Abruptly cut off but reconnected

Was having a very pleasant phone chat with Nogbad when Angie stormed in to say farmer Franz was on his way with a trailer load of gravel. So had to quickly end the call and clear the yard for Franz. Thanks Nigel for a great chat and the help with backing up Blip entries.

I had asked Franz if he could get me two trailer loads of gravel. In theory I could have done it myself now that my tipper trailer has a floor but as I discovered last week, the side walls do need to be replaced. They would not have withstood the pressure of the gravel - it would have been bad enough that my journey would have been featured on the radio traffic report "Beware slow moving...." but to also have "Road St2011 near Sontheim closed to all traffic due to lost load ..... fire brigade, county council are clearing the ......"

The first load was what is called "Wandkies" (Wall Gravel), filling material taken directly from the quarry wall without being sorted, a mixture containing everything from sand to large fist sized stones. This was to fill a large hole I had dug out near the goose pond. It had been a flower bed 40 years ago and is now to be the site for a hut.

Second load, the one on the Blip, was broken small gravel which will be used to make the "bed" for the concrete slabs I got last week. They are destined for the entrance to the hen run which gets quite muddy at this time of year.

Thanks Franz - saved me much time and probable embarrassment. I started to try and spread the first load in the hole cursing at my incompetence with the digger and wishing son-in-law Barry was about.

Shortly afterwards was indoors getting a cup of coffee when the mobile rang - it was son J in England on his way home from work and using the drive to catch up. Of course he has hands free! He is now sure that phoning using the "WhatsApp" service is free although it does eat up the MBs.

Feeling buoyed up by the calls, emailed daughter Kate that I would call on Friday evening when the school week (and Beavers, swimming, ballet, gym sessions) were over. Was then treated to a good evening meal prepared by Angie and was about to settle down for a sofa nap when the phone rang again, showing a number which looked very much like an expensive spam type call. Still picked it up and was delighted to hear it was Tino, my boss back in the time 1996-2000. He was also in his car about to pick up his children from school - no they didn't have night time classes, they live in the USA.

(Todays prize quiz - Tino was calling from the USA's largest city which lies on one of the very few rivers in the USA that runs from south to north. Answers on a postcard...)

Tino was shown & mentioned on a recent Blip. Far too much to tell about Tino and his family today, so will save that for a future "back-blip". Save to say it was great to get an update on the family and the start of a new exciting "Lebensabschnitt" (life phase).

Just to close the circle, Tino knows Nigel - now I am not sure if they met here in Munich or whether it's just from my tales of Nigel over the years. However Tino sends his greetings to you Nigel.

Finally fell asleep feeling very happy with the world ..... it's great to have such great people around you even if you don't get to see them too often.