Chapter 13: Sunday morning

I left early on Sunday morning for the short drive to St Thomas’ Hospital and the traffic at that time of day on the day of rest was almost non-existent, so I arrived with a 20-minute wait until 8am. I sat in the car and reflected on the night before. I think the serious questioning from the ladies had pretty well dried up and certainly the wine had run out long before we finished the pizzas.

“I’ll go upstairs and grab another couple of bottles,” I had offered, “Although I’m switching to drinking water so I’ve a clear head for driving over to the hospital to pick up Kay in the morning.”

As I got up from their sofa to go upstairs, one of the girls, not sure who, said, “Hey Drew, your flat is so much more comfortable that ours and you’ve got wonderful views from the windows of your main sitting room, why don’t we move this little pizza party up to your flat?”

I only had to think about it for a moment before agreeing. “Yeah, sure, the heating’s not on though because it’s timed to go off at 8pm but I’ve plenty of warm blankets in the airing cupboard so we can still keep warm and cosy on the sofas.”

So we grabbed the remaining boxes of pizzas and side dishes. I told them to leave the glasses until the morning, I had plenty of clean wine glasses upstairs. Someone remembered to fetch the ice cream from the chest freezer and again I had spoons and pudding bowls upstairs. So, with the three girls still in their sleepwear, we bundled into my lift and trundled up to the top floor where we decamped into the lounge of my flat. I put the coffee on in the kitchen as well as opened up a couple more bottles of wine, fetched the warm blankets from the pile in the airing cupboard and soon we had a comfy picnic going on in the lounge.

At some point during the night, one by one of us, we all dropped off to sleep and I awoke on the settee when my silent alarm on my wristwatch woke me at 7 o’clock on Sunday morning.

I found myself surrounded by beautiful sleeping girls in my lounge. I managed to ease my way out without waking any of them, went to my bedroom, stripped and showered and changed and was out by about 7.25 leaving the girls still snoring away in the land of nod. In the lobby of the top floor I saw that the other penthouse flat door was open and could hear sounds of quiet activity from within.

“Hello,” I said as I went in through the door.

“Blimey, Boss!” Someone in shorts and teeshirt was crouched in the flat’s entrance hall down by the electric wall socket, “You gave me a bleedin’ fright! I wasn’t expecting you to be up yet, which is why we was keeping as quiet as we could.”

I recognised him, he was one of my electricians, ‘Sparky Parky’, otherwise known as Peter Parkinson, a 30-year-old who had been on the team for about five years, one of my best electricians as it happens. And then I remembered Lisa telling me that a cleaning and testing crew would be over in the morning. I simply wasn’t expecting them quite this early on a Sunday.

“I’ll tell the others that they can switch on the hoovers now you’re up Boss.” He said, adding, “Oh, I see you got yer coat on, going out for a walk or a drive?”

“A drive,” I replied, “Need to pick my girlfriend up at 8 from St Thomas’ Hospital.”

“Righto, Boss, I’ll just pass the word along to the others first and then I’ll come down with you and move me van. We had to park in front of your two cars because we brought two vans with the gear and any fixings we might need and also brought the bus to carry the cleaners, and we was gonna leave the bus here cos you told Alan and Lisa you needed the bus today.”

“That’s right. So how many people in the crew?” I asked.

“Nine of us, all volunteers. Al and Lisa thought that rather than muck up the other schedules next week we’d do the cleaning and PAT testing this morning and so everybody could move into the flat tonight, or more likely today after about 10 o’clock. I’m just putting the PAT stickers on the tested sockets now.”

“How long you all been here?” I asked.

“Well, I think we got here about ten-past, quarter-past six.” Sparky said, “All the electrics have checked out, the only problem I had with the electrics was one o’ the burners on the stove was duff, but when we done these flats up for your uncle a while back they all had the same cookers installed, so we have spares down at the depot and I need to go back and get it now, so I can come down with you to the garage. I’ll shift me van, you can drive off and when I gets back wiv the parts I’ll park in your spot and you can park in front of the van when you get back. At this time o’ Sund’y mornin’ I’ll be back in before you even get to the ‘ospital, Boss.”

As we went down in the lift, Sparky told me, “Harry the plumber has bled and checked all the radiators, cleaned all the shower heads and plug holes, there was no issues with drips or nuthink he said and he’d wanted to go home ‘arf-an-’our ago but Lisa roped him in to help the cleaners get done quicker, starting with all the showers that he’d made dirtier through his own checks! Bert the painter has put a bit o’ emulsion on the kitchen ceiling and one wall of one of the bedrooms which had some scuff marks, but that’ll be dry before anyone needs to use it and the chippie Charlie righted a sticky door in the kitchen cupboards and replaced the panel round the bath in the main bathroom. I reckon we might all be done by the time you gets back from St Thomas’ and we’ll be in the cafe in Pigling Street having breakfast on Alan, cos they open at 8 on Sund’ys.”

“Well, thanks, Sparky, I appreciate it. When I get back I’ll let the girls know they can move in as soon as they pack their stuff in the Bayswater flat.”

“That reminds me, Boss,” Sparky said, “There’s an extra load of our big removal flat-pack boxes and a couple o’ tape guns in the back o’ the bus so your new tenants can pack their stuff up and, if you phone Alan when you’re ready later today, he will get the word round and we’ll pick the stuff up from their old gaff and bring it to the new gaff, no problem.”

I’ve got some good people working for me, that’s for sure.

I sat in the car until five to eight and then walked across and stood just inside the entrance to watch out for and wait for Kay to finish her shift.

I only had to wait a couple of minutes before I saw her walking along with Mary, the rather-full bodied black ER nurse that was one of her former flat mates. Of course it would make sense to bring her back to the flat too.

Kay saw me waiting and ran into my arms for a kiss and a cuddle.

“Oh how the last couple of hours dragged, honey,” she said, “I’ve been so looking forward to seeing you, you’re a sight for sore eyes.”

“Well, from here your eyes look far too bright and shiny to be sore, sweetheart” I said.

“Well, that’s only because I’m looking at you,” she said, “can’t wait to get home to bed, it’s been such a long night. Oh, can we give Mary a lift back with us?”

“Of course,” I said, looking up, Mary had closed the distance and was right behind Kay.

“Thank you, Mr Singleton,” she said, “early Sunday mornings are always a problem getting transport,” Mary said.

“No problem, Mary, and please it’s Drew to my friends, not ‘Mister’,” I said, “The upstairs flat is being cleaned now with a few repairs and lick of paint which should be finished by the time we get back, so you have a choice, go back to the old Bayswater flat and pack, then unpack at the flat before you sleep or after you sleep.”

“Oh a cuppa tea first,” Mary laughed, “I can’t make any decisions like that without a cup of tea in me and a sit down. Mind you, it would be lovely to move in and get settled today, living out of a carrier bag as we have the last couple of days has been fun but it has its limitations.”

“All right, let’s get back and wake the girls up,” I said as we turned and walked towards the exit, “The girls ran out of wine halfway through the pizza course, so we all went upstairs for fortification with more wine to finish off putting me through the third degree and they ended up sleeping on the sofa. They were all still out of it when I left and the cleaning crew next door were just finishing up.”

“So the girls gave you a hard time, did they honey?” Kay asked as we walked arm in arm towards the car.

“No, not really, they just wanted to make sure I wasn’t simply grooming you to lure you into my evil clutches, have my wicked way with you and then ship you off to parts unknown into white slavery, you know the usual good-girl, bad-girl interview routine. I think they all ended up eating and drinking far too much and we all gave up the ghost in the early hours of the morning. What I’d call a really good night in, your friends are crazy, honey but they love you to bits so I think we’ll all get on like a house on fire!”

When we dropped into the parking garage and onto my parking space, I was surprised to see that Sparky was still parked in my space and I had to double park in front of his van and partly in front of one of my neighbours. I left the neighbour a hastily scribbled note under her windscreen explaining that I had workmen in and to call me on the mobile number I’d given or extension 601 on the internal landline telephone if she wanted to move her car. All the tenants in the flats are relatives, personal friends, or close friends of tenants that I’ve personally veted, so we live together relatively harmoniously.