perhaps someone else . . . and I’ve put his eye back under my pillow. Maybe it’s not over after all.
Monday May 4th
May is a month of bank holidays because of the work of John Lubbock. He was a Baron and a politician who campaigned for additional holidays and shorter working hours for the poor. I know this because I have been reading the encyclopaedia again in bed. I found a lovely thing he said about books: ‘We may sit in our library and yet be in all quarters of the earth.’ I’m going to put it on Aunt C’s desk as a surprise and inspiration.
We didn’t get many replies to our ads for lodgers in the end, so the Admiral offered two of his ex-navy friends suites in the West Wing, and they moved into Green Place at the end of last month. Admiral Gordon and Admiral Ted served with him on the SS St Francis when they were all young men. He knew that though they had been looking for accommodation in London, the opportunity to live in a catered mansion would be beyond their wildest dreams.
Admiral Gordon is a ginger man with a large stomach, and is a hearty outdoors sort of chap who slept up on deck when he was at sea. An expert in navigation, he has been blown away by Aunt C’s marine timekeepers, which she was bequeathed from her Father’s fleet. Over introductory cups of tea, Delia was trying to impress, and told Admiral Gordon that her Mother was a gypsy who cooked everything on one ring and served everything up with strong tea. I’m sure this is to exoticise herself; Aunt C says her mother came from Chiswick.
Admiral Ted is tall and swanaway, with a long tash that absorbs a lot of his dinner. He comes from a little place called Shooters Bottom, I wish he hadn’t told me that. He’s a helpful sort of chap, and interested in people’s problems, and also a man of caution, who beeps his horn before the bends on the drive.
Although it feels like we now live with half the marines, the new Admirals have taken to life at Green Place like ducks to water. They pay their rent on time, help with the garden, wolf down the cuisine, and enjoy a game of bowels.
With three Admirals on site paying rent and being helpful, Aunt Coral should be able to start chipping away at some of her debts. She can also begin to get jobs ticked off her To Do list, such as the insulation of the letter box, and some sanding, drilling and planering, as well as cutting back the ground elder that is so rampant around the estate. Admiral Ted has already started on the latter, and dresses himself in full manly garb for the job, including a waterproof jerkin, trousers with patch pockets for his snippers, and traditional barbershop wellies which he prefers for country use.
The Grey Room has just gone to a Japanese gentleman on business, whose name is Mr Tsunawa. Aunt Coral promised him that the Grey Room is haunted to sell him the full English country house experience. This involves one of us going and clanking a chain outside his bedroom door late at night. It is a new way of life for us all, but we have quickly adjusted because we need to.
Thursday 14 May
From the moment I discovered Aunt Coral sobbing on her bills I’ve made it my mission to help her, so I am in charge of cutbacks and debt management at Green Place. While the money from the lodgers keeps us all in food and heating, it doesn’t do much else.
As well as leaving her the house, Aunt Coral’s Father also left her his portfolio of shares. The shares are held in steel, coal, tin mines and Marks and Spencer’s, and she also has a punt with some gold. In addition, Great Grandfather Evelyn left Aunt Coral all the remainder of his collections: tapestries, busts and sculptures, a rococo carving in the hall, and a valuable Dick Van Dyke that hails from his Genoese period.
Showing such favouritism to Aunt Coral and leaving very little to mum caused a great upset at the reading of his Will – though I suppose now we all know why. However my mother was not left without anything as when
Monday May 4th
May is a month of bank holidays because of the work of John Lubbock. He was a Baron and a politician who campaigned for additional holidays and shorter working hours for the poor. I know this because I have been reading the encyclopaedia again in bed. I found a lovely thing he said about books: ‘We may sit in our library and yet be in all quarters of the earth.’ I’m going to put it on Aunt C’s desk as a surprise and inspiration.
We didn’t get many replies to our ads for lodgers in the end, so the Admiral offered two of his ex-navy friends suites in the West Wing, and they moved into Green Place at the end of last month. Admiral Gordon and Admiral Ted served with him on the SS St Francis when they were all young men. He knew that though they had been looking for accommodation in London, the opportunity to live in a catered mansion would be beyond their wildest dreams.
Admiral Gordon is a ginger man with a large stomach, and is a hearty outdoors sort of chap who slept up on deck when he was at sea. An expert in navigation, he has been blown away by Aunt C’s marine timekeepers, which she was bequeathed from her Father’s fleet. Over introductory cups of tea, Delia was trying to impress, and told Admiral Gordon that her Mother was a gypsy who cooked everything on one ring and served everything up with strong tea. I’m sure this is to exoticise herself; Aunt C says her mother came from Chiswick.
Admiral Ted is tall and swanaway, with a long tash that absorbs a lot of his dinner. He comes from a little place called Shooters Bottom, I wish he hadn’t told me that. He’s a helpful sort of chap, and interested in people’s problems, and also a man of caution, who beeps his horn before the bends on the drive.
Although it feels like we now live with half the marines, the new Admirals have taken to life at Green Place like ducks to water. They pay their rent on time, help with the garden, wolf down the cuisine, and enjoy a game of bowels.
With three Admirals on site paying rent and being helpful, Aunt Coral should be able to start chipping away at some of her debts. She can also begin to get jobs ticked off her To Do list, such as the insulation of the letter box, and some sanding, drilling and planering, as well as cutting back the ground elder that is so rampant around the estate. Admiral Ted has already started on the latter, and dresses himself in full manly garb for the job, including a waterproof jerkin, trousers with patch pockets for his snippers, and traditional barbershop wellies which he prefers for country use.
The Grey Room has just gone to a Japanese gentleman on business, whose name is Mr Tsunawa. Aunt Coral promised him that the Grey Room is haunted to sell him the full English country house experience. This involves one of us going and clanking a chain outside his bedroom door late at night. It is a new way of life for us all, but we have quickly adjusted because we need to.
Thursday 14 May
From the moment I discovered Aunt Coral sobbing on her bills I’ve made it my mission to help her, so I am in charge of cutbacks and debt management at Green Place. While the money from the lodgers keeps us all in food and heating, it doesn’t do much else.
As well as leaving her the house, Aunt Coral’s Father also left her his portfolio of shares. The shares are held in steel, coal, tin mines and Marks and Spencer’s, and she also has a punt with some gold. In addition, Great Grandfather Evelyn left Aunt Coral all the remainder of his collections: tapestries, busts and sculptures, a rococo carving in the hall, and a valuable Dick Van Dyke that hails from his Genoese period.
Showing such favouritism to Aunt Coral and leaving very little to mum caused a great upset at the reading of his Will – though I suppose now we all know why. However my mother was not left without anything as when
Similar Books
