Out of sync

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‘You are out of sync’, it said on my package. Well, these days I have often thought that I am. Things move so fast it is difficult to keep up with the modern world. But my message was not about that. I had been to the pharmacist to pick up a prescription that the doctor had ordered for me. I normally get my prescriptions delivered, which many of us do when we are older. But this one did not arrive, so I rang up.

“We cannot deliver individual items,” I understand this as they could not afford to be coming backwards and forwards to our houses. Once a month is enough. So, I went to pick my tablets up feeling out of step with the season which is rapidly turning to autumn and I was in my summer dress.

The air is decidedly nippy and I admit to putting the central heating on occasionally at night, the tomatoes have stopped ripening and we have picked all our soft fruit. Even our cafĂ© is changing its menu to soup instead of salads. Surely, it’s too soon.

But it is September now and it is too late for our promised new road which was to be finished by August this year. Instead, they have been back once more and filled the remaining potholes at the side of the road. So, that seems to be the end of my Shropshire Council letter that I have kept for so long telling me about the resurfacing work sometime between April to August 2024. Our promised ‘new asphalt layer’ seems to have disappeared probably due to ‘budgetary constraints’, which are mentioned on the back of the letter.

My friend is downsizing and has been trying to sell her house. It has been very stressful, what with the prospective buyers coming round and the constant state of alert needed in her home. Everything must be kept in order just in case someone comes to look round. Eventually someone did come and they made an offer on her home. It was accepted and things began to move fast. She agreed to buy an apartment in town near to the shops and services. It could not have been better, until last week when someone in the chain of buyers pulled out with only a week to go before completion.

Now she is back to square one which is not a good position to be in at this time of year. I went round for a meal and she is not sure what to do now.

“In the circumstances we are not having wine,” she said, “we will have what we call Council Pop.”

 It was water.

(Taken from my column in the Shropshire Star)

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