The Vows of Silence

No - I haven't taken a vow of silence - heaven forbid! I finished reading Susan Hill's latest Simon Serrailler offering 'The Vows of Silence'. I'm starting to find Simon himself slightly annoying. He resents his father's lady friend Judith for taking his mother's place and makes it clear in a very childish way that he does. Even Cat, his sister takes him to task over it. He can't seem to make up his mind whether he wants to be single and celibate for the rest of his life and objects to his sister talking about it. He nearly fails to catch the criminal because he lets his own prejudices get in his way. However I'm sure it makes for a more interesting story to have a fallible detective. I went from wanting to shake some sense into him to crying for him.

This story is a tear jerker in any case. Simon's brother-in-law Chris is seriously ill and Cat must combine the skills of mother, doctor and wife. The gunman who is terrorising Lafferton is killing newly married women for no apparent reason. There is about to be a society wedding to which Royal visitors are expected - a security nightmare for the police including Simon - especially as the gunman has killed once as a newly married couple leave the church. There are many minor sub plots as well to hold the reader's interest and an insight into the mind of the gunman. Definitely gripping stuff though I did work out who the gunman was before the end.

I had a good example yesterday of why I do most of my food shopping - and everything else come to think of it - online. I called in at Tesco because I wanted a particular type of Hovis bread and some cash back. They hadn't got the bread so I went to look for a couple of other things I wanted - they only had one of them. The place was packed. On a Monday morning? I had to queue to be served and was tempted by their latest 'green' hessian bag - because it's got ladybirds on it.

I was standing idly in the queue watching everyone else and noticing how everyone had brought their bags with them so that they didn't need many carrier bags. What a lot of sheep I thought all brainwashed by this rubbish about climate change. So I deliberately took a couple of carrier bags - one of which I used to put my new 'green' bag in! Childish I agree. I have used a Marks & Spencer's black fabric bag for ages to put my sandwiches etc in when I go to work and that's what I shall use the ladybird one for.

I just found the whole experience so irritating and frustratingly slow - in fact it probably took me as long as it would have done to do the shopping online!

We then had to go and get some oil to top up the car. It's a Mitsubishi Outlander and the handbook says it needs to have VW oil in it because it's a VW engine. So we trot along to a VW dealer because it's nearer than going to a Mitsubishi dealer - and they wouldn't sell us any. Words failed both of us, so we trotted off to the Mitsubishi dealer where the car came from - who kindly put the oil in for us.

We then went to another branch of Tesco and managed to get the bread we wanted - and rather too many things we actually didn't need but just fancied. This is why I save money by shopping online I thought. But this experience was better as they weren't so crowded. We also - from B&Q - got some ant killer and a leaflet about this new Dulux painting system - Paint Pod - which does everything but make you a cup of coffee. I may invest in one since it looks easy and much less messy - trouble is they cost nearly £70. But we do have a personal recommendation from someone who hates decorating who says it makes the whole process much quicker with no mess. Of course £70 is cheaper than paying a decorator. Now we just need a similar system for gloss painting and I'll be the first in the queue to buy that.!

I now need to potter about and do some housework and surf the newspapers for what's going on in the world and then it will be time to work out what to have to eat this evening. I could definitely get used to this life though I suspect I wouldn't get enough exercise unless I made an effort and went out for a walk regularly.