Party Animals II: Tea Party

Mission number 2 of the day kept us around Pitshanger. Kash and I had planned for more ripping or weeds and mowing of grass, which isn't how it played out.

When we arrived, Mr and Mrs N welcomed us to their home and more importantly their garage full of tools. They asked us to take a look at their front flowerbeds and asked for some general help with the flourishing weeds and introduced us to their slightly overweight cat, Max (more on him later).

We set to work, identifying what to keep and what would end up in the green bin. Our nemesis, bindweed, was hiding in some of the beds. The usual weeds were also present along with some deep roots to dig out. There was an oak sapling growing a couple of metres from the house, which I suggested they remove. From small acorns, mighty, foundation ruining oaks grow. As always, this was easier said than done and took a good 15 minutes and Kash had the same experience with another sapling.

All the while, Mrs N was telling us stories about her life and those of her ancestors. To us, Mrs N seemed full of life and a bit of a chatter box. I was happy to listen to Mrs N's stories while Kash was more perceptive than me. She realised that Mr N would benefit from some other people to take an interest in Mrs N's life experiences.

At this point, we gave up on the weeding and accepted some tea and cookies, sitting around their garden table while the couple reminisced about their lives and travels. This is where Max's story came back in, one of many tales we were told. While he's in his later years, when he was a kitten the family believed Max was a girl thanks to a Gumtree seller who clearly didn't have any experience as a vet. Max lived as a girl for a few months until he was taken to the vet for the snip. The vet took the family's word on Max's gender, cut him open and didn't find the expected equipment. It was a bit of a shock to everyone, including the vet who did end up neutering him and after that, Max became a tom cat again.

This had been very different to our usual missions, but also a lot of fun. We made our excuses as we had a long run to Wembley ahead and left Mr N to hunt for more bindweed by himself, now that we'd shown him how to rip it out.