Saturday September 13th

I decided to catch the 11.06 bus after much discussion, and I went down into Easterby with Andrew. The bus departed from aisle D and I had a longish wait, stood in a fair queue.

I had checked up on a timetable by the departure area and had found that the 11.06 Easterby-Sheffield bus arrived in Dearnelow at 1.31. The fare was 84p which isn’t bad considering it cost just under half that to travel the 5 miles from Easterby city centre to Egley, and for most of the journey (mainly because it was warm) I felt really queasy.

After a ten minute wait in the bus station Robert & Carol arrived and we wandered around Dearnelow market while Carol bought meat for the tea. We then caught a 206 to Swinscoe. The area in which Robert lives is quite rural, typical suburban semis surrounded by large bushes and trees, and my immediate thoughts were that the area was very similar to Plumstead and Shooter’s Hill down in London.

Their flat was quite small (about as big as Nanna B’s) and was situated above a shop which was being completely refurbished so everything was done to the constant accompaniment of hammer blows and sound of falling masonry. It consists of a bathroom and toilet, a bedroom, kitchen and dining room combined and a living room, which is separated from the kitchen and dining area by a big, glass, sliding door.

Robert and Carol seemed to be in a good mood and quite cheerful. They’re just happy to be back in Yorkshire.

In the evening, at about nine-thirty, we went across the road to a pub’ where I had a pint of beer (half of which I left). We talked a lot – mostly about Mum and Dad. Robert said that when Mum had told him about George’s misdemeanours on the ‘phone it had left him feeling completely depressed. We agreed that Mum and Dad have nothing to worry about – the cat is after all such a trivial problem when compared to Robert and Carol’s. They are constantly depressed over everything and nothing, Dad especially, and I daren’t think what they’ll be like in 10-15 years; typical bitter old people I expect.