the lack of any means to move the pooh did not deter either herself or her friend mary. mary has a trailer but no towbar, so there only remained this final part of the puzzle to sort out and the pooh would be on the move. herself and mary have several friends with towbars and the shortlist was narrowed down to two. of these, one had problems with the rest of the vehicle which meant towing anything was unwise, so the lucky winner of the pooh-towing contest was the magnificent bonzo's football coach who is called crisp. crisp has a truck of generous proportions which herself rather tactlessly said had the look of a drug dealer's vehicle when she first saw it. personally i would have thought someone involved in nefarious activities would be keen to avoid attention but herself is not known for her common sense.
anyway, at the appointed time herself and crisp called at mary's house to collect the trailer. it was at this point that the first flaw in the plan became apparent. at some point in the truck's former life someone had obviously shunted into the back of it, bending its rather fine bumper somewhat. this meant that there was a smaller gap above the towbar than was ideal and the handle of the trailer did not fit into the gap. herself went into mary's house and came back with a box of spanners and some wd40. with a bit of wrangling the bumper was persuaded to wait in the garage, the trailer was connected to the truck and they were on their way. mary has an injured shoulder so was not allowed to be involved in the actual shovelling operation.
when herself and crisp arrived up at the hill, herself thought it would be wise to call in on mrs collie, the magnificent bonzo's former landlady, to let her know what was occurring, lest she thought someone was stealing the pooh. other than young dave i am not sure who would be interested in stealing pooh but there you are. mrs collie's house was full of people who had stayed the night having been to dinner the night before. they were creating a feast for breakfast and the kitchen was a hive of activity. this did not deter herself from making a pot of coffee and liberating some leftover banoffee pie for herself and crisp.
eventually they could put off the pooh-towing no longer and went out to the muckheap. some vigorous shovelling and raking later the trailer was full. it was not until the intrepid pooh-shovellers attempted to tow it back onto the track that it became apparent that the trailer had a puncture. regular readers will know that this is not the first time that such an event has occurred. there was the occasion of the wood in the wood. and then there was the occasion of the camping trip. so the idea of a puncture was not entirely new.
ever the optimist, herself took out her patent tyre-pumping up gadget from her van. this plugs into the cigarette lighter thingy. herself pulled the van up next to the trailer and got ready to inflate. the fatal flaw with this operation was that the cigarette lighter thingy in herself's van was inoperative.
"never mind," she said to crisp, "we can plug it into your truck!" this plan was unsuccessful as well due to the wire not being long enough to reach from the truck cab to the trailer tyre. the trailer could not be unhitched due to the weight of the pooh. herself's van was full of scrap wood and her jack was under the floor under the scrap wood so changing the wheel presented something of a challenge.
as the pooh-shovellers were debating what to do next a group of people came by, accompanied by some dogs. herself, as is her habit, stopped to chat.
"is that little grey dog called merlin?" she asked, pointing to a doppelganger for young dave, who we have met before.
"no, he's pagan," replied the owner. i'm not sure what relevance the little chap's spiritual beliefs had to anything but there we are. anyway, eventually herself was persuaded to return her attention to the flat tyre.
"i know," she said, "i'll see if anyone has a car jack and we can jack up the trailer and change the wheel for the spare!" with that, up she sprang and sprinted into mrs collie's house to pester the poor long-suffering hungover people. amazingly, a jack was located and with no further ado the trailer was levitated and the wheel changed.
the journey back to mary's allotment was slow but uneventful and the pooh was duly deposited. there only remained returning the trailer, unhitching it from the truck, re-fitting the bumper to the truck and then having a cuppa and all was well.
somehow i think it might have been simpler to persuade the magnificent bonzo to position his rear end over mary's vegetables from time to time...
