So long, farewell, auf wiedersehn, adieu...

So Janice is gone.

Yesterday she came over for lunch and I followed her home and we cleaned her house ready for the new owners. It looks great, if I say so myself - the almost-white carpets need shampooing, but not terribly badly. I enjoyed the cleaning, though ideally I should do it in smaller bursts; it wasn't great for my oedema but it was fantastic for my sense of what I can achieve. I've been careful not to push myself too far for ages, with the result that I have felt like a Very Lazy Person. Today, my legs are back to their normal size, I feel only a little too tired, and my leg-muscles are aware that they got used a lot. And I feel like I actually helped, which is a great feeling.

After we cleaned, she and Rob carried stuff from her house to ours, she helped me make beds for Rob and my overnight guests, and we all got a taxi to her farewell party. There was a considerable list of attendees; the LiveJournal users were ai731, ailbhe, beckyl, clanwilliam, gmh, grumblesmurf, mblaby, and vatine . I think that was all, but I could have missed some or forgotten lj-names. Also in attendance were Ellie and Andy (though Andy had to sit at another table, as he had invited some friends of his along and there wasn't space at the reserved table for them) and Dave the archaeologist.

There were enough of us, and Sweeney's pie place was busy enough, that food appeared at about ten, so until I ate I was so tired as to be incoherent. I don't remember much of what happened before I ate, though I remember confusion over seating arrangements because there were too many of us, and Rob drank two half-pints of Tanglefoot and was amusingly tiddly. Gideon and Dave threatened to buy him two whole pints when the baby is born.

After we ate, it was late enough that people basically left. I seem to remember that we arranged that Darrell and Becky will pop in and see us this week, which would be useful, because I've practically forgotten what they look like, it's been so long. Rob and Janice and Dave and I got a taxi home (I ain't walking 'cause my feet's too big - oedema) and we sat around talking for a while, until Janice went home to her place and Dave retired to the Spare Oom.

Today we woke at 8 in case Janice called to say she needed more help, but we got no call so we called her at ten to find that all was ok apart from a severe case of shattered nerves and mild panic. We finished our tea and put on our boots and went over, where Janice and I sorted out how to finish the two things she hadn't done in time, and we hung around until Darrell came to pick her up for the trip to Heathrow.

She left just after 11 am and by 12:30 both things she hadn't done had been completed, one by me and one by Rob. Later in the afternoon, Rob got a text message to say that the cat had been allowed onto the flight ok, which was Janice's major worry - she has a rescue cat which would be a lot more traumatised by change of owner than by change of location, so she had to bring the cat with her by any means possible. So we're hoping all should be ok now and she should be nearly landing in Canadia.

B'bye. We'll miss you.

Telling Pone

This morning, before we went to Janice's (see last entry), I noticed that my phone had vanished. I got Rob to call it and Dave and I wandered through the house trying to hear it ringing. Then Rob said "Someone answered!"

He heard a sleepy voice saying "This isn't my phone!" (subtext: where did this come from? I'm confused!) and explained that no, it wasn't the speaker's phone; he was phoning it to determine its location and would like to retrieve it. She told him that she'd be in Reading town centre later and would call to arrange to meet him and hand it over.

He has just walked into town to collect it. The plan is that he buys the poor bemused woman a drink as a thank-you, and maybe picks up a film on the way home. She was handed it by the taxi driver, who thought she had dropped it, and took it without thinking as she got out of the cab. Rob woke her this morning to a very confusing situation; the impulse to answer a ringing phone is obviously strongly ingrained in some people!