Trugs
Root canal treatment done Angus is instructed to go to a shop in search of garden trugs. The shop can't ship to France but suggest I contact the manufacturer direct. Our trugs must be at least thirty years old and have finally succumbed to wear and tear. Communicating with novocaine jaw while also wearing a mask is a skill set that requires some getting used to.
Then to the wallpaper shop. They too won't ship to France . The post Brexit requirement to fill out customs forms is something that many ( most ) retailers won't do. "You'll have to arrange your own courier to France" the standard , but entirely useless response.
The fish and chip shop off Marylebone High Street has been closed for a while but has reopened with new tables and chairs. All the restaurants are not just busy but humming. With the weather getting cooler there is a migration of diners from outside into the warmth. The hotel claims to be full but on checkout the girl behind the counter lets slip that only 30% of the staff are working and that most of the rooms are closed for 'refurbishment'.
A man on the plane back coughs and sneezes constantly. He seems unaware of the looks from his fellow passengers. Thankfully, he's across the aisle and there are two empty seats between me and him but I turn on the air vents to maximum and point them in his direction to channel away any droplets that might float over. What would Miss Manners have done ?
Back at Toulouse airport there is an 'emotional' reunion with the family sheepdog. At the Rickety Old Farmhouse I am led indoors with a determination and purpose that makes it clear I'm not going to be allowed to wander free any time soon.
13 comments:
Welcome back - Sophie must be greatly relieved. Reading your post, I can imagine how frustrating the Brexit disruption has been. Presumably, over time, there will be easier ways to obtain things like trugs and wallpaper that you have taken for granted under the old regime. I have an address with a forwarding service in Houston that enables me to gather things from US suppliers and then forward them on to Tokyo. It's not perfect, I end up paying US sales taxes as well as Japanese consumption taxes and duties, not to mention the freight fees and having to fill out all the customs declarations myself, but it works. At the moment, I am awaiting my first shipment of Christmas gifts for the family - Japanese dog toys just don't make the grade sometimes! It may be that we should be more localized after thirty years here, but we have improved from the days when my parents would ship us Bounty paper towels and coffee.
We join Sophie in welcoming home the errant sheep. The experience of finding firms are unwilling to engage with the red tape now involved in moving goods between UK and EU is all too common, although no pro-Brexiteer would ever admit this.
They obviously do not want your custom. I suppose that they never sent goods to countries other than in the EU before. More fool them!
People with nasty coughs and colds have always been a problem on a flight.
Good to know you are safely home and received such an enthusiastic welcome.
Having encountered similar problems to yourself, Angus, and realising that many UK companies are no longer prepared to ship to an EU address these days is so frustrating. I'm beginning to think about taking the car over and filling it with all those things I can't find here - wallpaper being one on them. Perhaps eventually we'll have the reverse of the booze cruise? Some enterprising coach companies prepared to take coach loads of deprived Brits shopping for trugs, wallpaper and sundry other items unknown this side of the channel!
Like you we're thinking of taking the car back.
I guess I am just a "dumb southern girl" because I didn't know what a "trug" was, and looked it up and saw photos along with the definition, as "a word originated from the Anglo-Saxon word trog meaning a wooden vessel or boat-shaped article. They were used as measures or scoops for grain." And all this time I was just calling them garden baskets. Thanks for teaching me something today, I just hope I can remember it!
A friend of mine and her 16 year old daughter have been in London for 10 days - They are having a fabulous time, yesterday was Kew Gardens - Many trugs there, I'm sure!
I sympathize--I had a root canal yesterday. Tooth was cracked--who knows how long, but eventually the nerve was infected. But I didn't have to fly to go to the dentist. Just a five-minute drive.
Re the plane cougher--double mask. I just saw a video demonstrating the "knot and tuck" technique. Far less comfortable, but will definitely do it when in close quarters.
It seems as if France, if not all its neighbors, would be well-stocked with garden baskets (there are plenty of people making them around here, so certainly near you, too) and beautiful wallpaper. Buy local! These things aren't like the Mexican mole paste or ranch dressing mix that I just brought back from the U.S., both of them impossible to find in France.
Garden trugs wouldn't be the strangest thing anyone checks a baggage on a flight this week. I had a friend who took the spare tyre from her car as a checked bag once.
Quite a lot of effort has gone into arranging the shop goods. Lovely, actually. As an outsider, Brexit did not make sense to me. A united Europe has been a goal for centuries. I am reminded that de Talleyrand, among others at that time, advocated for a such a status.
I shall look up the 'knot and tuck' technique the next time a trip to the airport is on the cards.
A trug, as opposed to a basket, has the great advantage that things won't fall out of the bottom. This is surprisingly useful when gardening. Being low and boat shaped it is also perfect for pruning or cutting. I've only seen them sold in the US at the American Horticultural Society shop in Manhattan. Presumably there must be a coterie of American 'trug' worshipers. Monticello must use them.
If you go for a road trip would you take Sophie to the UK with you so she can explore St Andrews? Not sure if dogs need to be quarantined these days but I think Bertie went to Europe with Gail.
If the paper trail is done properly then a trip back to Scotland with the Princess would be on the cards. It just means a lot of paperwork and pre-planning in comparison with the way it was pre-Brexit.
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