By Appointment

We've had a long day in Castle Bromwich.

I had a look inside the FIL's piano, just in case he had some krugerrands hidden inside (his brother had 5 hidden under the floorboards). I didn't find any. I did like the manufacturer's inscription inside the lid and thought it might do as a blip. It looked an impressive instrument and I found myself wondering if old pianos have any value these days.  Then I had a conversation with his next door neighbour and the first thing he said to me was 'did he still have that piano. I bet that's worth something!'

We also had a meet up with the neighbour on the other side. We sat on her patio and she sat inside so we could chat though the patio door. Strange but I think it did us all some good.

We managed to do a lot of sorting. We found loads of birthday, Christmas cards etc. We smiled when we found a Father's Day card from a few years ago which still had a 99p price sticker on the back. It was from us!

We have also found quite a few stories, plays and poems he had written in earlier years. One piece of writing we found today was called 'Aims & Aspirations'. We were pleased to see that we came in strongly at number 10 on the list - 'to continue to enjoy our family and their families as and when they come along'. Number 1 was to live a long, happy healthy life' which to a great extent he achieved.

At the end of the day we had a family video get together as it is Rory's 6th birthday today. He's had a new bike (with gears) a Fitbit (over 9000 steps so far today) but his favourite present was a book of cross sections through boats, trains etc. I think he is going to be an engineer.