Cogito Ergo Sum

My new oil tank was delivered and fitted today by nice smiley Jamie. It was just as well that he was nice because, while he was here, a gorilla who looked as if he'd never smiled arrived with my new 40kg pedestal base for my parasol. He couldn't find the house and rang from down the lane. I answered in my usual woman's voice, but: "Mr Laing?" he growled down the phone. "Mister Laing?" I queried. "Oh, sorry, Mrs Laing." He wasn't sure where the house was. "I'm outside Church Farm. I think," he said. Obviously he couldn't trust the sign he must have been staring at that said Church Farm. "So you're next to the church?" I asked. A slightly too long pause, then "I think so". "You're very near then, no more than 200 yards," I told him. "Is the church on your left or your right?". Another long pause. "On my left. I think." Blimey, where do they find them? He got the pedestal off the lorry with the aide of a hydraulic lift, then eyed the space between Jamie's truck and the fence. "I'll have to leave it here," he said. "Can't get it through there." I stared at him in perplexed amazement, then asked Jamie to move his vehicle but he did better than that. He helped Godzilla to carry the pallet with the box on right down to the summerhouse where it was left as it was. I quite like pallets, they come in useful for all sorts of things. But how was I going to get all 40kgs off and made ready for the parasol? Jamie again. What a sweet man. And he wouldn't even take the price of a few beers for his trouble.

I now have a new oil tank, double bunded for extra security, with an alarm fitted should oil thieves strike while I'm here, and best of all a gauge in the kitchen that tells me how much oil I have. And it's under a 10-year warranty, though the old one was too and I still ended up paying £1050. The concrete base has been renewed, cleared of moss and grime. You can't pay too highly for some things.

Helen came for lunch yesterday and we nattered on into the evening. She didn't notice that I poured nearly all the wine for her, drinking very little myself, with the result that I had a clear head when she'd gone and it doesn't hurt today. Now I await my next lot of visitors. I shall have company well into August. If only summer would return and I could try out that parasol that I was so desperate to use a few weeks ago. Hard to imagine hopping from bit of shade to bit of shade, too hot to stay in the sun for more than a few minutes. What a fickle thing the weather is.