Wednesday 4th June

Text this morning from Romas:

'Good morning.  Plan B.  From 11 a.m. I am wrapping Johnny's paintings.  So sorry for short notice, but English lesson cancelled. Yours happy and bless, Romas. Have a good day. Peace.'

Marvellous! I thought, the wrapping is happening!  And, I could do with the extra time - my Grade VIII exam looms on 26th June and I still have, metaphorically speaking, 'five paintings to finish' on the performance front.

Late afternoon, on my way home from job interview, I called in at Johnny's.

'Much wrapped today?'

There was knocking on the Coach House door ...

'Three ...  Romas is so reliable,' there was a significant pause, which heralds a tale. 'I went to bed last night around ten - I'm trying to get as much rest as I can - I must have drifted off, but I was awakened by noise!  Someone was banging on the windows and then there was a loud knocking on the door.

'I got out of bed, not quite with it - you know - opened the door and there was Romas.  It was exactly eleven o' clock. "Hello Johnny!" said  Romas.
"Romas - what are you doing here?"  I enquired.
"Your text - to wrap paintings - 11 p.m.?"
"Let me see," I said.  'Sure enough, I'd typed p.m. instead of a.m. - and he still came!'

This time last year, I wrote, 'Another June arrives and another summer seems to be busy elsewhere.' And it's the same this year (in Harrogate at least): dull, dreary, dismal deluges and f***ing freezing.  I think Noah had the right idea: build a bloody big boat and head for the rainbow.  I am told that in London it is uncomfortably humid just now.  I would like to be humid, it would make a change from damp.