mother in law. The original plan was to take her out to dinner too, but other offspring had claimed dibs on that mother first. So we popped in to deliver her triffid, and I slept whilst everyone else chatted whilst ignoring the rugby on the telly.

Shortly after arriving back home, “Daddies Little Angel ^TM ” visited, complete with her entourage. They’d been to Birmingham to laugh at the accents. A long way to go, but on the way home they popped in to do the mothers day thing early. They’d also brought me back some lego, so I suppose their day wasn’t entirely wasted….