Dear Peter 3

Dear Peter,

It is always magnificently amazing to receive an email from you, my dear chap! Thank you also for the scanned bank statements. Yes, it is quite clear that Barclays have NOT transferred any money, so I am going to write to them again. This time I will ask them to set up a regular transfer every six months, so that we do not have this problem again.


Yes, we are still in Daveri. It has been flipping cold and wet too. When is summer finally going to arrive?

Did I mention the home-grown asparagus? It was absolutely delicious, even though it makes your pee extra-stinky. I am sure that there is some special chemical in asparagus that produces this strange and smelly change. The problem is that we really need to have thirty or forty asparagus plants, if we are hoping to scoff the stuff on a fairly regular basis for a month or two. The good news is that asparagus is a perennial, so that means more next year!

My guess is that if you were to have had the time and fairly large garden, then you would really enjoy growing lots of your own fruit and veg.   

Yes, Alex Chalk really was a pupil at Windlesham. I think that he was leaving more or less at the same time that you were arriving. He was a brilliant actor and excellent in The Rocking Horse Winner. Anyway, he is now a minister in Rishi Sunak’s cabinet. I was reading about some of the things he has done, since joining the government. He has actually managed to push through some very sensible and practical policies. Yes, I know that it is difficult for you or for anyone else to imagine, a Conservative politician with a brain (and maybe even a conscience as well).

What other news is there? Not a great deal. As you know, we are planning to go to Corfu in June and that fat and naughty little dog will also be going for a holiday, but not with us. She will be going to a boarding kennel for about two weeks. This will be the first time that she has ever been away from us for any real length of time. Then we will have a few weeks to prepare for the visit of someone or other. Irena is hoping that Vivian and Tilana, some old friends from Qatar who now live in South Africa, might be coming to stay in August or early September.


As for the flipping woodpeckers, we have not seen them recently and they have not caused any more damage. I have put up a couple of old CDs on a piece of string, as these are supposed to frighten away woodpeckers.

The dreadful business in Sudan makes to realize that many countries around the world are in a total mess, so they are very dangerous places. When I got my first international teaching job in Kenya, I remember that some friends and parents of my students tried to talk me out of going there. (“Nairobbery” is what some people call it, instead of “Nairobi”.) Well, I hope that Deborah knows what she is doing. There is a borderline between being adventurous and being totally stupid.

Best wishes from a damp and chilly Daveri,

Simon

  

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