Last week it was Katie's birthday and I made Bert write the card. I like to watch him struggle - it's like 'emotional gym' for him. He thought it highly appropriate to urge her to work hard over the next year (OK, I admit he added "and don't forget to enjoy yourself too").
Mind you, he finds buying cards difficult too. As it happens it is his mum's birthday the day after Katie's, so as usual I found myself in Clintons looking for 'Mother' cards. Then I thought "Hang on, it's his mum, he should do this." So I took him card shopping. He took one look at the bank of cards, picked one out and said "That'll do." But when he checked the code and worked out it was £5, he started throwing a wobbly. "£5 just for a card? That's £8 once you gross it up!". (He was talking about the tax he'd already paid on the £5.)
I think 'grossing it up' is a great way of describing most of Bert's observations.
I mentioned recently that Bert had started digging up the garden. This has 'ground' (sorry) to a halt. He has hurt his neck and shoulder in some strange and immobilising way but won't see the doctor and insists it is unrelated to digging up loads of solid chalk with a pickaxe and wheeling umpteen barrows of this through to our (permanently resident) skip out the front. "It's bad knees you get with gardening," he maintains. No wonder I've not got that fit doing the garden. I've obviously been doing it all wrong.
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