A Visit To The Drive-Thru.

Although yesterday was the last day of the children being in school (we have 2 1/2 weeks' holidays at Easter, 2 weeks at Christmas and 6 weeks in the summer as well as having a 1 week half-term holiday in the middle of each of the 3 terms), today was a non-pupil day which was being used to have a good clear out of all the old equipment and furniture. A large skip (dumpster) arrived in the playground for us to throw in anything old or tatty. We filled 1 large skip and a second had to delivered to take the extra. Hopefully there will be enough funds for us to replace items with nice new equipment. We also had to have a major reshuffle of the furniture in the classrooms as we are all having 6 pcs installed. An electrician came to put in new sockets and wiring, after much debate (2 hours) over the actual positioning of the pcs they are going in the original spot we wanted. We were all taken out for lunch by our Head at a local pub and I had a delicious piece of cod in light and crispy batter. I was able to resist the chips (fries) as they came in separate dish. If they had been on my plate I'm sure I would have eaten some. Instead I ate the other (boiled) vegetables with a clear conscience.

I only work half day on Thursdays so after a long lunch I drove down to South Molton to my favourite shop, Mole Valley Farmers. It is such a place of rural dreams, whole aisles of chainsaw parts, stock wormers, a vast selection of wellington boots including expensive pink or purple Hunter boots, yard tools and every style of work boot. Even though I haven't ridden for years (lack of cash) I was drawn to the racks of jodphurs and jackets and the new style riding helmets. You could spend an absolute fortune in there. I managed to confine myself to a box of ear mite drops for the cats, chocolate for next Tuesday and 2 bags of mixed corn for the hens which were the reason for my visit. All the feed and big equipment (fencing, crushes, septic tanks etc) is out in another yard and they now have a drive-thru system which was quite fun. (Drive-thru is very limited in this country due to lack of space. The Macdonald's and maybe the Wimpy on the edges of town have Drive-thru but that's all and I've never wanted to eat at either place.) I didn't think much of the slogan on the wheel cover of the Range Rover in front of me though the dog was quite sweet.
This is definitely my sort of Drive-thru. You drive into the shed, hand over a sales slip through the window to one of the staff and they throw your goods in the back of the car for you. The lady in front had to make a couple of stops as her items were in different parts of the shed. I had to drive along the Link Road and the traffic was already very heavy with holiday traffic, caravans and motor homes coming into North Devon. The traffic news on the radio told of many miles of traffic jams as people try to get away for the Easter week-end and holidays. I think I'll leave as early as possible on Saturday to drive up to Keele to collect Romas even though I'll be going against the flow of traffic down to the West Country.