The Ley Lines of a Semi-Retired Drainage System

>we had around the house was fantastic. The
There seems to be at times, a fine line betweenbrass fireplace was indeed metal, so was a 2p
enthusiasm and frenzied delight, and with Mirandacasually dropped on the carpet, then hunted
Krestovnikoff, who presents BBC 2’sdown, with much squealing from both man and
Hidden Treasure, that line is all too frequentlymachine.
blurred.And then there was the garden of course. I
Still, perhaps I’m being a little too hard onexpertly discovered the ley lines that relate to the
the poor girl. After all, it’s her enthusiasmdrainage system. This should have been done
that caused me to go out the other day and buyprivately.
a metal detector. I’d like to think thatHowever, we live in a quiet, semi-retired,
I’m the only one to have done this, atsemi-detached area, and my tracking the drainage
least in my town, but regrettably, I suspectcaused the district net curtains to act as if there
I’m in the majority…was a tornado approaching.
After all, I went into one of the local shops on theWe rent the house we currently live in and our
day of purchase, asking if they did indeed selllandlord is slow when it comes to getting things
metal detectors, and this young man servingdone, so, in a way, the metal detector really
behind the counter immediately asked if I’dcame into its own when I decided to phone our
been watching BBC 2 recently. I didn’tlandlord. There’s a ladder on our roof that
know how to take this. Now obviously,has been there all year and it’s been
he’d sussed me but … well, was thatannoying me, so I thought I’d have him on
good manners on his part, or just cheekytoast. The phone call went like this.
perception?“Hello, Bob, it’s Holmes here. I bought a
I mean, had I gone into my local branch of M & Smetal detector today and discovered
and been caught perusing the boxer shorts, Ithere’s a ladder on the roof. This could
think I’d have taken umbrage, had a shopattract burglars, surely.”
assistant inquired if I’d recently had a caseThere was such a pause at the other end of the
of the runs. I digress. Suffice to say, I feltline. I could hear confused steam coming from his
uncomfortable, embarrassed, found out, with myears as he got this mental image of my scaling
BBC 2 viewing detected so instantly.the house with a metal detector.
Anyway, my fiancée and I finally located oneThe ladder is still there. All that’s changed is
of these machines in one of the nearby cataloguethe landlord now seems incredibly wary of me
stores…which meant that once we had got itwhen he collects the rent each month…
home, we needed to drive off out to one of theNow, where did I put the washing machine?
nearby catalogue stores to buy some batteries,© Copyright Holmes Charnley mmiv. All rights
amidst much muttering.reserved.
Still, once this thing was up and running, the fun