Quest for an ATM.

I’ve had rather a busy morning this morning, non stop would be a relevant and apt description. After breakfast, I decided I could no longer ignore the pile of ironing seeing as it had become so high that I had to bring out my step ladder in order to place the latest washed clothes on top of the pile,(joke) and so reluctantly assembling my trusty ironing board and my iron, I proceeded to plough my way through it all.

Whilst I was engaged in my favourite household task (not!) K finally arose from slumber, did as she always does first thing and moseyed into the lounge to peer through the TV Guide for next week so that she could set up her future recordings. Following that, she disappeared into the bathroom for quarter of an hour as she is want to do (the usual sound of mutterings and grumblings heard emitting from there during this time) followed by getting herself showered and dressed.

“What are we having for dinner Mum?” First conversation today, and of course on the usual subject.

“We’ll go down to MickyD’s if you want.” (Me thinking to myself, after working my way through this lot, I’ll be in no mood to stand slaving over the cooker, and anyway, we have nothing for me to cook) excuse.

“Bring me my purse so that I can check how much I have.” (Me)

As is usual for K, she shot off downstairs to fetch my purse and was back with it before you could blink an eye. (Explanation.) There are only four events that incite K to move like lightening and these are as follows,

   The mention of food or the close proximity of an eating establishment.

    The mention of money OR someone giving me money, as in shopkeeper giving me my change. (hand shoots out and         said change  is in her pocket before either the shopkeeper or I have had time to move.)

    Some post arrives through the letterbox.

    I get a bottle of chocolate milk out of the fridge to put on my Rice Krispies.

I didn’t have enough money! Drat! That meant a walk to our nearest ATM machine for a top up of our loose change.  Oh well, I reasoned, it was a beautiful day outside, the sun was shining and it would do us both good to get some fresh air and stretch our legs. So after completing the mammoth ironing task, we both put our shoes on, grabbed our bags in my particular case complete with camera, and set off full of high spirits only to find when we arrived at the ATM machine that it was broken.

Hmm. Remember dear readers how K hates walking, but!  That hate depends entirely on the goal at the end of the journey!  Remember, there is no way she would accompany me on my C.R.E.W walks if there wasn’t a meal at the end of it!  And so it was in this instance as to my surprise she immediately proposed that we continued to walk down to town in order to achieve the desired  aim of being able to eat at McDonalds. Its amazing isn’t it? The difference that a visit to her favourite eating establishment will invoke! (Well to be truthful, it’s not her favourite eating establishment. That honour goes solely to Jumbo’s, a Chinese Buffet  restaurant in Huddersfield frequented by her and her Dad when he takes her out for the day, where you can have as much as you want to eat until you are bursting at the seams which suits them both.)

And so we continued walking down to town. By now, I was beginning to feel a little frazzled. I had been standing ironing nearly all morning, now I was having to partake of quite a walk and my back began to give me jip. To help take my mind off it, I was busy snapping away as we journeyed along, the flowers, the trees, the library, a strange figure of a white man painted in the library grounds, anything really that caught my eye. Once we had finally withdrawn some money from the ATM outside my bank, the intention was to catch the bus onto MickyD’s  (even with the promise of a meal at the end of it, there is a limit to how far K will be encouraged to continue walking)  but….silly Mum had left both bus passes at home! Grrrr! Well, there was nothing for it but to grit ones teeth and soldier on!

Look on the bright side! I told myself, at least it isn’t raining! This time I managed to get my panoramic shot of the flower beds in the Park as well, because there were only two old dears having a natter on one of the benches that surround them, and they were so engrossed in conversation that I honestly don’t think they would have noticed if an entire BBC film crew had been filming them. We continued onto McDonalds. The service in there is getting worse every time we go in. I was the only one  waiting to be served in the restaurant area, but I still had to wait about 10 minutes before anyone attended to me. They concentrate far too much on the customers  in the drive through, and anyone waiting in the restaurant area is  left there tapping their feet impatiently whilst the staff serve the car customers. Grrrr!

K had a Summer Chicken Supreme meal (large size because I am collecting the glasses again) complete with her usual still Fanta orange with no ice, and I had a McChicken Sandwich meal (leaving out the bun of course) with a cup of tea. (Didn’t fancy my usual Grilled Chicken Caesar salad as I am sick and tired of eating salads all the time, and I am slowly beginning to turn green, crinkly and crisp)

At last we arrived home and I could sit down and rest my aching back. Good job that the weather has been lovely today. I was thinking we should go on a walk when I looked out of the window first thing and saw it was going to be nice, but that was before I had begun the ironing task, and I certainly didn’t envisage the two or three mile walk we ended up doing!  A roundabout trip consisting of a little bit more walking than planned but, nevertheless, very enjoyable. Bah! I have just realised! We needn’t have done any of it! Why?  Because McDonalds now have card machines!  Doh!  Will my brain EVER work at full capacity again? 

Quest for an ATM

 

TG  (More pictures of our walk today HERE.)

Technorati Tags: ironing,standing,pile,dinner,McDonalds,ATM,cash,flowers,trees,park,library,summer,backache