Monday, 17 November 2014

THE UMBRELLA AND THE STOLEN TOMPER

It's a grotty old Monday. The rain's sort of fizzling out of the sky and making everything cold and damp.

I had an uncomfortable moment on the way out for lunch today. Two of the girls from marketing spotted me approaching on the road. They looked soaked.

I raised my umbrella as a form of greeting as they got nearer and then one of them said cheekily, "Ooh. You've got an umbrella, eh?" at which point I laughed, nervously.

I may as well have said, er, yeah, I'm not completely daft. In fact, thinking about it, that might actually have been a better thing to have said than to have implied it by laughing at the two bedraggled girls from marketing, in the rain. British humour is a delicate thing sometimes.

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Meanwhile, I think the Intrepids have stolen an industrial concrete compressor.

It's outside our back door - looking like a kind of heavy-duty manual steam-roller.

"Keep the back gate locked," said my Dad, "We're holding it until Mr Washington* pays us the money he owes us for not doing the drive."

It turns out Mr Washington left the compressor (my Mum's calling it a 'tomper' but I don't think that's a word) as a kind of token of intent some weeks ago but then never actually turned up to do the work. It's now become a hostage.

My Dad's worried that Mr Washington will sneak in in the middle of the night to rescue it. I said I didn't think he'd be that bothered, seeing as he couldn't actually manage to turn up for his real-life day job.

Hopefully this won't drag on - he's agreed to pay up apparently, has Mr Washington. Just as well, I can't really imagine the Intrepids as fugitives on the run with an industrial concrete compressor.


*This is not his real name; I'm not completely daft.

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