Bloody Kids!

No matter how many problems, mishaps, or nightmares our animals cause us they pale into insignificance compared to those created by our children.

Today was well planned, feed the animals, clear out their mess, tidy the house, breakfast, narrate a dance show (long story, tell you next week) assist in the sheep shearing, bar b que with friends and a few beers to mark the longest day of the year.

As it was rain stopped play for the shearing, the sheep have to be dryish or the wool won't separate from the sheep. But we were on track to do the rest, OK the bar b que was off and moved indoors, but the rest was definitely doable.

Until the phone rang. It was Ben.

Remember him? He's the Army Officer, tough guy, cool dude and ace planner. Sandhurst trained.

His car had broken down in Bristol after he had dropped his girlfriend off at the airport. He thought he had RAC cover, they thought different. He thought he had money in the bank to pay a garage to fix it, the bank told him otherwise. He thought he had plenty of time to get back to his base and get on the transport to go to Belize, but the clock was ticking and time like his options were running out.

I thought I was going to have a busy day ticking jobs off the list, instead I found myself driving to Bristol Airport to rescue our eldest. Beth came along as she had RAC cover and we hoped to persuade the nice garage people to recover the car back to Rock HQ. We found him feeling very sorry for himself having the worst day of his life by the roadside. The car was defiantly not drivable, the clutch had failed. I topped up the fluid level but still it wouldn't go. The garage was on its way, hour and half wait. At this point Ben dropped the time limit bombshell, he had to be back at base, waiting 90 minutes would mean he missed the plane. We left Beth with the car to be recovered and set off. The only worry I had was if the garage fixed the car she would be uninsured, still that was unlikely.

Sure enough we got sixty miles away and the garage had fixed it, no need to transport it back. Not able to go back to fetch her and leave Ben with the now usable car I carried on and dropped him off at the Barracks. Beth was now three hours and 120 miles away in a car she couldn't drive. I got back to Rock HQ and did the only thing I could think of to solve it, spent more of the banks money on insuring Beth to drive. She got back about six pm, tired out having taken one for the team.

Ben has since phoned, very grateful but still in bits from the trauma of saying goodbye to his girlfriend and us.

Beth soon recovered and has taken her brothers car out for a drive as its a better car than hers.

I am having a huge single malt, fathers day did have its pluses, and contemplating the size of the jobs list carried over to tomorrow, that all I did today was drive miles, spend money and how much easier animals are to look after than kids.