Two (a)dresses

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I have found a way to keep warm. I have decided to wear two dresses together. It is not as bad as it sounds. Both dresses are more or less the same colour and you can only see the top one. One is tight fitting and that is the one that goes under the looser fitting one. Air is trapped and I am warm.

I tested the outfit when my friend came to see me the other day. She has just returned from a holiday abroad and we wanted to meet. But I thought that as she has been on a plane, she could be carrying Covid, so we met in our car park. I had the idea that if she sat in her car and I sat in mine we could keep comfortable with the engines on and our windows open. My two dresses served me well and my friend said that she could not even tell.

Another friend’s cat I heard about at a book launch this week, had a good idea to keep warm, it sat on top of the Aga which was apparently so hot you could not keep your hands on it. The cat had no problem.

The book launch was about the flooding of the Vyrnwy valley to make a reservoir for the people of Liverpool. I often visit Lake Vyrnwy and look across from the Victorian bridge without a thought of the submerged village called Llanwddyn. There were 37 houses in that little village and I think of our little hamlet and how we would feel if it had to be flooded to provide water for a city miles away.

Mind you our road has been flooded by the relentless rain we have had. We have rivers in the road and the potholes are little lakes. I had to get to the sorting office on Saturday morning, so I checked the depth, which was only an inch or so, then I drove through at a steady pace. I took my note from the postman which said he could not deliver my mail because the sender had not paid enough money.

I stood in a queue waiting. The computer was not working so everything had to be recorded manually. People collecting parcels had to show ID and often had to go back to their cars to get proof. I shuffled forwards and was eventually handed a card from my dear brother-in-law with a first-class stamp on. I could not understand why I had to pay more. The man at the office was puzzled too. But I paid the £1.50 to get my card.

Some things are very strange.


(Taken from my column in the Shropshire Star)

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