Funeral stuff

 I should clarify a bit about going up for the funeral.....

It normally takes us around 3-3.5 hours to get up to the Midlands, depending on traffic and how many times we have to have comfort breaks.  Well, BiL's funeral is taking place on the Thursday before Bank Holiday weekend - which means there'll be a lot more traffic, particularly on the way home on the Friday - there'll be hordes and hordes of cars, caravans, motor homes etc coming down from the Midlands to go to the West Country for their last break before the kids go back to school.  So the journey home will most likely take us around 5 hours, possibly more, which husband is loathe to cope with.....and I can't say I'm too keen either, being stuck in traffic for hours when you need a wee is not pleasant!  He doesn't feel able to cope with the journey there and back on the same day - fair enough, I understand that, hence why I've been looking at booking us in somewhere overnight, despite it meaning us having to travel home with the holiday traffic.  The trouble is....with it being BH weekend, I'm having difficulty finding somewhere with availability, and that doesn't cost the earth!  The place we normally stay has TREBLED their price for the one night, due to it being BH and because prices have risen generally due to Covid.  And of course we will have Betty with us, and finding a dog-friendly place can be difficult.

Husband's family aren't particularly close and he's quite ambivalent about going, whereas I'm of the opinion that if a family member dies, we are under a moral obligation to attend the funeral, regardless of how close/not we were.  The other thing is....I was quite looking forward to going - nothing to do with the funeral as such, but because my sister will be attending (she's friends with my husband's sister and they all live in the same area) and it will thus give me a chance to see my sister.....who I haven't seen, along with my younger brother who lives near her, since February of last year.

Husband is dithering about whether he wants to go or not, he keeps changing his mind.  I've now almost lost the will to live and have issued him with an ultimatum - I don't care one way or the other what we do, but he must make a final decision (and stick to it) within the next day or two.

Before anyone suggests it, I should say that for one reason or another, it isn't possible for us to stay with any of our relatives, we always stay in a hotel when we go up there.

I was initially irritated when husband arranged to take the car in for a service tomorrow, whilst we're at the van, having arranged to go there specifically to get the garden done.  Now though, I'm looking forward to having a couple of hours on my own (with Betty, of course, who is no trouble) - I shall take my art supplies and do some drawing and just enjoy the peace.