Ted Helping the Chef!

Last night we went to Colne Hippodrome Theatre to watch "Phantom of the Opera" performed by Pendle Youth Theatre. It was fantastic and the best thing I have seen for years there. I have seen a lot of shows mainly when I was working with the Mayor and have been going there since I retired. 
I remember seeing John Sim and Lee Ingleby all those years ago when they were involved with this group and very young.

Today we are getting ready for lunch as my stepdaughter and grandson who are coming from Silkstone near Sheffield. She works for HSBC bank and has a very good job. She even gets to work a lot from home but goes to London a couple of times a week to head office. 
Our seven children (two are mine and five are humbugs)  live in a different world than us. They all work and most of them have very good jobs and done well for themselves.

Ted is being very good watching me prepare the lunch.

COW STORY

This particular time when I was on holiday in Malta Neil and Colin the relief mayor’s offices were taking the mayor and mayoress to two separate functions. The mayor was going to an engagement in Barrowford to a Parish Council event and the mayoress was going to a charity fund raising event. Neil was driving the mayoral car and after picking up the mayoress Neil and Colin set off to the mayors house in the wilds of Barnoldswick which was up a narrow lane a mile from the main road.
Colin had opened the gate at the top of the mayor’s drive before Neil drove through then Colin closed the gate. It is a very narrow lane and half way down the lane they came across four cows that were blocking the path of the mayor’s car. Colin got out and shooed the cows out of the way then Neil drove past when they saw the farmer walking down the lane who started to provide Neil and Colin with a lot of verbal abuse about the mayor being rubbish and that the mayor had chopped hedges down that let his cows escape. The mayoress told them to wind the windows up and drive on which they did.
When they got up to the mayors house and told him what had happened and he was fuming! Spitting feather! The farmer had been up to his house banging on the door calling him every name under the sun because he had cut a couple of hedges back on the lane.
After the mayor had had his chain of office put on he got into the car and they all set off up the lane. They met the cows again at the bottom of it and Colin got out again and shoed them out of the way. They got to the top of the lane and there was a tractor blocking the way of the mayor’s car on the mayor’s driveway. The farmer wasn’t going to move out of the way and he was very angry. He said he wasn’t going to move his tractor until he had got his cows back into his field. They were not the words he used there was a few expletives. Next Neil noticed that the farmer was coming up the path with his cows in front of him. Now the drive was very narrow so Neil pressed the button for the wing mirrors to fold in and the cows started to file past spreading muck down the side of the mayoral car. By this time the mayor had already called the police and they were on their way.
 The farmer was getting more annoyed and he turned to Neil and said “why didn’t you shoo the cows back down the lane you know I am trying to get them into the field.” Neil’s response was “ I’m not a farmer I didn’t know where you were taking them”. So the farmer started to round up the cows and herding them past the mayoral car again spreading more muck onto the car. Only when the last cow was in line with the bonnet of the car the farmer hit the cow with a stick. It had nowhere to go!  It tried to climb onto the back of the cow in front, slid off and fell onto the bonnet of the car. The police turned up and fined the farmer and Neil and Colin eventually got to both destinations all being that they were a bit late.
After that you can imagine filling in the insurance forms was a bit of a laugh. It all ended well for the relief mayor’s offices but the farmer got a £60 anti social behaviour fine and the insurance company chassed him up for damages as well.