A Day to Remember - with a certificate to prove it

 

A very special certificate

Way back in February we started to plan a way to celebrate being chosen to receive the Kings Award for Voluntary Service. The Community Orchard in Wolverton is a little gem. I found it within a few days of returning home and I know that I have been blessed to be part of this group. Each Tuesday we gather to keep the place ticking over. When guests come to visit me I usually drag them up there - be warned!

Instead, last Tuesday, 16th April, we all gathered at Wolverton Town Hall with the Great and the Good to be presented with the award by Our Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire, Countess Howe. It was lovely. Everyone was wonderful. I don't have enough superlatives to really give this event a fair description. 

Yvonne giving the guided tour

After the event, I drove Lady Howe up to the orchard, where, with donned wellies we walked round the area. I had especially cleaned my car beforehand and realised that it is actually quite a nice shade of white and not naturally speckled. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by my handiwork. I had also primed myself to be on my best behaviour while driving. - on that front I consider myself a success. 

I am posing... Not me, really

After a short debrief in the Barley Mow, life has settled to humdrum. So, onward and upward or back to the drudgery of normal life depending how you look at it. I have been without a laptop for a month now. I bought it from Currys just before Christmas but it broke down pretty quickly. I picked it up on Tuesday afternoon and spent two hours trying to open it up. I went from coaxing it gently to getting quite annoyed. On Wednesday morning I returned it to Currys. I was pleasantly surprised by the good service despite the month delay. I now have a new one! Long may it last.

When a friend posted on FB how Singapore repairs roads overnight, it got me thinking about my regular slalom around the potholes on the roads near me. The regulars who use the roads drive down the centre on some stretches so you just slow down to let them pass then you can take smoothest path after they pass. The holes just get bigger and some of them join up with other holes. 

Then after all my hassles with HMRC and the lengthy waits each time I try to sort out my stuff with them, I despair of good ol' Blighty. I probably look back at Singapore with rose-tinted specs but I am sure almost everything worked better over there. Even tax was less punitive and the people who dealt with you were efficient and helpful even though they took a chunk of your earnings. 

I am glad I am back home but I do miss bits of my old life even now. I will wave at all my old friends in Singapore when I transit through Changi next month. Please wave back.