In the Aftermath

I woke up this morning at 8.30 - to an automated phone call from the Nationwide Credit Card Company.   At last today they acknowledged our letter and we have to send more information to them to let them know the true extent of our debts.  Meanwhile both Lloyds credit cards have agreed to our proposals - and we are getting going on that - made first online banking payments - this is real high-tech stuff for me, but it's incredibly easy.   Everything is going OK at the moment, but I suppose once the standing orders start coming out of the account things will be different and more difficult to keep on top of.

Meanwhile, the house and the garden were fairly chaotic - 50 plus teenagers could have done so much worse harm - so a broken tomato plant, rosemary bush, sage bush, and torn down parthenocissus were not the worst things.  Some of the kids had cleared up a bit - but it is astonishing how much cider etc. they got through.   Ned was given a bottle of rum - he didn't seem especially drunk last night.  Presumably he will store the rum - to be doled out in small bottles.   They all have old water bottles full of booze...

The mysterious stuff was boys who opened packets of food (noodles, yeast, pearl barley) and scattered the contents.   There also seems to have been a lot taking bites out of lemons.  Strange - is it like eating chillies - they do it for a dare?   Some of them were out of their tiny minds on salvia - a legal high that they claim makes them hallucinate....?  Really?

Today was therefore a day of reconstruction and restoration: garden (bought 2 new tomato plants at vast expense) and cleared up, pruned and dead-headed.  Then inside to do some financial work.   Boring but essential.   They are promising boiling hot weather tomorrow - so Mark and I are going to go to the beach,  taking wine, olives and foccacia and books.   We might even swim, if it's warm enough.