I woke up at about 3:45 AM and couldn't go back to sleep straight away. I decided that I would spend sometime transferring all the tickets and hotel vouchers from my email onto a USB stick in order for Kellie and Marcus to print them off for me and responded to some emails and messages.
I did that for about an hour and a half and then went back to sleep. The next time I woke up it was about 8:15 AM. I was still very tired. I went into the loungeroom and noticed that there were birthday cards and a banner across the kitchen bench. "That's right, it's Thursday", I thought to myself, "It's Marcus' birthday". I wished him happy birthday and he thanked me for the card I bought.
Kellie said she would take me to the post office this morning to send the parcel. They had a big meeting in Manchester this afternoon and Kellie was going to get her hair done prior to the appointment. I decided I was never going to get it into 2 boxes weighing less than 2 Kg each so I just put it all into one box. Before he and Ella left for work and school respectively, Marcus had given me some thick black 'duct' tape to seal the box up and I addressed it.
Kellie and I drove to the post office, I entered with the box and waited at the counter. They weighed the box and it was 7 Kg. "Fuck, this was going to be expensive", I thought to myself. The woman told me I had 2 choices. The first choice was standard mail which would take about 10 weeks and cost around 80.00 Pounds or fast which would take 10 days and cost 105.00 Pounds. I decided for the faster option and paid. Kellie filled out her address on the consignment note and I signed it. The woman told Kellie to keep the paperwork as any insurance claim would need to be made in England and would be no use to me.
After we sent the parcel, Kellie dropped me off at home at about 9:30 AM and then went to her hair appointment. We were expecting 2 different engineers from British gas today so I had to wait at home for them to come. In England I guess they call them engineers, but they're really just repairmen. I really had to catch up on the blog anyway and the only other plan I had was to sleep for an hour or 2. I started writing and about 11:30 AM the first engineer arrived. He was here to look at the boiler for the central heating.
I continued to write while he worked. He was there for maybe an hour and a half and fixed the problem. It was the switch or something. He left and I continued writing as I couldn't sleep until the next engineer arrived. I got hungry and found a steak pie in the fridge and decided to cook it. I was going to cook it in the oven so the pastry was nice and crisp but didn't want to wait 45 minutes. 4 minutes in the microwave was all it took and I was eating it. It wasn't the best pie I ever had but it filled the void.
I continued to write and about 12:45 PM the second engineer arrived. I buzzed him in and explained what ad happened to the washing machine. He started to take it apart and about 30 minutes later, I heard him say "Aha". I went over to the kitchen and took a look. The engineer showed me what had happened. There was some wires in the back of the machine and they had become tangled in a belt and ripped out of where they were meant to be.
He made a phone call and after about half an hour, hung up and told me that he needed to order parts for the washing machine. He arranged another appointment for the next Friday as it would take a week to get the parts. He started to put everything back together and we talked a little bit. His son was working in Australia so we talked about that. It was about 2:30 PM by the time he left. I helped him take his equipment down to the van as I wanted to go down for a cigarette anyway.
I finished smoking and went back upstairs. I noticed the engineer had left his jacket on the back of the stool in the kitchen. I grabbed it and looked out the window to see if he was still there but he had gone. I decided to try and have a nap before Ella got home from school. She normally gets home about 3:15 PM so half an hour would be better than nothing.
I got into bed and closed my eyes then heard a knock at the front door. It was the engineer, returning for his jacket. I gave it to him then went back to bed. I couldn't fall asleep. About 20 minutes later, Kellie, Marcus, Ella and my other cousin Joanna returned home.
I got up and went and said hello. They told me to go back and try to sleep as I would be a wreck later on. We were going out to a Mexican restaurant for Marcus' birthday. I went back to bed and tried to sleep but I couldn't. I don't know why. It wasn't noisy, the room was dark enough, I just could not sleep. I got up and joined them in the lounge room.
There was alot of talk and Marcus cooked a pizza that was in the fridge. The movie 'Stuart Little' was on and me and Marcus were making fun of it. The restaurant reservations were for 7:00 PM and we were leaving at 6:30 PM. I got ready and we left. Joanna doesn't drink and was driving so the rest of us could have a few drinks when were out. We got in the car and off we went.
The restaurant was about a 5 minute drive from Kellie and Marcus' house. We parked around the corner and walked to the restaurant. Kellie had bought some happy birthday balloons from home and put them on the table. I sat at the far end of the table nearest to the wall, opposite Joanna and next to Marcus. Ella sat between Joanna and Kellie and opposite Marcus. Marcus' family were also going to join us. We ordered a drink while we waited and I got a San Miguel.
I looked at the menu and thought about what I wanted and talked to Joanna. I had met Joanna briefly the day we went to Anfield, so it was a good opportunity to get to know my other cousin. I decided to get the Beef Nachos as a starter and a Chicken Burrito for the main. Marcus' family arrived and then the waiter came to take our order. We talked amongst ourselves for awhile and after half an hour we all started to wonder where our food was. About 10 minutes later, The nachos arrived. It was a decent sized serving and they were very nice.
About 20 minutes after the Nachos I decided to go outside for a cigarette. When I came back in the main courses had arrived. I was so full after the starter that I struggled to eat the Burrito, I was not the only one that couldn't finish. I ate as much as I could then left the rest and huffed and puffed as I lurched back in the chair trying to digest the food. Ella had started to fall asleep on her chair. About 15 minutes later, the waiters brought out a cake and put sombreros on all of our heads and a moustache on Marcus, then they sang happy birthday. It was funny but slightly embarrassing.
Since I have been in England I have been to a few restaurants and everytime there has been a long wait for the food. I don't know if it is because they don't tip in England and therefore the staff cares how long it takes, but the service has been absolute crap everytime.
After we finished our drinks and then went home. On the way home Kellie and Joanna saw a little dog wondering the streets on it's own. They thought it was lost and wanted to see if it had a collar. The dog started to run away when we stopped and I volunteered to try and catch it. It ran away when ever I got close and stopped and barked at me. After a few minutes of trying to catch it I gave up and went back to the car.
We drove around the corner looking for it but it had disappeared. I assume it went through the nearby gate back to it's house. Joanna dropped us off at Kellie's house and then drove back to her place in Kirkby. I sat on the lounge for a few minutes then went to bed as I was so tired. It must have been about 10:30 PM when we got home.
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