Tales From The Crypt - Sunday 31st July and Monday 1st August 2022

Up with the larks (well, the sleepy ones at least) and getting ready for a trip north to Liverpool and Southport.

I'm well chuffed with myself because I managed to pack everything I needed for an overnight stay into one rucksack. Never have I ever.  There was a slight cheat in that I had a bag of books and papers because on Monday Q has various meetings at the university so I'll need to amuse myself.

On the drive up I called my brother-in-law and his wife to arrange to meet at my father-in-law's care home and also to confirm it was OK for Q to join us.  My brother-in-law was unaware of Q's existence until I emailed to say we were coming up and was wondering if I could drop in and see my father-in-law.

It was agreed that it would be fine for Q to be present, so we arrived at the care home around 2 p.m. and waited for my brother-in-law and his wife to arrive.

It was quite a dramatic time to arrive at the care home, which gave us both cause to pause for thought.

My brother-in-law collected my father-in-law from upstairs and when he came down he was so pleased to see me.  It was very moving for both of us and when we wheeled him outside, he insisted on standing up to shake my hand and hug me.  Tears of joy and sadness intermingled.

We went for a stroll and sat and ate outside a café, chatting over drinks and crisps in the glorious sunshine.  I told my father-in-law an edited version of how his daughter is, saying she was in hospital and not very well, but not going any further.  He is quite frail and we can deal with things one at a time. 

It was really good to catch up with this side of the family. Q was made very welcome and there was lots of chat about working for universities, a subject everyone had in common, barring me who's only attended one.  There was an emotional departure at the end and my father-in-law was very pleased to have met Q, despite the complexity of the situation.  Not that anyone inquired about the nature of our friendship, though I imagine some assumptions were made. 

We drove to the university next and picked up the keys for our rather pleasant on-campus accommodation.  The grounds are very pleasant and we settled in ahead of tomorrow's meetings, mostly for Q.

Monday began with breakfast in the university restaurant and we both took advantage of the full breakfast on offer. We had a 9:30 appointment to view a university house (just over the road from her office) that Q might rent initially until she has a view of the housing in the area.

After the viewing, we dropped in on Q's PA to arrange to move the first load of her books into storage by her office. The porters helped us move a boot load of boxes and then we headed for coffee.  Once Q had drunk hers I set myself up to read the papers and stuff while she went for meetings with members of her team (we'd already had an impromptu meeting with one of her staff earlier).

It was such a sunny day that after I'd finished the papers I decided to go on a tour of the grounds to take photos and sit and read outside in the sun.

Meeting over, it was time to hit the road and head south. 

Got home around 6 p.m. after a couple of detours and necessary stops for fuel (car and human) and miscellaneous other items.

Son #3 and his gf made dinner, which was good, and we had dinner with son #1.  Some very interesting conversations.

...said Zebedee

Grace Jones / 'I've Done It Again' / 'Nightclubbing'

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