Notwithstanding the heat, which lingered well into the night, I had a very restful sleep. The last time I visited Jacky in Stevenage, she had a spare room available, but that has since been reverted to an office space. As such, Jacky was good enough to vacate her bedroom for me, putting up with a night on her couch herself to accommodate me.
Jacky made me some tea and croissants for breakfast, and we chatted for a bit. I popped over to a nearby supermarket superstore to collect some new pyjamas I had ordered online a couple of days ago. I was taking a bit of a risk buying clothing and hoping they would fit, but they were considerably cheaper than what I could find back home.
It took me a good half an hour to pack everything up again. This is always a palaver, as I have to disassemble and pack away my CPAP machine, including emptying the water reservoir, as well as the laptop, chargers, and various cables. I’ve brought more things to manage my digital life than anything else.
With a 3-4 hour drive to mid Wales to look forward to, I bid Jacky and Ella a fond farewell. We agreed I’d pass through again when I returned in a week or two. We’ve planned to go out for a meal together when I do so. That will be something to look forward to.
Unlike Sandy, I rather enjoy driving. The UK has some lovely scenery, and I enjoyed the uneventful drive to Wales. Each mile was a little more picturesque than the last. There was a little slow traffic around Birmingham, and I stopped only very briefly at the Telford services. I rolled into the sleepy little hamlet of Llanwnnog (don’t ask me to pronounce that!) by around 4 pm. It was sunny enough for me to find John and Lisa enjoying their beautiful garden.
While on the drive, I formulated a plan. Maybe I could try to visit all of my brothers and sisters during this trip. Including today, I can tick off 3 of the 6. Everyone lives so far apart that I can’t normally see them all in one trip. On this trip, I am travelling solo, and I don’t have any time pressure. I haven’t even booked a return ferry crossing yet. All of that gives me a lot more flexibility than is normally the case, so it may yet be logistically feasible to make the rounds to everyone. Whether I manage it remains to be seen.
I unpacked myself into my bedroom. The same spare room I used before was still as it was when I was last here, having seen no other visitors since. Remembering how hard the mattress was last time, I’d had the foresight to bring a camping mattress with me to help soften it a little this time around. I don’t know how long I will be staying here in Wales, but it will likely be 1-2 weeks as things currently stand. I’m sure they’ll get fed up with me and kick me out eventually.
John and Lisa are quiz buffs. Over the years, we have gotten into the habit of playing games whenever we get together. They even go as far as to create their own makeshift board games. Several months ago, when I was here playing one such board game with them, I hatched a plan. I wanted to create a proper board game for them, complete with a full set of professionally printed game cards, a full-sized game board, 3D-printed dice, and other components. For the past couple of weeks, I have been working on creating that board game. You might even say it had consumed me recently. I wanted this to be done well, so I spent many hours designing, 3D printing, refining and producing all the component parts. Now was finally the time to present the fruits of my labour to them. I had already teased them that I had a surprise for them, so they were curious about what all the secrecy was about.
After dinner, I presented John and Lisa with LIJONG, the game for quiz and trivia enthusiasts. The name is a bit of a play on words—a joining of their first names, Lisa and John, and the word Mahjong. We played a few games, with a few variations on gameplay. We had a great time partaking in a collective favourite pastime. The whole thing went down very well.
Once we were all played out, I tended to an Etsy order I had received earlier today. Being the control freak I am, I typically handle the logistics around Etsy sales myself, but my physical absence means I have no choice but to cede those responsibilities to Sandy. Despite being under instructions from the company doctor to ‘do less’, I still find it hard to mentally ‘let go’ in this situation. I created the packing slip, bought the postage label, and sent them both to Sandy, with some brief instructions on what she needed to do. In truth, even that probably wasn’t necessary. Sandy is more than capable of handling the entire process end-to-end. It remains a deficiency of mine that I find it so hard to rely on others.
While sitting here writing up this blog, I received a message from one of my sisters that she is currently away. It looks like my plan to visit everyone on this trip might not come to fruition after all. Oh well. I tried.