There I was, this afternoon, mid chores and stopped at filling station to top up the Landrover. Thinks "I wonder if the washer bottle needs some water" so, having paid for the diesel, I move to the air and water thingy, crack open the bonnet and set to with the hose. Suddenly a small elderly lady from the village pops up at my elbow and makes a joke about "Are you sure you know what you are doing?". "Hello" XXXXX says I "how are you?" "Fine" she replies and then launches into a tirade about some chap who has painted the outside of his cottage pale blue. It is in a conservation area and she apparently has taken exception to this deviation from the norm in this part of the world which is white walls and black woodwork. She has, so she tells me, been onto the County Council about it but they tell her that a conservation area is different from a listed building and basically they don't give a flying f*** what colour people paint their cottage walls. I commiserate and say polite things about some people just don't seem to want to fit in and similar platitudes. She is really getting into her stride about how useless the County Council are and how things were different when she was a council member when she paused for breath and says ~ "My husband died last week you know ~ funeral was on Friday" and then just carried on with her rant about the thoughtless wretch with no appreciation of all things Welsh when it comes to the right colour to paint his house.
The boys were in the back of the car, with the windows open, sucking on their bottles of fizzy pop just purchased by your truly. Minor nearly choked!
When she toddled off to get into her own car Minor said "Did she say what I though she said about Mr XXXX?"
"Indeed she did son"
"They are odd these Welsh people aren't they" he muttered.
"Indeed they are son ~ Indeed they are"
