The Odyssey Begins
Friday. Another early start, but not for the reason I was expecting. Dash had texted at midnight to say he was staying over at the party and wouldn't need a lift till around eleven. On the other hand, Vanessa had asked me to bake some sausage rolls for her friends at work — it’s the end of the summer term — so I needed to be up with the larks anyway.
I learned a lesson this morning: sometimes supermarket own-brand products are as good as the real thing; sometimes they really aren’t. We normally buy Jus-Rol puff pastry to make sausage rolls — it just works well. Today, alas, we’d cheaped out and bought Tesco’s own brand: thin, fragile, and someone in the team clearly didn’t understand the concept of non-stick paper. Instead of ‘Jus-Rol’ we had ‘Rol-and-Swear’. Fortunately, expanding puff pastry covers a multitude of sins, and the results still tasted good, even if they did look especially rustic.
It’s Gabriel’s birthday today. He surfaced around seven for birthday greetings, then went back to sleep. Later in the morning, we timed a McDonald’s breakfast to coincide with Dash’s return from Canterbury. Poor Gubs had to face the birthday tradition of old baby (and not-so-baby) photos being dredged up and served in the family group-chat.
After that, a blissfully tranquil day: Gubs finished off packing for his Switzerland trip tomorrow, Raff went to the gym, and Dash was gaming with his friends. Vanessa caught the 18:28 train to Canterbury from Kearsney station — she’s out with her work friends tonight for their end-of-year piss-up at Bottom Spoons, and I’ll pick her up later. Gubs, Milo and Dash are watching The Odyssey at Dover Cineworld this evening. For me — supper and a spot of Guild Wars 2 in between taxi duties.
